06 February 2008

WIG WAM

As you pull off of I-40 at the Holbrook exit, just into town you will come across an old Route 66 legend: the Wig Wam Hotel.


FROM WIKI:


"The history of the Wigwam Motel is very interesting for many people. Our father, Chester E. Lewis, had other motels along Old Route 66 in the 1930's in other Arizona cities. He saw his first Wigwam Village in Cave City, Kentucky in 1938. A man by the name of Frank Redford already had a couple of Wigwam Villages built in Kentucky by that time.


Our father decided that he would like to build a Wigwam Village of his own. In that time period, the term franchises or chain motels were not known of, much less used. Mr. Redford was more interested in sharing his novel idea than making money. Mr. Lewis and Mr. Redford came to an agreement that radios would be placed in each Wigwam that would play for one half hour for a silver dime. Mr. Redford would then receive the dimes from the radios for a period of some years in payment for the use of his plans.



There were seven of these Wigwam Villages built from the 1930's to the 1950's from Florida to California. The one, here in Holbrook, receives a lot of media attention due to it being located on Route 66 and located near several Native American Reservations,Navajo, Hopi, White Mountain Apache Reservations. There are several vintage automobiles that are around the perimeter of the property.



The Wigwam Motel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 2, 2002"





[www.galerie-kokopelli.com/wigwam].

I'm out.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

okay, thats just the coolest thing. ever. I wanna stay there.

Anonymous said...

I did some digging ... it turns out one of the seven original Wigwam Motels was in New Orleans. Not something I'd have associated with the city at all.

Anonymous said...

Is it still around?