The vehicle was discovered when the property was being cleaned out in connection with a sale, and none of the heirs of the former owner were aware of the Packard’s existence. The only clues to the limousine’s history were a monogram, “EJS,” etched on each rear door, and badges of the “Derham Body Company,” which had been renowned custom body shop in the Philadelphia area during the early to mid-1900’s.

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Upon inspection, the car is a bit unusual. While unmistakably a Packard, the identifying markings indicate the body of a 1924-1926 limousine model had been fitted onto a shorter 1929 touring car chassis. Moreover, it had been fitted with a special air suspension system manufactured by the Cleveland Pneumatic Tool Company, an aftermarket accessory more appropriate for rough roads rather than city streets.

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A lawyer involved in the sale contacted a local mechanic to haul the car away. The mechanic and his son negotiated with the owner of the property to acquire the Packard, and embarked upon extensive revival and restoration. For over 40 years, the limousine was a popular participant at parades and other local events in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. In 2022, the mechanic’s son offered the car for sale through a classic car dealer in Lansdale, Pennsylvania.

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My research thus far leads me to one possible solution to the mystery. The monogram on the car’s doors presents the middle letter “J” in a slightly taller font size than the other two letters, suggesting the owner’s initials were “ESJ.” The 1932 Philadelphia City Directory lists one person with those initials who was likely to favor limousine transport: (William) Ellery Sedgwick James. Mr. James descended from two prominent American families: the James Family of Baltimore and the Sedgwick Family, originally from Massachusetts. His father was a prominent New York lawyer, and a cousin on his father’s side, Arthur Curtiss James, was a significant holder of railroad and mining interests during the “Gilded Age;” his mother’s lineage traced to a signer of the Declaration of Independence. A Yale graduate and a member of its elite secret Skull and Bones society, he was a founding partner of the banking firm Brown Brothers, Harriman & Co.. In 1932, he was appointed resident partner of the Brown Brothers, Harriman Philadelphia office and was in the process of relocating his family from New York when he unexpectedly took ill while on summer vacation; he died in New York in November 1932 at age 37. His sudden and tragic demise would explain how a Packard limousine could be abandoned in a carriage house and forgotten.

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Mr. James’s history may also help explain the car’s unique aspects. His father, a prominent New York lawyer, had died in 1929, and it is possible Ellery acquired his father’s car. Moreover, Ellery had built a home on family property in East Hampton, Long Island (sufficiently architecturally significant to be known as the “Ellery S. James House”), accessible by an unpaved and sandy road. The more powerful eight-cylinder engine of a 1929 chassis and the comfort of Pneumatic Air Suspension would certainly have been useful upgrades to a limousine traveling in that area, and was the type of work in which the Derham Body Company specialized.

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As for the location of the carriage house where the Packard had been parked, the son of the mechanic who retrieved the car recalls only vague details: it was a few miles drive from the mechanic’s garage in Glenside, in the direction Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood. One intriguing possibility is that the man Mr. James replaced in the Brown Brothers, Harriman Philadelphia office, Charles Dickey, owned a mansion in Glenside, in an area called Laverock that bordered Chestnut Hill. Architectural drawings and atlases of this estate show outlying buildings on the property, including a detached garage and a barn or stable. Mr. Dickey owned the home from 1928 until 1973, when it was sold to a developer. Although he left Brown Brothers, Harriman to join another banking concern, it appears Mr. Dickey remained amicably connected to his former partners through college, marital, and business connections. So I have a working hypothesis. But the investigation continues.