While we’re sorta on the topic of Brooks Stevens (then again, aren’t we always on the topic of Brooks Stevens around these parts?), let’s take a look at one of his lesser-known designs, a Cadillac station wagon from 1953. Stevens very well could have designed a normal station wagon roof, something like what GM offered on its other wagons at the time, and have been done with it, but instead, he had to add that funky D-pillar, making it look like he went five years into the future, grabbed a Rambler roofline, and took it back only to splice it onto a wagon that benefited in no way from the styling cue. And then he added wood trim.
The above photo comes from Walter M.P. McCall’s book, “80 Years of Cadillac LaSalle,” though McCall doesn’t tell us much about it, other than that it seated nine. Some googling netted the below photo, apparently taken at the same photo shoot, from Austin7nut’s photostream on Flickr, as well as a mention on OldWoodies.com noting that the coachbuilder’s medallion on the front fender read “AKM,” though those initials don’t correspond to any coachbuilder in our reference materials.
Anybody out there know who built this wagon, why Brooks designed it (that is, who commissioned it), and what’s happened to it since then?