Here are two photos of 1930s Pierce Arrows with regular headlights. The blank and white photo shows a 1930 model, and the red car is a 1933.

The building directly across street on Polk is the old Pierce Arrow dealership from when the neighborhood around that part of Van Ness Avenue up the street was Auto Row. Today it is a homeless shelter.

One may still find examples of the Pierce-Arrow without the characteristic fender-mounted headlamps.

For several years early in the marque's history, Pierce-Arrows sold in their state of manufacture (New York) were required to be fitted with conventional free-standing headlamps because the NY vehicle code prohibited P-A's trademark flush lamps.

Likewise, customers who preferred a more conventional "face" on their cars could order their P-As with conventional headlamps and the manufacturer would accommodate. I am not sure when that policy ended, if indeed it did, but I have never seen a P-A from the '30s with anything but the "normal" P-A headlamps.

This photograph was taken at the corner of Geary and Polk. The building still exists and looks exactly the same.

The story behind the distinctive Pierce-Arrow headlights can be found here.

On these old touring bodies, the front seat shells seem to be integral with the body; how was the seating adjusted for different-sized drivers? Did anyone not average-sized just have to tough it out?

Those distinctive P-A headlight housings.

Are those little silver posts locks?

[They're latches for opening the doors. - Dave]