Even after decades of restoration, the first and only time Walter Pollard saw the red, 1904, surrey-seat Grout steam automobile drive, it only went 100 yards.

But to Pollard, of Orange, the short trip’s meaning was boundless.

There is relatively little information available about Grout, the steam automobile company founded in Orange in 1896 by brothers Charles, Fred and Carl Grout. The company produced innovative steam automobiles between 1899 and 1905 before switching to manufacturing cars with internal combustion engines at 275 East Main St., where Pete’s Tire Barns is today.

Grout folded in 1912.

Pollard is a member of the Orange Historical Society and a Grout steam car expert. He has spent much of his life getting to know the cars, curating them, restoring them and driving them. He’s collected old newspaper clippings, advertisements and books on the antique machines, in preparation to write a book on Grout.

As a toolmaker by trade, Pollard’s pursuit of Grout automobiles was initially technical in nature. Pollard has been fascinated with the steam-powered cars since high school, when he worked locally restoring vintage cars like Model A Fords in garages. When he came across a Grout engine with the crankshafts somehow torn off, he asked his boss, “If nobody bothers me, if nobody presses me, would you allow me to take these parts and work on them?”

In between working as a teacher, then a toolmaker at L.S. Starrett Company in Athol and subsequently at the University of Massachusetts, Pollard kept learning about steam cars, joining clubs and hunting for the old Grouts. In Chester, Vermont, he came across a 1901 Grout Runabout. The late local electrician Dick Phillips purchased the vehicle and, with Pollard’s help, they began to restore it, recovering all the metal pieces for its front axles, rims and engine from a company that cleaned up after the barn the Grout was originally in burned down.

That Grout now sits in the Orange Historical Society building on North Main Street. Pollard knows of only one other 1901 Grout in existence. So far, the car has cost thousands of dollars to restore, but it’s a treasure.

“There aren’t many 1901s left in the world,” Pollard said, pointing out the breaks in the archaic vehicle’s body.

At a 1989 engine show, Pollard’s pursuit became personal when he met Arthur Funai, a Lynnfield resident and steam automobile enthusiast. Pollard recalls that he was working beneath a 1904 Grout owned by the Orange Historical Society when the older gentleman asked if he’d help him restore a similar vehicle he had at home. Funai, a manufacturing engineer by trade, had a red 1904 Grout steam car in his garage — a car he had been restoring since 1956. The difficulty in restoring such an old steam car and finding the right parts meant that even after decades of work, the 1904 Grout was still a long way from being drivable.

“It began a wonderful friendship,” Pollard said. Having similar interests, they began contacting each other to share tidbits about steam automobiles. Pollard welcomed the older man’s wisdom and friendship.

“After the car show, he called me up. It turned into once a week, then twice a week, then all the time,” Pollard said, admiring Funai’s 1904 Grout that today gleams in the middle of the Orange Historical Society’s room for Grout antiques. Pollard’s eyes twinkled as he inspected the car. “I saw this in pieces around ‘89 or ‘90,” he said.

When Funai first approached Pollard, the Grout was in poor condition. The front end was damaged and had been replaced with a 55-gallon steel barrel. It was far from being able to drive. By copying the historical society’s Grout, Pollard and Funai made mechanical drawings and molds, fabricating some missing parts and casting others in Rhode Island and Boston. The 1904 Grout also had its original dashboard refurbished, as well as its headlights.

“We made several trips to Woodstock, Vermont, to bring the old rusted out boiler to Bordon’s Boiler Shop, where he made a new one,” Grout recalled. “This was Arthur’s car and he did the lion’s share of the work. I enjoyed helping my friend and also because it was a Grout.”

Funai passed away in 2016 at the age of 96. About three years later, Pollard purchased the steam-powered vehicle from Funai’s son, Nathan, and returned the Grout to its birthplace in Orange.

“This guy was just the most wonderful man, he cared about me, he taught me almost everything I now know about steam cars,” Pollard said. “He was a welcome mentor in my life, and I miss him dearly.”

