While we wait patiently for snow to arrive in New York City (maybe never?), here’s a look back at one of the earliest film footages of the Walter Snow Fighter, a four wheel drive snow plow built by the Walter Motor Truck Company, Inc. based out of Long Island City. This film from the 1930s, seen on The Old Motor and likely shot by the truck company for promotion, shows a “Fast Snow Scraping” in New York City starting at minute mark 1:17:
The Walter Motor Truck Company was founded by a Swiss immigrant, William Walter, who began business manufacturing candy and confectionery machines. He moved onto passenger cars and then trucks in the early 1900s, operating first out of a factory on West 66th Street in Manhattan from 1911 to 1923, and a facility in Trenton, New Jersey. In 1923, the Walter Motor Truck Company moved to Queens Boulevard at 37th Street in Long Island City, to Ridgewood in 1935 until 1957, and then to Vorheesville just south of Albany until the 1980s.
The first Snow Fighter was released in 1929, and the company later expanded into other maintenance vehicles as well as New York City fire engines. The Walter Motor Truck Company supplied engines and vehicles for the U.S. and Canadian armies during World War II. In 1997, the company was sold to KME, a Pennsylvania company and its name discontinued.
If anybody has clues as to where this footage was taken in New York City, let us know!
Michelle is the founder of Untapped New York and the author of The Art Spy (HarperOne, forthcoming) Secret Brooklyn, Secret New York Hidden Bars & Restaurants, and Broadway. michelleyoungwriter.com
