We have featured many Cadillac wagons over the years. Cadillac never built their own, but there were a number of companies eager to undertake the conversions. Many were used by funeral homes as people haulers and some were even purchased by individuals who wanted a little utility with their luxury. The sheer novelty of a long roofed Caddy makes each one interesting, but this could be our all time favorite! It’s claimed to be one of two custom built Cadillac wagons commission by the Broadmoor Resort in 1956. Some unique features include skylights and custom badging. It was restored at some point, but has supposedly been in storage for 20 years. Find it here on eBay in Conrad, Iowa with an eye watering asking price of $195,000. Thanks goes to Cliff G for the tip!
If you’ve never heard of the Broadmoor, then you should take a look at this place. This is a serious resort which has been around for a long time. Built in 1918, it is the longest running 5-star establishment in the United States. It was constructed near Colorado Springs, Colorado in a very European style. I can only imagine how exciting it would have been to be picked up from the airport in one of these custom Cadillacs and with plenty of glass all around, you could easily take in the views as you neared this prestigious hotel. With a lake, golf course, and wildlife area nearby, the whole scene had to be quite impressive. I’m sure lodging would have cost you a pretty penny back then, so it seems only fitting that the seller is asking top dollar.
The fact that this wagon was used by a hotel would not normally add any value, but the history here does make it interesting. Sort of like those yellow buses used by Yellow Stone Park back in the day. Perhaps someone with memories of vacationing at Broadmoor as a kid would want to have something like this in their collection? The rest of us will just have to dream. The seller mentions that the rear doors are extra long so that passengers could easily slide into the two center benches. One side also folds down to allow access to the fourth row. That’s right, I said fourth row! With all that space and glass above and around you, this had to be quite the sightseeing machine!
Now that’s a wagon!!!
There are a lot better ways to spend almost 200k. Most can be found on this site
Not seeing the pie in the sky value here. A 56 Caddy funeral wagon converted into a limo, with all modern drivetrain sold for 36K at Barrett Jackson Scottsdale.
I love this wagon.
It may be one of three of these in a Package deal that was offered a couple of years ago….
Sticker price a LITTLE too high, but unique history.
Good memory I wonder if it is!
Jesse thanks for posting this. A very cool and unique piece of automotive history. If it would t be for this post I may would never had heard about this car. The wording in the ad does very little to inspire confidence in the seller though. For example, the seller throws out some historical data but doesn’t back it up with facts – sounds like the seller did very minimum to research the car, may be just enough to fill the body of the ad. I can see this car going into a wealthy collection – I do believe that’s the intent here. If this car is as unique as stated and in great shape, I can see the seller getting close to the asking price – this is a car for a Caddy collector that truly has everything.
If you Google ‘1956 cadillac station wagon’ you get some photos and also some web pages showing three (not two) Broadmoor Resort Caddy wagons for sale from a couple of years ago, all looking pretty clapped out and badly in need of a lot of work. There is one red one among the three that could be this Ebay car.
So it looks like this car might have been purchased and restored recently, and maybe not in the “collector’s private stash for 20 years” as claimed in the Ebay listing, but that’s just a guess. Who knows?…..Maybe there are more of these Caddy wagons out there.
I couldn’t find anything linking Harley Earl to these Caddy wagons and I’ve never read anything about him designing them, but I suppose it’s possible. But even if he did “design” them, the way he worked was to give his men his ideas, who would do drafts and clay models. Then he would say what changes he wanted to the actual designs that his draftsmen and clay model men made. So to say he designed anything specific….well, there were a lot of talented guys in the studio who did the grunt work. But Earl had the genius to develop the clay modelling technique for car design.
As a few people have mentioned in connection with the recent ’59 Caddy pickup, there were lots of Cadillacs converted for the funeral trade, and I have original ’50s & ’60s brochures for some of those plus some for Caddys made for use as ambulances.
Bottom line, Harley Earl didn’t have to design a Caddy station wagon for there to be three Caddy station wagons. There were professional firms (Superior was the name of one) that made Caddys into what were called “professional” or “commercial” vehicles. This Caddy wagon could have come into being that way, unless the seller can document some direct connection between Earl and this wagon.
I did not need google to remember these from a couple of years ago…(see above)
Harley Earl would never have put a hearse door on the back.He had access to enough GM wagon parts at the time and would have put them first in any styling exercise.
…cool car
………but….(and to assist in making my point I shall use the largest font available)
THE EBAY AD WAS DIFFICULT TO READ….AN EXPERIENCE SIMILAR TO ATTEMPTING TO READ THE MOVIE CREDITS WHILE STANDING ONE FOOT AWAY FROM THE SCREEN AT A DRIVE-IN THEATRE…
Why is the seller yelling at us….was he once employed at the Broadmoor as the person who marched through the lobby announcing “PHONE CALL FOR MR. SMITH !!”
Fred, these were built by the same company that made hearses and ambulances but were not converted. Same company also built station wagons on normal Cadillac chassis.
Dolphin, the 3 that were for sale a while back were 1955, not 1956. and there are some 1959 models out there as well.
Yes, you’re right. More searching on the web shows there were more of these including ’59. The ’55 vs. ’56 differences are pretty hard to spot—grille mesh size, placement of front parking lights….
And as Fred said, he knew the man who restored the ’56 on here, so it looks like the seller’s story is right…..a case where more information would have helped.
I know the man who restored this car. It was about 20 years ago.
The man was an ex-boss/friend of mine.
He had over 50 cars in his collection. If you look closely you can see in one of the photos a person looking into a car next to this one. The sign on it says “Freddys last ride”.
That is a ’56 Cadillac hearse.
The man had restored almost (Maybe all) of the ’56 Cadillac’s ever offered.
One that brought even more attention was General Francisco Franco’s ’56 Caddy Limo.
(Yes, it is documented. One of one)
Rumor has it that back in 1956, Fred was denied a loan on a new Cadillac. He went on to become a millionaire.
I never got a chance to confirm this.
Awesome man to talk to.
Cool car, crap seller.
These wagons are actually very significant and were not hack jobs done by a custom shop. They were factory authorized and I don’t think the price is out of line. If you don’t see the worth, it’s not the car for you. There are tons of cadillac collectors who can afford it and who appreciate its historical significance. They are well documented cars.
195K? Really? Bo Diddley toured with an ambulance similar to this.
Interesting vehicle and apparently well done. But for $195k, it seems a line was left out of the ad, “illness forces sale, owner is incurably optimistic”.
But for the right person, it might be a steal.
I owned this for a long time. There were 6 of them. I had a picture of a show Cadillac put on when they delivered them to the Broadmoore Hotel. I found tghe Hotel photograher for the hotel in 1956. He sent me several pics from then. one was a picture of all six parked in a semi circle in front of the hotel. I lived around Denver when I bought and owned it.
A “Good old Amarican” shootin’ break!