The Wigwam Village No. 7 on the border of the Inland Empire cities of San Bernardino and Rialto CA was placed on the US National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
WE ARE TOTALLY STAYING HERE THE NEXT TIME WE ARE IN SAN BERNARDINO! Daddy Blaster has been warned!
From the Nomination Form, on file with the State of California Office of Historic Preservation: (
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"Narrative Description
Constructed between 1947 and 1949, and opened in 1950, Wigwam Village No. 7 is located in San Bernardino, San Bernardino County, California. Wigwam Village No. 7 was the culmination of the work of designer Frank Redford, and was the seventh of a group of “Wigwam Villages” executed in his patented design.
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Statement of Significance
This nomination for Wigwam Village No. 7 is submitted under the U.S. Highway 66 in California National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form (MPDF) under the contexts of Commerce and Architecture. Wigwam Village No. 7 meets National Register Criteria A and C for listing at the local level of significance. It is located along the main route of U.S. Highway 66 and was constructed between 1947 and 1950 in direct response to the post-World War II boom in automobile tourism along U.S. Highway 66, providing tourist accommodations as a commercial property. Wigwam Village No. 7 also exemplifies a unique type of roadside architecture designed to attract high-speed travelers who had only moments to grasp the message conveyed through iconography and programmatic architecture. Wigwam Village No. 7 clearly embodies the design Frank A. Redford developed in 1933 and patented in 1936 for his chain of travel accommodations.
The period of significance of the Wigwam Village No. 7 is 1950-1974. The period of significance begins with the completion of construction and opening of the village to the traveling public in 1950. It extends to 1974 with the completion of Interstate 15 (I-15), which connected to I-10 and effectively by-passed the segment of the route in which the Wigwam is located, marking the end of the heyday of use for this segment of U.S. Highway 66.
Criterion Consideration G: Properties That Have Achieved Significance Within the Last 50 Years applies to Wigwam Village No. 7; however, a case for exceptional importance does not have to be justified because Wigwam Village No. 7 satisfies the provisions outlined in Section F of the MPDF. Wigwam Village No. 7 began its association with the route more than 50 years ago with the completion of construction in 1950 and continued to operate in its original capacity and be directly associated with U.S. Highway 66 until 1974.
U.S. Highway 66 served as a major corridor for tourists coming to California beginning in the 1920s. Unprecedented numbers of tourists used U.S. Highway 66 in the years following World War II. After the long period of war-time rationing and restricted travel, Americans were anxious to get back on the road. Entrepreneurs such as Redford recognized business opportunities to expand the existing infrastructure and provide accommodations, food, auto services, and supplies to meet the needs of tourists. Wigwam Village No. 7 has a direct association with U.S. Highway 66 in California because of its location along the main route of the highway during its construction and early years of use. Wigwam Village No. 7 is an important example of the travel accommodations constructed along U.S. Highway 66 in the post-World War II years.
The unique architecture of Wigwam Village No. 7 recalls the “heyday” of automobile tourism along U.S. Highway 66 and the highway’s important role in California’s history. Wigwam Village No. 7 is an excellent example of this legacy and programmatic architecture for travel accommodations along U.S. Highway 66. The creative and imaginative system of individual wigwams represents a total design created by architectural setting, readily identifiable logos, and color schemes. Of the seven Wigwam Villages constructed nationwide, only two others remain today: Wigwam Village No. 2 in Cave City, Kentucky, and Wigwam Village No. 6 in Holbrook, Arizona.
Criterion A
Under Criterion A: Commerce, Wigwam Village No. 7 is an example of travel accommodations developed in response to automobile tourism along U.S. Highway 66. Designed and constructed between 1947 and 1949, Redford opened Wigwam Village No. 7 in 1950 to provide lodging for travelers along U.S. Highway 66. The exteriors of the 19 sleeping units and the apartment unit comprising Wigwam Village No. 7 followed the design Redford patented in 1936 for his national chain of travel accommodations.
In 1933 Redford established the first of his seven Wigwam Villages with construction of a gas station and lunchroom at Horse Cave, Kentucky. Inspired by a roadside lunch stand shaped like a tepee he visited while traveling in Long Beach, California, he chose a 60-foot high Indian tepee constructed of steel-reinforced stucco to house the gas station office and lunchroom. As historian Keith A. Sculle describes, the sides of the steel reinforced cone “simulated hide stretched over supporting wooden poles.” The supporting metal rods projected from the “apex of the building to simulate extensions of the supporting wooden poles.” Two years later, Redford expanded the operation with the addition of six smaller teepee sleeping units and two restroom tepees flanking the original building to create Wigwam Village No. 1.
In 1937 Redford built Wigwam Village No. 2 in Cave City, Kentucky. It was larger than Wigwam Village No. 1 with 15 sleeping units, but featured many of the same amenities such as a lunchroom, restrooms, and gas pumps. Redford operated Wigwam Villages No. 1 and 2 until Paul Young purchased them in 1944. Wigwam Village No. 3, constructed in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1940 was the first of four villages constructed by franchise owners after Redford patented the exterior design developed for Wigwam Villages No. 1 and 2 (patent D98,617). Wigwam Village No. 5, also opened in 1940, was located in Birmingham, Alabama. Wigwam Village No. 4 opened in 1948 in Orlando, Florida, while Wigwam Village No. 6 opened in Holbrook, Arizona, in 1950.
