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San Francisco, 1925. "California State Automobile Association. Wrecked Peerless being hauled at hospital on Broadway between Van Ness & Polk." 8x10 film negative, originally from the Wyland Stanley collection. View full size.
Very rare item today, as most were lost to WWII scrap drives.
Here's a restored Peerless Opera Coupe from 1922, similar if not the same as the wrecked vehicle.
It's interesting, because the architecture almost but doesn't quite match that of the neighboring Notre Dame Apartments. I wonder what the first building was, and when the second was built.
[Much of the ornamentation has been removed, but the pattern of the masonry walls is the same, as well as the layout of windows in the wing at the corner of Van Ness and Broadway. At the time of the photo, it was Dante Hospital, later renamed Notre Dame Hospital and eventually sold and converted to apartments. -tterrace]
The tow vehicle is a Locomobile. The Peerless has a "platform" suspension on the rear -- two half-elliptic fore & aft springs shackled to a half-elliptic transverse spring. This is a direct carryover from the horse-drawn era.
The middle one seems to be a Weaver Auto Ambulance.
The tow truck is not a truck at all but an elderly luxury car modified with a service bed replacing its turtle deck or back seat. This was once common practice, a cheap route to a strong and powerful chassis.
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