Recently, I wrote the CC article on the National Museum of Funeral History. Their collection of early (1916-51) hearses is really impressive. It should not surprise us car people that there is a small but enthusiastic community of folks who collect, restore and show hearses. Folks in the hobby call these types of vehicles “Professional Cars”. Professional Cars are most commonly hearses and car-based ambulances, but can include limos, taxis or any specialized working automobile (non trucks). The museum will occasionally host Professional Car shows, one of which I was able to catch a few years ago. Click through to see some highlights.
If there was a headliner for the show, it would be this fully restored 1948 Packard Henney Ambulance. It is the only known surviving 1948 Packard ambulance. It retains its 356 c.i. straight eight and even still has its 6 volt electrical system powering the lights and siren.
As a paramedic, I have a particular fascination with the classic ambulances, where my personal and professional interests dovetail.
I really dug this 1963 Chrysler. As with most every early 60’s Mopar, the 63-64 Chrysler is a love-it-or-hate-it design. I’m firmly in the camp of the former. I love the Exner-era boldness and quirkiness, such as the square steering wheels and push-button transmissions. I’ve always thought the 63-64 dashboard was particularly graceful. It is a long held fantasy of mine to be able to work a real shift driving an ambulance like this, just for a day.
Beautiful classic Cadillac hearse. This 1968 model is a combination hearse/ambulance. If it was a dedicated hearse, it would look the same on the outside except without the gumball emergency light on the roof. It would then be a “limousine” style hearse, meaning the window section behind the rear doors is glass rather than vinyl-covered.
As I mentioned in the museum article, in the days before modern EMS services, funeral homes in many communities also handled the ambulance service. Extensively trained personnel weren’t necessary because there wasn’t extensive training to be had in that pre-EMT and paramedic era. Neither was a lot of equipment needed. A stretcher and a seat for the attendant were the minimum requirements. The funeral home could easily remove the stretcher and fold down the seat and Presto!, the ambulance is now a hearse and ready to pick up that unfortunate patient they may have just recently delivered to the hospital.
Oldsmobiles were never the most popular choice for hearses and ambulances, but perhaps more common than one might assume today. Cotner-Bevington, the coach builder best known for their Olds-based creations, made this 1972 example. Unfortunately, the firm folded in 1975, making Oldmobile hearses thereafter even less common.
This vehicle, and the Cadillac directly above, have what is called “commercial glass” meaning the windshield and side glass is taller than factory, with less curve to the side windows, to make the raised roof appear more natural. Commercial glass models were more expensive to build and to buy, making them more prestigious in the hearse world.
Here is a real oddball. It’s a 1966 Pontiac Bonneville combination by Superior. It’s a non-stretched wheelbase car but it has commercial glass. It looks like it was built up from a regular Bonneville station wagon.
Here is another great looking hearse. The 80-92 Cadillac DeVille/Fleetwood/Brougham may have been one of the greatest foundations for a hearse ever. The long, boxy shape perfectly complimented the long. boxy hearse bodywork. Up through 1984, Cadillac built a Commercial Chassis that came with a lengthened frame from the factory. After that, coachbuilders who wanted to make a rear wheel drive Cadillac hearse had to chop and lengthen the chassis themselves.
I apologize that this photo is so poorly framed. Apparently it’s the only one I took of this beautiful specimen. This one sports the side loading feature, which had a small but significant following for many years. These are no longer made. I’d love to hear from someone with funeral business experience what the pros and cons of this set up are.
I think the final rear wheel drive Cadillac Fleetwoods make very good looking hearses. It was surely a blow to funeral directors and coach builders, a generally conservative and traditional lot, when GM finally ceased production of their body-on-frame rear-wheel-drive cars in 1996. I’m not sure if this attractive black S&S is a 93 or 94 model. There would be no outward difference, but a major underhood one. 1994 was the first year for the 260hp LT1 V8, a 75hp bump. The extra power would be especially welcome in the extra heavy hearses.
Unlike the Cadillac above, this 1995 S&S has commercial glass. My daughter snuck into this photo. Perhaps she was attracted to the car because its color matches her shirt.
Could this be an example of the last truly good looking American hearse? Personally, I think possibly so only because the Fleetwood may be the last donor car really well suited to the hearse look. Tomorrow, I’ll take a look at what is on offer in the new hearse market and seek to answer the question of whether new hearses can be as good looking as older ones.
Wow, that Chrysler ambulance is fascinating. And a New Yorker, even! It seemed like Chrysler was the least-seen of all of the professional cars. I had always assumed that it was because of the Chrysler Unibody that made coachbuilding a more involved process, but perhaps not.
This was why I also surmised that Lincolns were not often seen at funeral homes. I was surprised that the body-on-frame Lincolns were not more widely used for this duty in the 70s, but I imagine that the conversion companies had a vast store of expertise with Cadillacs that it would not be worthwhile to change over. Even in the era when the Town Car had the RWD sedan market all to itself they were a minor player in these vehicles.
Aftef WWII, Cadillac dominated the lux market and offered a chassis for building commercial vehicles. You’d have to really want another brand or save a lot of money to choose anything else.
I never understood why hearses continue to be converted from (mostly) Cadillac sedans when you could put a vinyl top and landau irons on an Escalade EXT and call it good.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s article
A person’s last ride should be a slow dignified one in a hearse not a truck
That’s why
That 66 Bonneville was a weird looking thing.
Loved the shot of your daughter photobombing the last pic!!
Regarding the Bonneville: That car looks to me like it has the longer 124″ wheelbase used by all Bonnevilles (and Star Chiefs/Executives) of that era other than the station wagon; the Bonneville wagon used the same 121″ wheelbase as the Catalina wagon. The length of the fender behind the rear wheel is a clue to the longer wheelbase.
