President Lowell's Buick Phaeton Has Its Third Undergraduate Owner

Squatting on its bent axles on Mill street between Lowell and Winthrop Houses is a 1931 Buick Phaeton that is worth its weight in 1950 Cadillacs, according to owner Michael S. Post '50.

The car was formerly the property of the late President Lowell. On the back doors, almost obliterated by weather, are sets of three crossed arrows, the "Lowell coat of arms."

The bent axles curve proudly as a symbol of the Lowell ownership. President Lowell is noted and revered for many things, one of which is not his driving ability. The Buick was the only car he ever owned.

Free Wheeling

Post tells of the time Lowell was wheeling around a corner on the left side of the road, had a head-on collision, and was forced to make a "gentleman's agreement" with the Registrar of Motor Vehicles never to do his own driving again, because "it wasn't fitting for a Harvard President to have his license taken away."

Lowell only put 16,000 miles on the speedometer. The next owner was Peter B. Seamans '46, who was the brother-in-law of Augustus L. Putnam '49, great-nephew to the president and one of Post's roomates. The automobile, purchased from Lowell's estate after his death, was a wedding-gift to Seamans.

It went with him on a cross-country honeymoon tour. Seamans describes the trip through a Nebraska rainstorm: "The windshield was down, the top blew off, and it was like riding in a bathtub. The highest point in the car was the steering wheel."

"Good for 10 More"

The automobile had done an additional 20,000 miles when it was sold to Putnam in 1946. Early this year Putnam sold it to Post. The speedometer now reads over 100,000 miles, but Post feels that the car is still good for another ten years.

"You only have to crank it once in a while," he says. "In the winter it gets cold, but in the summer it's the wildest thing on the road."

Remarkably responsive to the touch, the car has a personality of its own, Post insists: "Completely friendly."