MTFCA Forum

This has probably been posted before, but it's worth the look. It just makes me happy to look at it ! No date, place or comments with the photo.

And its on a T chassis, not TT. ...If I were a father back in the 1920s, I wouldn’t let my daughter go out with that guy. . Love the forward and aft gables tho’

Would love to see what it looked like inside.

A copy of that photo hung in the family store with family photos for as long as I can remember. I had thought it was related to us somehow but after seeing it a number of times on the internet I believe it has been circulating for dozens of years one way or another. I found it often with a "Mobile Home 1926", "1926 Motorhome" or just 1926. Comments like "Oh the things you could do with a Model T!", "Tiny house on wheels, c. 1926" and “casa móvil”, 1926 accompanying it. Where 1926 came from I don't know. Maybe someone's first guess or maybe there is some credit somewhere for it's origin. Obviously the chassis is 1922 or earlier. Some sites had a dozen other homes built on car chassis much bigger than a simple camper.
I can't imagine where the license plate is from either or what the sign on top says. It would be fun to know more about it.
Rich

Thanks Rich ! Amazing the photo was displayed in the store. It's something of an illusion, as the house isn't much wider than stock running boards. While the "envelope body" treatment would afford quite a bit more room, you might think of it as a center-door sedan in a novel shape. I, too would love to see the interior, and know more about it.

Would make a great "she-shed" or even a chicken coop!!

This show some different designs and some interior photos:
http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/17 ... 1319286129

I think that Wayne Carinni actually has one the originals in Connecticut.

That could have been an advertizing vehicle for a tract home builder. Some early "developers" would buy up farmland a few miles outside a city and set off lots and streets and utilities. Car owners with cash or credit would buy a lot and have a new home built on it. Work in town, live in the country. City conveniences just minutes away. In some areas, a streetcar line would be extended to "nowhere", which soon became "somewhere". Then came 1929..... and the whole thing came to a stop..... until after The War.

Pat, I also had the thought it was a promotional vehicle, like the T chassis fitted with bodies replicating shoes, bottles, etc. Re/ the housing tracts, I recall a silent movie comedy about "Jerry-built" modern tract homes, but don't recall the actor(s)? Laurel & Hardy perhaps ? Or Buster Keaton ? There were probably more than one comedy reel on the subject.

Rich, thanks for the link ! Fun to see.

“ Housecar “ or “ House Car “ is the correct term.

Some states still have the term as a motor vehicle
classification for title & registration purposes.

Practical examples that were actually used were
often hand built by a cabinet maker usually on
a one ton truck chassis.

Then trips were attempted that often failed.

Our one ton 1925 Chevrolet House Car
had less than 5000 miles when purchased
and was largely original other than the siding
which had replaced the original masonite.



FJ

The movie with the house work may be 'The Finishing Touch' 1928 with Laurel and Hardy. https://www.veoh.com/watch/v20252474rq8aktFR
A Large, Vintage White truck makes an appearance at the end.

It may be that the rather elaborate, gabled structure on the T chassis was never intended for serious road travel. Buses and vans look the way they do for several practical reasons. A "house car" of any size meant for travel and camping would have required a TT chassis, and would have looked similar to a van/bus.