Checker Cab

For six decades, Checker cabs, with their iconic black and white checkered detailing, were synonymous with taxi service in America’s cities, and those cabs were built right here in Kalamazoo by Morris Markin. A native of Smolensk, Russia, Markin immigrated to the United States at the age of 19, arriving at Ellis Island in 1912 with only one dollar and 65 cents in his pocket. 

By 1919, Markin ventured into the taxi business by taking over the operations of a Chicago cab fleet. Around the same time, he opened a body plant called Markin Body Co. that produced cab bodies. Three years later, Markin purchased a chassis company in Joliet, Illinois. In May of 1922, these businesses were merged into the Checker Cab Manufacturing Company. Markin then found that Kalamazoo had the available structures that a startup automotive manufacturer needed to get the business growing.

Checker was the most successful automobile manufacturer in Kalamazoo’s history and produced one of its best-known products. At the company’s peak, over 100 vehicles a day and 5,000 a year rolled off the line. In major cities across the country, in film, and in song, Checker cabs became the icon with which taxi service was identified.

Checker’s decline began in the mid-1970s, when the very features that contributed to the company’s success now worked against it. Sturdy steel chassis and big bodies made for a durable, roomy cab but contributed to a vehicle weight of nearly 4,000 pounds. The weight made Checkers “gas guzzlers,” and after the oil embargo of 1973 drove up fuel prices, it became difficult for the company to meet federal gas-mileage standards.

In 1982, the last Checker cab rolled off the assembly line at the Kalamazoo plant.

To read more visit: 

https://kalamazoomuseum.org/images/museon/2005-Fall-MuseON.pdf