I once saw an interior photo of one of these (on this site?) that suggested that it was built up from a 1966 Bonneville convertible, one of which I used to own myself. The standard interior for the convertible that year included leather seat inserts for the four outboard seating positions, with a front bench seat; that earlier photo showed the same type of bench seat.
Yes, these hearses were generally not built from wagons, but from sedans, as the were a cheaper starting point, and in this case, the sedans had the longer wheelbase.
That makes sense. I noticed the extra space behind the rear door too. Seemed like it would not be worth it to add just a few inches to a wagon, but if they used a sedan it makes more sense.
Pontiac had a long-standing relationship with Superior as their professional car builder. Like Packard did with Henney, they would supply the chassis and necessary body panels and subassemblies the coachbuilder specified as a kit. No efficient body-maker wanted to waste time and manpower cutting away unnecessary sections of a body just to start the building process.
Interior trimming was supplied with the kits, could be whatever series the coachbuilder wanted even if it didn’t corresponded with the private car series nameplate.
Thanks, she’s 5 now and would probably bomb the photo on purpose these days!
Your pics show the outstanding work of the unsung designers and engineers who worked for Henney, L&P and so on. Note the front door opening on the Chrysler, gracefully curving from the standard windshield to the high roofline. And the details on the rear door of the ’68 Caddy. The hinges and latch-pin are factory, but everything else is designed and engineered by the hearse-maker, and looks just as good as factory products.
Great collection here! I admit that I’ve rarely examined hearses in detail, so it’s interesting to learn the difference between the commercial glass designs and the others. Definitely helps to explain why some hearses look more natural than others.
The Cadillac hearse that I’ve often found odd was the FWD C-body models. So odd that they were built concurrently with the larger, and more stately RWD models, and I wonder why some funeral homes would specify the smaller model instead. I’d doubt that the cost difference was that great, and operating costs like fuel economy, would probably not be a huge concern. I assume that much fewer of the C-body hearses survive because they’re likely not as collectible as the others.
When GM downsized the C-body for 1985, Cadillac moved their official Commercial Chassis and limousines to the front drive platform. They no longer supplied coachbuilders with extra length body-on-frame cars. Therefore, the front drive cars became the cheaper base for hearses. Since Cadillac still built the D-body Brougham, it was still preferred by many for hearse duty but had to have the frame lengthened by the coachbuilders, making it more expensive. I don’t know the exact price difference, but it must have been significant enough to justify the two types.
Also, at that time it was probably unknown how long GM would keep the big rear drivers. GM was committed to the downsizing, but not to keeping the biggies. They just kept them because they could and they still sold, so why not. If another fuel crisis had come along, they probably would have been dropped. They were planning on having front drivers for the long term. But there were plenty of traditional customers, including funeral homes, who still preferred the big cars. Eventually, gas prices and demand were stable enough that GM committed to a full styling makeover for the B/D line.
Interesting… does that mean that the limousine also shifted entirely to the FWD C-body platform in the late ‘80s as well?
I do know of a surviving C- body hearse here in Virginia. A few years ago I talked with a guy who has an ‘85 S&S Fleetwood hearse. I recall he said that he uses it for Halloween parades among other things.
Yes, the factory limo went front drive in 85, too.
“Sir, does your car have a leak, or is it taking one”?
Taking one!
My Roadmaster wagon does the same thing, putting out freakishly large amounts of condensation, especially on humid days. I have a picture, which I could not get to attach here, that was taken when I was coming back to my car AFTER work, with a stream of water still present from when I parked it in the morning 10 hours earlier.
The ’63 Chrysler ambulance looks like the work of Memphis Body Co. that had built professional cars on the DeSoto chassis in the 1950’s. The same company also built raised-roof shell station wagon-based ambulances on Mopars. They seemed to have little popularity compared to Pontiac-Superior, Oldsmobile-Cotner-Bevington and all those coachbuilders who used the Cadillac 86 commercial chassis.
Lincoln didn’t become popular as a professional car basis until the 1970’s when first Andy Hotton Associates and successor AHA began coachbuilding limousines and hearses on a 151 inch wheelbase chassis. If you ever see a long-wheelbase Mercury-based ambulance or hearse, that would be a rare find.
Fascinating stuff.
You guys over the pond are so fortunate to have beautiful professional cars like these. In most of Europe (UK excepted), the default choice is usually a Diesel van. Has been for decades, too.
I remember my grandfather’s passing, back in 1998. Seeing that Renault Trafic pulling up at the cemetary, clattering and belching black smoke… So undignified…
Pontiac’s a bit OTT, though. Looks like it went to a funfair’s distorting mirror or something.
A diesel van carrying a casket for a funeral? OMG! A funeral director here witnessing that would probably have a heart attack (requiring another diesel hearse, and THAT funeral director would have a heart attack and so on…).
Here’s a 1952 Henney/Packard ambulance often parked in Fox Chapel, a swanky Pittsburgh suburb. A beauty.
Wow!
Although technically an Navy ambulance and not a hearse, a 1963 Pontiac Bonneville performing its grim duty on November 22, 1963.
Interesting article and shots. The 1948 Packard is a beauty, and I liked the ‘63 Chrysler as well. I’ve never seen a Chrysler (or any other Mopar product) converted for ambulance or hearse duty here in Canada, though I’ve seen pictures of a Chrysler 300 converted to a hearse in Europe. Several years ago I came across a ‘62 Miller-Meteor hearse in our neighbourhood. It was in pretty good shape, with no issues that a paint job and a little body work wouldn’t have fixed. While I was photographing it the owner came out and opened it up for me so I could get some interior shots as well. It was quite an experience to sit behind the wheel and look through that huge wraparound windshield (they still used the ‘59 Cadillac windshields for a few years).
Could you please expand on the concept of the side loading feature?