Wigwam Village Motel No. 7

San Bernardino, California

This was the seventh and final motel in the Wigwam Village chain. It opened in 1950 and was run by Frank Redford, creator of the Wigwam Village franchise. The buildings are teepees, not wigwams, but Frank liked wigwam better, and the name stuck.

Frank had built the two original Wigwam Villages in Kentucky, and by No. 7 he'd had the design patented: a large, central wigwam that served as an office and manager apartment, flanked by a semicircle of smaller guest cabin wigwams. The cabins at this Village are 32 feet high, 20 feet across, built of 16 wooden ribs covered in plaster and concrete. Frank originally built 11 of them, but as travel increased along Route 66 he added eight more.

Wigwam Village Motel No. 7 was built to attract attention, but one aspect of it was never widely publicized: in 1957 Frank Redford died there. Reports of his demise failed to mention if he expired in the office wigwam or in one of the cabins.

Wigwam Village Motel No. 7 went through a series of subsequent owners and fell from respectability. By the early 1990s it had been outfitted with waterbeds; its rooms could be rented by the hour, and its advertising sign announced, "Do it in a Wigwam." Frank Redford did not haunt his former motel -- as far as we know -- although he certainly could be forgiven for doing so.

In a bit of irony, Indians saved Wigwam Village Motel No. 7 -- specifically the Patel family, immigrants from India. In 2002 the Patels purchased the motel and made it their mission to restore the Village to its retro-grandeur. The waterbeds were thrown out; the offending sign taken down. The Patels cleaned up the grounds, repainted the wigwams, repaired the vintage tiles in the bathrooms, rebuilt the fire pit, and reopened the kidney-shaped swimming pool.

Wigwam Village Motel No. 7 -- now called simply Wigwam Motel -- once again became a destination for Mother Road travelers, and in 2012 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, joining the other two surviving Wigwam Village Motels in Cave City, Kentucky, and Holbrook, Arizona.