Early station wagons were custom built vehicles. Ford offered an optional station wagon body on  the Model T frame in 1922, but customers still had to order the body separately. The first ever production station wagon was the Star Station Wagon, built by Durant Motors in 1923. 

Popularity of the these vehicles reigned for several decades until the postwar years saw the demise of structural wood bodies. Too expensive to make and maintain, ash or oak frames were complex, precisely milled shapes that required  furniture grade craftsmanship. The wood had to be varnished every year or two and did not compare with the durability of  increasingly popular steel bodies. 

Wooden panels gave way to laminates used for ornamentation and the  prewar station wagons became embarrassing old wrecks, sold cheap as a utility vehicle to haul surf lumber to the beach. Today, the woody is a classic. You may see one in a garage or protected under a cover. Rolled out for special beach festivals and car shows, the vehicles are collectible and worth much more than they originally sold for. Most have been restored with thousands of dollars poured into them to provide the look and feel of an era when wood provided a statement of wealth and luxury.  Likewise, the accompanying classic surfboard you'll often see displayed with a woody has run a similar course in history. But that's another story.