One of the finest-preserved examples of its kind extant, this remarkable Model 17 was purchased new in 1910 by Jeremiah M. Hare of Delphos, Kansas, from the dealership in nearby Concordia; original 1915 and 1921 Kansas registrations in Mr. Hare’s name remain in the file. Around the time of the second registration, Mr. Hare’s son made him park the car in the family barn because “Grandpa” was driving it too fast around their wheat farm. There it sat, with 7,200 original miles recorded, for the next six decades.

In October 1981, Mr. Hare’s grandsons, Wilford and Wendell Hare, advertised the Buick in Hemmings Motor News. Clyde Sinclair of Olympia, Washington, spotted the ad and made arrangements to visit and inspect the car on the way home from Hershey that year. Impressed with the Buick’s remarkable original and intact condition, the Sinclairs subsequently visited Wendell Hare in Boulder, Colorado, beginning a long process of negotiations that eventually ended with their acquisition of the car in April 1982. The collection of the Buick was a 3,993-mile round trip, in which Mr. Sinclair flew to Boulder, gave half the money to one Hare scion, then flew on to Salina, Kansas, picked up a used Ryder van, and drove on to Delphos where he paid the remaining grandson and finally collected the Buick. As his wife bemusedly recounted, upon arrival home in Olympia, “restoration started that afternoon.”

The “restoration”, however, wasn’t; rather, the Buick was very sympathetically cleaned and serviced, preserving as many of its untouched features as possible. This same condition was carefully maintained by Les Holden after he bought the car from the Sinclairs in the fall of 1998. The wooden body and chassis retain their original finishes, down to the pinstripe on the frame, and the wheels have their original paint. The canvas top has been replaced while the interior remains original except for the seat cushions, reupholstered in matching leather; the brass door handles and robe rail remain in place.

Further Mr. Holden continued the history of excellent sympathetic maintenance, having the Buick’s crankcase remanufactured, a new muffler and fender braces made in 1998, the water pump rebuilt by Bill Hirsch in 1999, new pistons fitted in 2003, and the carburetor rebuilt by Eugene Tesch in 2019. Accessories include Corcoran brass head, cowl, and tail lamps, as well as a wicker basket trunk, bulb horn, and an eight-day clock. Accompanying are operation and maintenance instructions, and a loose data plate for the American Bosch magneto.

This is, simply, one of the finest surviving original Brass Era Buicks.