The Dorris Loft story begins with John L. French and George Preston Dorris who while teenagers in Nashville built a gasoline motor for a second hand steam launch in 1891.

In 1895, French moved to St. Louis to work at the family-owned piano and organ company and Dorris attended the Thanksgiving Day Road Race in Chicago where he became fascinated by with experiments with the “horseless carriage.” He returned to Nashville to start work on building an automobile and by 1897, Dorris’ car was in operation.

In 1898, French decided to organize the first automobile manufacturing company in St. Louis (The St. Louis Motor Carriage Company) and sent for Dorris and his experimental car. The St. Louis Motor Carriage Company’s first two cars were copies of Dorris’ Nashville experimental car with twin-cylinder motors.

In 1900, Dorris developed a motor-powered omnibus during the streetcar strike and later a single-cylinder unit power plant machine with the motor, clutch, and transmission built as a single unit. After French’s death, his brother moved the company to Peoria and Dorris resigned. At that time, Dorris and Henry B. Krenning formed the Dorris Motor Car company, with the first “Dorris” completed in time for the 1906 New York Automobile Show. The new car was a four-cylinder vertical valve-in-head motor. Production initially was based in the old St. Louis Motor Carriage Company Building at 1211 North Vandeventer.

In 1909, the company expanded with the purchase of a lot at Sarah and Forest Park. In 1911, the company purchased the lot at at Sarah and Laclede, with the building designed by local architect John Ludwig Wees. The building, completed in 1912, housed a state of the art production area, sales department, and showroom.

The 1913 “Dorris” was the first model produced in the new plant and was produced by hand with all parts manufactured by Dorris. The early company motto, “Built to Last,” was revised to “Built up to Standard, Not Down to Price.” While the basic Dorris cost $2500 in 1914, Ford could produce assembly-line cars for $325. The Dorris Co. production peaked in 1920 but soon faced Detroit based competition, eventually closing in 1926. An original Dorris Loft car, the 1917 “1-B-6 Opera Coupe” is on display at the Museum of Transportation in Kirkwood, Missouri.

The Building was purchased by the Oliver Cadillac Company, a retail car dealer and operated through 1941, followed by Lindbergh Cadillac. George P. Dorris went on to start a gear manufacturing company and later retooled his operations for airplane parts during WWII. Dorris died in 1968 at the age of 94. The building was acquired by Washington University in 1967 and used for warehousing.

Converted into loft residences in 1985, the building represented one of St. Louis City’s first loft conversion developments.