Sometimes, it takes two

Funai and Pollard began working on the 1904 car together in 1990.

After hours, weeks, years, of work, the car was refurbished to the point it was drivable. And, in 2006, at a meeting next to an old Puritan building in the center of Lynnfield, Pollard and Funai climbed up onto the 1904 Grout’s seat and started it up. Funai was nervous, Pollard recalled, and his fireman nephew was watching close by.

It started with visible flames.

“They were so nervous seeing flames, but I said, ‘Just calm down. This is what they do,’” Pollard said, noting that “firing means lighting the boiler, which is gasoline fuel and building sufficient steam to propel it. … The first time it ran, it only went a hundred yards. Arthur had never done it before, and I was teaching my mentor now.”

Pollard recalls that 100-yard ride fondly, describing it while pointing out some of the vehicle’s technical features — a mirror near the driver’s feet to monitor water tank levels, a throttle on the right-hand side.

“It’s wild. You go down the road, it’s quiet and you just hear ‘tick, tick, tick,’” he said. “It’s an experience. You know, when you first drive an electric car you don’t hear anything. This is like that. It’s neat. You see a wisp of steam coming out the back.”

Pollard and Funai continued their craftsmanship, researching and working on the car with an invigorated passion after the drive and until Funai’s passing.

“My dear friend Arthur and I worked on it,” Pollard said, folding the seats back on the shining red Grout to inspect its inner workings. They developed a strong friendship through the project.

Today, the 117-year old vehicle is still in need of some restoration.

“In particular, I have to disassemble the steam engine because it is frozen due to rust in its cylinders and rebuild it. It needs a new pilot for its burner and … two new original brake drums,” Pollard said. “I will have to go to New York to study, make mechanical drawings and take photographs of the same model of 1904 Grout that has these brakes on it. A lot of tinkering will be required to get this to run properly and reliably.”

Beyond mechanical repairs, Pollard is particular about certain aspects of the car. For example, he would like to see pinstriping painted on the car to make it look like it would have in the early 1900s. Pollard has a theory about the pinstriping: that it was influenced by the area’s Swedish American population, with the fine lines being very similar to “Swedish lines.”

“Orange had the (New Home Sewing Machine Co.) sewing company here, and was known for its Swedes. There’s Olsons and Johnsons and Jonssons and Nelsons. They had women who were hired at the sewing company doing the pinstriping. These are ultra-fine lines on this car,” Pollard said.

To this point, Pollard doesn’t want to quantify how many hours or money he and Funai put into the 1904 Grout, calling it a “labor of love.” But he is clear about a few things: He never wants to sell the car and he will do everything possible to continue to restore it.

“I will do it for Arthur. I will do it to make him proud of me. I will get this running,” he said.

In addition to working on the 1904 Grout and the 1901 Grout — and his four other vintage automobiles, including a 1902 Queen Stanhope Waltham Steamer made in Waltham — Pollard wants to write a book to enlighten the public more about Grout. He also wants to dispel some rumors he’s heard about the company.

“This company here, they don’t get much credit. They’ve been even put down in some publications,” Pollard said. “There’s a lot of bad stories, wrong stories out there about the Grout automobile.”

Beyond that, he’d like to make a registry of known Grouts and intends to continue to hunt down other cars.

“We need to know where they are and what is available,” Pollard said.

For example, he has a picture from a July 21, 1981 Greenfield Recorder page with a photo of a 1901 Grout that’s captioned, “A beauty in its day.” He intends to track down the car.

“I want to make a registry of known Grouts. We need to know who owns them, where they are, what year and model, get their serial numbers, make nice photographs, what is available for sale and perhaps guide them in their restoration,” Pollard said, estimating there are about 30 Grouts known to exist. He’s received inquiries from Grout owners as far away as England, Poland, The Netherlands and France looking for restoration advice.

Despite Grout’s rich history, both locally and beyond, “There are very few people around who know anything about these cars,” Pollard said.

He’d like to change that.

Pollard would like anyone with information about Grout automobiles to contact him at the Orange Historical Society at 978-544-3141.

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