1915 Pierce-Arrow Model 38-C Landaulet

For more than three decades, the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company of Buffalo, New York, was among the most respected and renowned automakers in America. Hard to believe the company responsible for producing the grandest of luxury cars began by building bird cages. From household products, the company turned to bicycles and then to automobiles shortly after the turn of the 20th century. Pierce-Arrow had the distinction of being the first automobile to be used by the White House during the William Howard Taft administration in 1909.

The current owners found a 1926 New York registration car in the card identifying ownership of the car to Helen Campbell, Paris, France. She was the daughter of Harris Charles Fahnestock, an American investment banker, and wife of John Hubbard, former treasurer of the International Banking Corporation. Mr. Harris Fahnestock was also an adviser to President Abraham Lincoln. He passed away in 1915 leaving an estate worth sixteen million dollars to his five children. Helen purchased the car in 1915 in New York.

Ms. Campbell passed away in 1955 and the car was placed in a museum on Long Island, New York. It was later sold at auction to a Mr. Arnold of Ohio. In 1978 Arnold moved to North Carolina into a neighborhood three miles away from the current owners who for forty years had no idea the car was there.

In 2016 the current owners purchased the car from the Arnold estate. The car was stored in 22 boxes, two garages, several file cabinets, and three rooms. The restoration took two years.