1948 Chrysler Windsor Town & Country

edited by David Barth, 22 February 2009.
Courtesy The Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Photos were taken in January 2009.

Sponsor: Ken and Kelly Hall

Sponsor statement:
"After about a decade of working for the historical society, I had grown tired of meetings. We mainly meet to discuss why history matters, and how to engage visitors in history in ways that are meaningful to them. One day, I was in the middle of another meeting and decided I needed to walk. I took off through the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum and was approached by a very happy elderly couple. The man had a photograph. He asked, 'Would you like to see a picture of a woody?' Sure, why not? It turned out to be a photo of their wood-paneled station wagon. He was restoring it, and heard that we had one. So, he came to the museum with his bride of about sixty years to check it out.

"During the 1930s, they courted in the car, fell in love and got married. They had two children, both born with severe medical problems. They were forced to sell the car to a farmer who lived down the road to pay the medical bills. Five decades later, both their children had passed, and they bought the car back from the same farmer for about four times more than their original selling price. But that did not matter. What mattered to them was that they reclaimed an important part of their life story. We talked for hours as they studied the details of our beautifully restored vehicle. I was touched by their story, and taken aback by the importance of a single object on their lives. Years later, I shared this story with the man I married who volunteers in our museum restoring cars. In fact, his first gift to me was a toy replica of a woody. Now I can share their story with you."

One of the most fondly remembered cars of the immediate post-war era is the Chrysler Town & Country. Not outrageously expensive, it is different enough to mark the owner as an individualist, without being truly eccentric. It is elegant, classy, and yet very sexy car. The wood body panels of station wagons let to the nickname "woodie."

This particular car was brought on April 6, 1948, by Earl Fawber of Lemoyne, Pennsylvania. Among the options Mr. Fawber selected on his new car were radio ($99), "All Weather Heater" ($99), fog lights ($22.10), spotlights ($44), and a luggage rack ($89.35). All total, Mr. Fawber paid $3,486.15 for his gorgeous new Chrysler.

Model: Windsor Town & Country
Body Style: 4-door, hardtop sedan
Original Factory Price: $2,783
Brake Horsepower: 114
Displacement: 250.6 cubic inches
Bore: 3.0625 inches
Stroke: 4.5 inches
Wheelbase: 121.5 inches
Manufacturer: Chrysler Corporation

Donor: Women's Committee of the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum