For every famed company in automotive history, there are those that remain obscure, yet undoubtedly should be as well-remembered as the likes of Duesenberg and Packard. Among these was the Cunningham, produced in Rochester, New York, from 1915 until 1931. For every one of those years, it was one of America’s finest luxury automobiles. Each car was hand-built to individual custom order and specifications, powered by a robustly constructed, superbly engineered V-8, with a three-main-bearing crankshaft, fully pressurized lubrication, and pumped radiator cooling, all as advanced at the beginning of production as at the end.

Cunningham’s bread-and-butter business was not these superb luxury cars, but professional cars, hearses, and ambulances, often constructed on the same outstanding chassis. One of the few survivors, and among the latest Cunningham vehicles known to survive, is the V8 Cathedral Funeral Car offered here. Reportedly ordered by a client in Chicago, it was mounted with a splendid and costly body, featuring remarkably intricate, hand-carved wooden “art panels,” complete with a satin finish to help evoke the look of draperies. Equally marvelous is the interior decoration, complete with an arched ceiling supported by meticulously carved wooden ribs, indeed evoking the feel of being inside a cathedral.

Around 1958, the Howe-Peterson Funeral Home, established in Dearborn, Michigan, in 1873, and today that city’s oldest surviving business, acquired the hearse. In their ownership it was maintained in good cosmetic and mechanical running order, and was used for many regional shows, including appearing at the Old Car Festival at Greenfield Village, and receiving Designer’s Choice at Eyes on the Classics, as well as awards in The Professional Car Society events. Following the passing of the funeral home’s longtime owner, the Cunningham was sold in 2017. It has since continued to be maintained by new owners in the same attractive condition as its final “retirement.”

The former Howe-Peterson Cunningham still retains the formal dignity of its original purpose—yet it is more than just an old hearse. It is an exceptional piece of Classic Era engineering, as favored by some of America’s finest families through literally every phase of life. It is a magnificent piece of hand-craftsmanship and carpentry. To soak in its details is to be amply impressed, and to understand why its manufacturer was head and shoulders above its brethren. There was simply nothing quite like a Cunningham, king of the Jazz Age American road. Few survivors are more truly unique.