Turning his interest in Native American history into a business & emulating the cone-shaped tent dwellings of some Northern Algonquian Indians, in 1933, Frank Redford built a teepee-shaped building near Horse City, Kentucky to display his collection of relics. Adding a group of identically shaped cabins the following year, he hoped to entice visitors to stay the night in his "Wigwam Village". Obtaining a patent for his innovative building design in 1937, Redford soon constructed a second village near the Mammoth Cave National Park, located on the northern outskirts of Cave City, Kentucky. Through the early 1950s, a total of seven Wigwam Villages were erected in the south & southwestern states of our country. These motel complexes were typically arranged with 15+ individual teepee cabins (approx. 25 ft. in diameter) that surrounded a significantly larger teepee (approx. 35 ft. in diameter & 52 ft. tall), which served as an office and lobby. These fanciful emulations of Indian encampments were the forerunners of a unique type of architecture known as "place-product-packaging." In other words, "the commercial use of architectural imagery denoting product or regional design characteristics by service-oriented establishments along the American roadside." Cave City's Wigwam Village No. 2 includes 18 steel-and-concrete teepees that vary only in size & number of windows. Their white painted exteriors are accented with bright red zigzagging accents. Repeating the same theme inside the conical structures, the narrow interior bathrooms feature floors covered with red-and-white tiles along with walls and stall showers repeating the zig-zag motif. Souvenir ashtrays embossed with teepee motifs were placed in rooms for guests to take home. The gift shop was filled with additional items to purchase, including tee-shirts emblazoned with their logo & miniature plastic teepees. Furthermore, all Wigwam Village advertising signage posted along the roadways was triangular, emphasizing the teepee shape. Redford, the visionary mastermind behind these iconic hotels, understood early on that the act of motoring could be, in and of itself, part of a vacation, not just the means of reaching one's destination. Today, Historic Route 66 advocates focus on preservation, rehabilitation & tourism topics. Interestingly, a recent Pixar movie focused on those exact issues. Released in 2006, "Cars," the popular animated film featuring the lilting voice of Paul Newman, was originally to have been called "Route 66," but its title was changed so that it did not imply a connection with the 1960s TV show of the same name. The movie's creators paid overt homage to Frank Redford's creative genius by featuring the "Cozy Cone Motel" in their imaginary town of Radiator Springs. Although their conical motel room structures were fashioned to look like today's ubiquitous orange highway construction cones, their resemblance to Redford's teepees was intentional & unmistakable. As the interstate highway system gradually usurped Route 66's usefulness, 4 of the 7 Wigwam Village complexes succumbed to the changing preferences of (impatient) American road travelers. We salute the 3 surviving Wigwam Motels in Cave City, KY, Holbrook, AZ and Rialto, CA & we affectionately name the next 6 transitional textiles in their honor.
This collection of fabrics if from the Vogue Fabrics By Mail Transition 2011 catalog of color coordinated fashion fabrics. Subscribers receive home delivery of the complete swatch set and two months of priority shopping before the fabrics are released to the general public.
This collection of fabrics if from the Vogue Fabrics By Mail Transition 2011 catalog of color coordinated fashion fabrics. Subscribers receive home delivery of the complete swatch set and two months of priority shopping before the fabrics are released to the general public.
