There has been some discussion here recently about the Carleton and Old Town Molitor models so it is probably worth consolidating what is known in one place for reference. Most of the comments below have been pulled from various other threads here.
Charles J. Molitor of Detroit probably found himself in a very difficult position early in 1921. It appears that he had been buying some very fancy canoes from B. N. Morris and others for many years to use in the Belle Isle livery fleet. This was a city contract and a copy of his bid for the 1911 and 1912 season is available at https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?attachments/40669/ which includes an agreement to "furnish and maintain at all times during the above contract, boats, canoes, and accessories equal in number and condition to those now in use." The Morris factory burned in December of 1919 and did not reopen. This means that C. J. Molitor was probably at risk of losing his contract if he could not come up with some fancy canoes that looked like the existing Morris fleet. It appears that his solution was to order some similar looking canoes from Old Town. The Old Town build records show 33 Molitor models that were shipped to him under order number 578. However, there are at least 18 other build records for Molitor models that shipped to other locations during this period which have order number 578 crossed out as shown at http://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?attachments/29365/ for example. This seems to imply that Molitor may have originally ordered over fifty canoes but later reduced the total substantially before they were shipped. Old Town appears to have offered the excess Molitor models to other dealers as a way to recover. A total of 92 Molitor models were started between March and May of 1921 so they were popular. Old Town and Carleton continued to make them until at least 1926. This model was never listed in any of their catalogs during the 1920s.
The early Old Town Molitor models looked almost exactly like a Morris with pocketed ribs, extended stem shape, a three foot bow deck, a two foot stern deck, and closed "D" shaped outside gunwales. The most obvious difference is that they had narrow inside stems with an Old Town serial number. The later ones had lots of fancy mahogany trim but the exact features varied so it wasn't clear exactly what distinguished them from other AA grade models.
Charles Francis arrived at the Old Town factory on Memorial Day weekend in 1964 to drop off a nice old canoe with extended stems for repairs. The canoe was identified as a Molitor model on the repair record even though it was probably made by one of the Charles River area builders. It got so many complements that the company decided to build them again. The new Molitor was modeled after the example from Charles Francis and introduced in 1965 as shown at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/covers/large-65.gif on the catalog cover. This was built on a modified Otca form. The pictures of the current form appear to confirm this.
The net result of all this is that we find a variety of different canoes with a wide range of ages that are all listed as a Molitor model on their build record. The links below have some examples.
Benson
Charles J. Molitor of Detroit probably found himself in a very difficult position early in 1921. It appears that he had been buying some very fancy canoes from B. N. Morris and others for many years to use in the Belle Isle livery fleet. This was a city contract and a copy of his bid for the 1911 and 1912 season is available at https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?attachments/40669/ which includes an agreement to "furnish and maintain at all times during the above contract, boats, canoes, and accessories equal in number and condition to those now in use." The Morris factory burned in December of 1919 and did not reopen. This means that C. J. Molitor was probably at risk of losing his contract if he could not come up with some fancy canoes that looked like the existing Morris fleet. It appears that his solution was to order some similar looking canoes from Old Town. The Old Town build records show 33 Molitor models that were shipped to him under order number 578. However, there are at least 18 other build records for Molitor models that shipped to other locations during this period which have order number 578 crossed out as shown at http://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?attachments/29365/ for example. This seems to imply that Molitor may have originally ordered over fifty canoes but later reduced the total substantially before they were shipped. Old Town appears to have offered the excess Molitor models to other dealers as a way to recover. A total of 92 Molitor models were started between March and May of 1921 so they were popular. Old Town and Carleton continued to make them until at least 1926. This model was never listed in any of their catalogs during the 1920s.
The early Old Town Molitor models looked almost exactly like a Morris with pocketed ribs, extended stem shape, a three foot bow deck, a two foot stern deck, and closed "D" shaped outside gunwales. The most obvious difference is that they had narrow inside stems with an Old Town serial number. The later ones had lots of fancy mahogany trim but the exact features varied so it wasn't clear exactly what distinguished them from other AA grade models.
Charles Francis arrived at the Old Town factory on Memorial Day weekend in 1964 to drop off a nice old canoe with extended stems for repairs. The canoe was identified as a Molitor model on the repair record even though it was probably made by one of the Charles River area builders. It got so many complements that the company decided to build them again. The new Molitor was modeled after the example from Charles Francis and introduced in 1965 as shown at http://www.wcha.org/catalogs/old-town/covers/large-65.gif on the catalog cover. This was built on a modified Otca form. The pictures of the current form appear to confirm this.
The net result of all this is that we find a variety of different canoes with a wide range of ages that are all listed as a Molitor model on their build record. The links below have some examples.
Benson
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