The stories of the first trailer manufacturers are rather apocryphal in nature. As the industry prospered, the marketing departments of different companies touted their founders as the inventor of the travel trailer. Cynics might mention gypsy caravans, Conestoga wagons or Pullman train cars as likely antecedents, but it would appear that Mr. Sherman of Detroit Michigan is considered by many to be the inventor of the travel trailer. He built a trailer in the early 1 920s after an unhappy experience putting up a tent camper in a downpour. He founded the Covered Wagon Company and began manufacturing trailers in the early 1930s.25
By 1936 there were four major competitors and a number of smaller
producers. Economists of the day noted the health of the trailer
industry when compared to the rest of the economy. The demand
for trailers by many segments of the population assured that the
trailer industry grew rapidly between 1930 and 1940.26
The first industrially produced trailers were not dissimilar from
their homemade counterparts. Manufacturing operations often consisted
of two or three workmen in a garage who virtually hand-crafted
the trailers. Most trailers incorporated quite a bit of fine woodworking,
and built-in furniture. There was very little metal in most early
models aside from the chassis. Rather boxy affairs, the exteriors
were covered in "Leatherette' or other inexpensive material.
In the later 1930s airplane and car manufacturers also began to
produce trailers, using their industrial designers to give the
trailers a sleek, streamlined look.27
| This move toward streamlining became more pronounced after World War II. Massed-produced in a manner much like the car, the trailers began to take on a more industrial look. In addition, each manufacturer tried to differentiate his product to the consumer as special and modern. Companies moved trailer design away from the cozy pitched-roof house-on-wheels to a sleek industrial product, featuring porthole windows, swooping profiles and exteriors clad in aluminum. An excellent example of this type of design from the mid-1950s with a later roof cap can be found at 12 Avenue B in Farrington's Trailer Park. |
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