1940 letterhead for Wigwam Village 5

Description

ca1940 letterhead for Wigwam Village No. 5, Bessemer AL. Patented “C.T. Art-Colortone” by Curteich-Chicago. Frank A. Redford built 7 Wigwam Village motels between 1933 (Horse Cave KY) and 1949 (San Bernardino CA). The original design of the tipis (design patent 98,617) was with steel, lath and plaster, but the Bessemer buildings were made of steel, wood, and felt, then covered in canvas and treated with linseed oil. As the letterhead indicates, a great feature of the villages was the tiled bathroom with a shower angled in the slope of the tent. Redford was a master tiler, and it shows - having stayed in #6 (Holbrook AZ) and #7 (San Bernadino) I can attest that the hand-crafted furniture and the tile work are still impressive. #5 closed in 1964 and was demolished.