While station wagons today recall images of family road trips and surfer dudes, it is easy to forget that up until the 1940s they were more likely to be seen by the stables than in suburbia. Before World War II, the station wagon was exactly that, the vehicle used to carry servants, luggage, and occasionally the employer and owner of same, between a palatial estate and the train station. It often occupied a carriage house that was shared with at least one sumptuous limousine, usually a Packard. It is no wonder, then, that in the mid-1930s, as it enlarged its model line to fight the Great Depression, Packard saw fit to combine the two.

The Packard Station Sedan debuted in mid-1937 and was offered on both the six-cylinder 115C (later One Ten) and eight-cylinder One Twenty chassis through 1942. Bodywork was usually provided by the well-regarded Hercules Body Company, using framework of light-colored white ash with insert panels of dark mahogany.

The elegant Packard Blue Station Sedan offered here was originally delivered in Poughkeepsie, New York. It was restored in the late 1980s, an AACA National First Prize winner in 1991, and became part of the Derro Collection in 1993. Typical of the Derro cars, the Station Sedan is remarkably well preserved, with its deep, shining paintwork, excellent complementary blue upholstery, and beautiful furniture-like woodwork and tight rubber roof covering, all appearing crisp and fresh. Options include the proper amber driving lights, as well as the unusual covered dual side-mounted spares, which were a rarity on wagons; push-button radio; and Signal-Start turn signals, ideal for touring.

This as now, would be a splendid complement to the Packard limousine or touring car in one’s garage, or the perfect vehicle for the “summer place” or sunny winter hideaway.