Ten years after completing Wigwam Village No. 2, Redford began construction of Wigwam Village No. 7 at the western edge of San Bernardino in an area surrounded by citrus groves and small shops, building 11 units and opening for business in 1950.12 In 1953, he added eight more sleeping units, as well as a swimming pool and fire pit. Around the same time Redford constructed Wigwam Village No. 7, he filed a second patent for the construction of the wigwam units. The patent stated, “an object of this invention is to supply a strong, durable, attractive, sanitary, stationary wigwam-type construction including the feature of providing an improved window construction for use particularly with wigwam-type buildings.” Building upon Redford’s first patent for the exterior design of the wigwams, this second patent detailed the construction methodology and elements, such as window design and construction, interior layout, and the closure for the apex of the outer frame (see the floor plan in Additional Items, page 2).
Redford operated Wigwam Village No. 7 until he grew too ill to continue managing the property, and Paul Young took over at Redford’s request. Redford and Young became friends when Young purchased Wigwam Village No. 1 and No. 2 in 1944. Young operated Wigwam Village No. 7 until his death in 1961. However, a corporate structure had not been established to ensure the chain would continue, and Wigwam Village No. 7 entered a period with multiple owners who did not actively maintain the property.
Research did not reveal why Redford decided to build Wigwam Village No. 7, the last in the Wigwam Village chain, along U.S. Highway 66 in San Bernardino and operate it himself. He was one of the numerous business owners to respond to the needs of the large numbers of automobile tourists using U.S. Highway 66 in the post-World War II years, as the San Bernardino Valley experienced a boom in commercial construction during this period. Historic aerial photographs from 1948, 1959, and 1968 show the rapid transformation this section of U.S. Highway 66 experienced as the citrus groves lining the highway gave way to commercial and residential development. By 1968 the citrus groves had completely disappeared in the area immediately surrounding Wigwam Village No. 7. By the latter part of the twentieth century, the area’s citrus groves and small shops were replaced by auto repair yards and liquor stores, properties that appear to be unrelated to providing services specific to travelers along the route. When the property was offered for sale in the late 1990s, many nostalgic for the heyday of U.S. Highway 66 feared the iconic wigwams would be lost to new commercial development. However, the current owners purchased the property in 2003 and began a careful rehabilitation of the property.
In order to place Wigwam Village No. 7 in the context of the development of travel accommodations in the San Bernardino area, available historic maps and primary sources were reviewed. However, from this review, little is known about other travel accommodations in the immediate vicinity. Sanborn Fire Insurance maps from 1929- 1938 for Rialto, Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga, and San Bernardino show auto service and gas stations along the segment of U.S. Highway 66 known as Foothill Boulevard with only one “hotel” identified along the route and “Fontana Farms Inn,” which appears to have been a tourist court with 12 detached buildings with hotel apartments and a restaurant. In A Guide Book to Highway 66, published in 1946, author Jack Rittenhouse describes commercial and tourist accommodations along the route shortly before Wigwam Village No. 7 was built. In it he describes, "tourist camps of the best type, fine cafes, and other roadside facilities are found all along the way" from San Bernardino to Los Angeles. San Bernardino is one of the 12 communities mentioned before reaching Pasadena that were "...so close together as to be practically indistinguishable from each other," but no motels or travel accommodations are mentioned. Field survey revealed two collections of modest frame gable motels and travel accommodations located near Bono’s Restaurant along the portion of U.S. Highway 66 known as Foothill Boulevard in Fontana, and Wigwam Village No. 7 compares well to these other travel accommodations. Indeed, Rittenhouse notes that from San Bernardino, "the traveler is practically 'in' Los Angeles ... so no further detailed description is necessary."
Criterion C
Under Criterion C: Architecture, Wigwam Village No. 7 is a distinctive example of programmatic roadside architecture designed to attract the attention and patronage of high-speed motorists traveling along U.S. Highway 66. Wigwam Village No. 7 also incorporates the concepts of product-place-packaging as defined by cultural geographers John Jakle, Keith A. Sculle, and Jefferson S. Rogers in The Motel in America. Wigwam Village No. 7 exemplifies programmatic architecture through the whimsical and unique design of the wigwams. The form of the buildings, rather than signs or other advertisements, are meant to catch the traveler’s attention. At the height of the style’s popularity in the 1920s and 1930s, programmatic architecture was found along California highways, especially in the Los Angeles basin and in San Bernardino. Buildings constructed in the shape of oranges and Aztec temples can still be found along U.S. Highway 66.
By the mid-twentieth century the popularity of programmatic architecture waned in favor of Modernist styles. As a result, many examples of programmatic architecture along U.S. Highway 66 have been lost. Redford’s chain of Wigwam Villages, including Wigwam Village No. 7, also incorporated the concept of product-place-packaging to represent the total design through adoption of a readily identifiable logo, color scheme, decorative elements, and building design so that each unit in the chain reinforced the others. The geometric form of the wigwams with the poles extending from the top and the folded flaps at the doorways, as well as the color scheme of white with red zigzag accents, was carried throughout the operations from the decorative fixtures in the sleeping units and letterhead stationary to souvenirs sold in gift shops.
Although Wigwam Village No. 7 did not feature the gas pumps and lunchroom that Redford’s Kentucky Wigwam Villages had, it did follow other standards Redford established for the earlier villages. Primarily, in that Redford arranged the Wigwam Village in two semi-circles to enclose a large grassy area that opened to the highway. This provided recreational opportunities, especially after the swimming pool was added, and a place to have a picnic, as well as the opportunity for guests to socialize with their fellow travelers. Sleeping units were decorated with hickory furniture and Native American rugs and blankets. The zigzag lines of the historic exterior motif were repeated on interior decorative accents, such as the bathroom tiles, lamps, and other fixtures. Redford did vary Wigwam Village No. 7 slightly from the others with the construction of a large, flat-roof extension to the office wigwam.
Wigwam Village No. 7 survives as a rare and unique example of programmatic roadside architecture remaining along U.S. Highway 66 in California, and is one of only three extant Wigwam Villages from Redford’s national chain."