In the grand era when multi-floored downtown department stores were the norm, few Empire State emporiums were grander than the Sibley, Lindsay & Curr Company of Rochester, known to locals as “Sibley’s.” Even in 1930, as the Great Depression relentlessly hammered great fortunes, Alexander M. Lindsay Jr. saw fit to purchase his wife, Anne, a lavish present: this new Packard Seventh Series All-Weather Town Car, a factory-catalogued “semi-custom” by LeBaron.

The Packard remained in use with the Lindsays in Rochester for over two decades, during which time it was maintained and driven by their chauffeur. Lacey Jenkins, another local resident and early enthusiast, had admired the car on the streets of the city, and late in the 1950s, she acquired it from the Lindsay family.

Jenkins continued to give it the care of which it was accustomed until his passing in 1981, after which it was sold to Joseph Mollo. In her tome The Classic Car, Beverly Rae Kimes wrote that “Joe was attracted to his LeBaron because of what it didn’t need: ‘The car was in excellent original condition with only 32,518 miles, [with] the excellence extending to its paint, interior, and mechanics.’”

That statement, written in 1990, is still true today, down to the mileage, which is still under 33,000. The car has continuously received the best of care, and since Mr. Mollo’s ownership, it was fortunate to be owned by renowned enthusiast Otis Chandler, as well as by Lyall Trenholm, who had reportedly pursued this Packard for 35 years. Mr. and Mrs. Kughn represent only the eighth owners of what is believed to be the only Seventh Series Packard in this body style known to survive.

The car still wears much of its original Dark Olive Green finish, padded roof, and rear upholstery, with only the fenders having been refinished. Its impeccably constructed bodywork is lavished with fine details, including doors with rounded corners, vault-like locks on the curbside doors only, and numerous Packard accessories, such as chrome wire wheels, side-mounted mirrors, a radiator stone guard, an Adonis mascot, a monogrammed light bar, and senior Trippe driving lights. As the Lindsays had a palatial family home in Florida, at which they could escape Rochester winters, the car was built without heaters. Impressively, the original trunk is not only still present, but it still contains four suitcases!

This sole surviving LeBaron All-Weather Town Car is a spectacular formal Packard, and it would be an ideal Preservation Class entrant. It has literally been well cared for since the day it left East Grand Boulevard for Rochester, and it evokes an era of fine shopping and living in America’s great cities.