The first Packard automobile was built in 1899 in Warren, Ohio, at the Packard Electric Company's (established by William Doud Packard and James Ward Packard) subsidiary plant, the New York and Ohio Company. The success of the automobile brought about the formation of the Ohio Automobile Company which eventually became the Packard Motor Car Company in 1902.

Once the Packard automobile became successful, Warren became the first city in the United States to light its streets with incandescent light in 1911. Production of the Packard automobiles ran until 1958.

Packard’s factory complex, designed by Albert Kahn, included the city's first use of reinforced concrete for industrial construction.

At its opening, it was considered the most modern automobile manufacturing facility in the world. Its skilled craftsmen practiced over eighty trades. From 1903 to 1954, the plant produced over 1.5 million vehicles.

In 1954, the company acquired the Studebaker Corporation, which operated as a division of the newly formed Studebaker-Packard Corporation until 1962.

In 1962, it the company reverted to the Studebaker Corporation name. The company left the automobile business in 1966, though Studebaker survived as an independent closed investment firm until 1967 when it merged with Worthington to become Studebaker-Worthington Corporation.