Continuing with the rest of the vintage trailers at the 2011 Palm Springs Modernism Week Vintage trailer show is a wonderfully redone Spartan Manor from 1948. Founded in 1928 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Spartan was originally an aircraft company. Shocking, right? It produced aircrafts for the first 17 years of its existence before it decided to get into the RV business.
This Spartan Manor comes in at 25 feet and is the smallest RV they ever made. As a comparison, this photo below is the Spartan Mansion that we stayed in a few years ago in Bisbee, Arizona at our favorite campground the Shady Dell. They topped out at a gargantuan 55 feet long, 10 feet wide but those weren’t really made to go down the road as these are.
This particular Spartan Manor had been completely renovated. One of the cool features is a very unique and beautifully built dinette table made by a surfboard builder that resembles a section of a classic multi-stringer longboard. It was built in exactly the same way as a surfboard would be and polished to a mirror shine.
The entire interior wood paneling has been redone and shines with layers of lacquer almost as bright as the aluminum exterior.
The owner had art directed the renovation but had most projects contracted out to professionals who helped create a masterpiece of a Spartan as good as any other Spartan trailer I have ever seen.
Something unique about the Spartan Manor is that there is a door on each side of the trailer at the opposite ends.
This other door is right inside the bed room which comes in especially handy when you have a full house with people sleeping on the converted dinette at night. Or if you are me, you would appreciate being able to sneak out for a little camp fire without waking the kids up.
over and out,
dan
5 Comments
Clarke Hockwald · March 30, 2011 at 5:34 am
Have really enjoyed your devotion of one post per vintage trailer and all the great photos. These trailers are amazing!
Clarke and Elaine
Leigh · March 30, 2011 at 11:14 am
Great pictures! Counting our days until we join you on the road.
dan · March 30, 2011 at 5:12 pm
Thanks! I am glad you enjoy them. It is taking some time to get through them all but they were all such great trailers I just didn’t want to lump them all in one post to not be able to give the owners what they are due with the hard work and dedication.
dan · March 30, 2011 at 5:17 pm
Thanks Leigh! We are currently back at our home base with just shorter jaunts about a week to 10 days long scattered in between. once we have our work obligations and other affairs more settled, we will be heading out again. You will really enjoy life on the road and we will be following your blog as well 🙂
tiffany · March 31, 2011 at 2:51 pm
love this spartan, my family had a 50 ft spartan when i was little, i have a photo or two in front of it, definitely would like to get a big one and put it somewhere beautiful as a part-time vacation spot (O: