BUTLER, Pa. — John Pro is a member of the Antique Automobile Club of America and helps run the Butler-Built Garage. It’s where a Bantam Reconnaissance Car, what we call a Jeep today, is housed.
It’s one of about 50 left in the country.
It was made right here in Butler. The building where it was made was destroyed in a fire early Sunday morning.
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“I got a text message like 7:30 that morning,” John Pro said. “Something was bound to happen with that building.”
The BRC — or Jeep — was first built for the army in 1940 as the United States was inching closer to getting involved in World War II. The Army wanted them to build the vehicle in just 49 days to help replace the need for horses. Bantam ended up building about 2,600 Jeeps for the Army. The one at Butler-Built Garage was delivered to the Army in May of 1941.
But they made several different cars, which are on display to the public at the Butler-Built Garage on the third Sunday of every month.
“I’m sure it was a breath of fresh air to Butler,” he said of the BRC being made in the city. “To bring the automotive back to life and bring the economy back up here in Butler.”
The building has sat abandoned for years and is now being demolished. Crews knocked down some of the walls early Monday morning.
Smoke is still billowing from the rubble.
Pro said that’s likely because the first floor, where crews worked on cars, had a floor made up of blocks of wood that are slow-burning and soaked in oils, and he said it will likely burn for some time.
It was never designated by the federal government as a historic landmark.
Because of its importance to the military and to the area at the time, Pro thinks it should have been.
“To people here in Butler, yes, it was a historical landmark even though it wasn’t federally tagged as one,” he said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation by the state fire marshal and Butler Police.
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