You read that correctly.
We are the proud, and quite frankly, awestruck, new owners of a 17′ 1960 Holiday House. The Holy Grail. The Silver Tuna. The most unbelievably cool trailer that ever rolled off an assembly line. I KNOW.
“How?” You ask? Sheer luck and good karma. Dear Husband’s brother works with the lovely gentleman that had it for sale. We went and looked at it, thinking…there’s NO WAY. We already have 3 vintage trailers, we don’t need another project. And, besides…..we could never afford one. Seriously, I never thought I’d see one in person, let alone be able to actually buy one! Well, the lovely gentleman was anxious to get rid of it, and understood our love for these old beauties. He agreed to sell it to us for a very good price, and now she’s OURS!! I KNOW!!!
She ended up in Brighton, CO, but had spent most of her life in Idaho….hence the name. She is my own Private Idaho….my special place ;-). Well, she will be, eventually.
Before you get all excited, please realize that this little gal is in poor shape. She’s going to take a lot longer to rehab than our other trailers. Dear Husband is trying to figure out how we can get her in our garage and take our time with her while out of the elements.
We need to replace, or repair, everything. We will need to take it down to the frame and rebuild it. It is going to be our biggest challenge yet, but I think we’re ready to tackle it. I am going to post several pictures showing the state she’s in. She’s not much to look at, but I love her:
For those of you that have never heard of a Holiday House, I will give you a brief history and share a few pictures I found on the inter webs of gorgeous restored models.
The excerpt below is from OldTrailer.com . Please check out their website….it has loads of great info on old trailers.
“David Holmes, President of “Harry and David” (mail-order fruit baskets and gifts) was looking for ways to keep his workers busy during the January to July “off season”. Capitalizing on his life-long interest in travel trailers and modern design, he decided to employ his skilled workers in the production of a new travel trailer with a very modern and daring design. Holmes’ new “Holiday House” travel trailers were based on the standard aluminum skin over a wood frame design, but the overall styling was very progressive and “space age” and a huge departure from the familiar “canned ham” styles being produced by most other travel trailer manufacturers. Holiday House trailer production began at the Medford, Oregon plant on November 2, 1959, and reached full production level in February 1960. For 1960, Holiday House production included 17ft. and 19ft. models as well as a dual axle 24ft model. For model year 1961, the company strengthened the chassis, enlarged the bathrooms and lengthened the 17ft and 19ft models by one foot. Although well made and very stylish, Holiday House travel trailers were priced higher than most of the competition, so less than 200 units were manufactured for the 1960 and 1961 model years, before production ceased in January 1962. Besides the daring Holiday House with its “Googies” decorations and style, David Holmes is also famous for the super-modern limited-production “Geographic” travel trailer he began designing in mid 1960 as a “Trailer For The Rich”. Designed in conjunction with BMW race car designer Chuck Pelly, the Geographic’s styling was unlike any other travel trailer and was way ahead of its time. With a price tag of almost $8500, less than 10 of these strikingly futuristic all fiberglass marvels were ever made. Tragically, the original fiberglass molds survived a factory fire on June 17, 1962, only to be discarded in 1985 when the Harry and David company was acquired. Only one Geographic travel trailer survived, and a complete restoration in 2007 retained the original teak woodwork, Norcold refrigerator, Magic Chef oven and dual “fold out” Magic Chef cook tops. In 2010, this lone surviving Geographic was listed for sale for $135,000.”
Here is the eye candy:
ABOVE PHOTOS ACQUIRED FROM OLDTRAILER.COM
I told you I had some exciting news!!!
We still have some things to finish up on the silver Streak exterior. We need to replace the belly pan, polish it, and attach our new emblems. I really would like to display it at The Denver Modernism Show in August, but we need to get her up to par first.
Dear Husband is getting Midge fixed up from the blowout, finally. We haven’t had her out yet this year, and I miss her.
Needless to say, the Holiday House is going to be a marathon and not a sprint. I will post updates here as we begin the process.
projectmidge 