Early RVs made adventures possible starting in the late 1800s. Designs were inspired by earlier nomadic lifestyles with homes crafted from horse-drawn carriages and covered wagons. With the evolution of combustion engines and automobiles, early RVs began their transformation, offering something for everyone.
Luxury models provided shelter for wealthy vacationers when hotels weren’t available. Some early RVs looked like homes had been uprooted and placed on wheels for a family in search of a better life. Others were glorified camping set-ups for the emerging middle class with a taste for discovering the unknown.
Homes on wheels came in all shapes, sizes and materials. Depending on their configuration, they went by many names including tent or travel trailers, house cars and camping autos. Recreational Vehicles (RVs) for the most part were motorized, although some were not. All of these models remind us that our ancestors embraced tiny homes of all kinds long before us.
Following are just a few Early RVs and the unique characters who owned them.
The Gentleman Gypsy Ordered A Wanderer In Britain-1884
William Gordon Stables (1840-1910) designed the Wanderer in 1884-85. Many historians of early RV’s consider his model to be the granddaddy of all.
Stables (1840-1910) was a Scottish doctor in the Royal Navy. In his spare time he wrote at least 130 popular adventure books in the vein of Jules Verne. He was also the first person to order a “Gentleman’s Caravan” from the Bristol Wagon Works Company.
Designed for complete luxury and unabashedly intended purely for recreation, it was possibly the first of its kind. The ‘Land Yacht’ measured 18ft long, nearly seven feet wide and nearly eleven feet high. It could be driven by motor or pulled by horses.
“In June 1885 this fine caravan, built with paneled walls of mahogany lined with maple, set off from Dr Gordon Stable’s home of Twyford in Berkshire bound for Inverness in Scotland. The Wanderer was pulled by two heavy horses named Polly Pea-Blossom and Captain Cornflower. The party also included a valet, coachman, Newfoundland dog and a cockatoo.” (NationalMotorMueseum.org)
Newspaper accounts of his travels were read widely, popularizing what was considered a new hobby. In 1886, he published The Cruise of the Land Yacht Wanderer.
“The Wanderer was quite the spectacle when it first took to the road, meeting both excitement and apprehension from the residents of the many towns and villages that it travelled through. Yet by Dr Gordon Stables’ death in 1910 it had become a common sight across the South Coast during the summer months.” (NationalMotorMueseum.org)
The Wanderer was bequeathed to The Caravan and Motorhome Club in 1961. It currently resides at the club’s site in Worcestershire, England.
Lasley’s House On Wheels Turned Heads -1894
In America, individuals built or commissioned homes on wheels through the 1890s. These were generally box-shaped, horse-drawn wagons built along the lines of the ambulance wagon.
Morgan Lasley was one of those unique characters. He built what he called “the only house on wheels” to take his family across America from 1894 to 1898 in search of a better life. The trip is documented in his 1898 book Across America in the Only House on Wheels.
When he and his family fell on hard times he planned to build a house on wheels and take it alone across America. He would send for his family when he established a better life for them.
Lasley writes:
“Now dear, you know that I have worked hard and undergone many hardships to make a home for my loving family, and now we are about to lose all.”
But his wife insisted that the family must stay together.
“Everything being in readiness, friends gathered and shook our hands and wished us “good by” for the last time. The horses were given the word ” go,” and into the street (Fifth Street) rolled our now famous Western Wonder at two o’clock on Thursday, March 22, 1894.
News Clip Condensed. — “Lasley says he is going in his house on wheels to California, hut we know he can’t get there. He is a rustler, but at a job now he can’t do.” — Fort Angeles Washington Tribune, March 20, 1894.”
A true trendsetter, Lasley photographed their trip for his book, which he later sold to fund their travels.
McMaster’s Camping Car Made Big Noise For Summer Excursions-1889
In 1889 Alonzo J. McMaster of Lockport, New York developed what some historians consider the first RV in America. While wagons of all types were used for ambulances, farms and other purposes, his was one of the first built for fun. Although this was in the pre-motorized era it made a huge impact on the evolution of early RVs.
Andrew Woodmansey, Author of Recreational Vehicles A World History 1872-1939 writes in RVHistory:
“It’s not yet clear where McMaster got the idea to build a camping car. Certainly with a lumber business in the family and a fleet of carriages under his management, McMaster would have had the business acumen, raw materials and a horse-drawn vehicle prototype to help him get started. But the new type of vehicle has so many new ideas incorporated into it that these can only have come from McMaster himself.” RVHistory
The Salem Daily News called it an ingenious idea for a “road-car” built for summer excursions.
On July 27, 1889, The Salem Daily News wrote:
In front is the driver’s seat, which, by turning over deftly, discloses two oil stoves and all the paraphernalia of a miniature kitchen. Behind this is a little compartment where are arranged, with a compactness truly remarkable, drawers for dishes and provisions, a washstand, water for drinking, a closet, and a reversible table.
The rear compartment was separated by a sliding door into the living room.
“Red plush seats run along the sides; at night the backs may be raised, a screen let fall, and behold two sleeping rooms with a couple of berths in each. Beneath the lower berths are lockers for additional provisions. On the floor are handsome rugs and at the end original hand paintings. Curtains rustle with a homelike air and camp stools furnish seats around the festive board. Below is slung the driver’s bed in a sort of patent hammock, while oil and tools are suspended at his feet.”
Andrew Woodmansey calls McMaster an important pioneer of early RVs and his design a significant milestone.
“In front is the driver’s seat, which, by turning over deftly, discloses two oil stoves and all the paraphernalia of a miniature kitchen. Behind this is a little compartment where are arranged, with a compactness truly remarkable, drawers for dishes and provisions, a washstand, water for drinking, a closet, and a reversible table.” (RVHistory)
The rear compartment was separated by a sliding door into the living room.
“Red plush seats run along the sides; at night the backs may be raised, a screen let fall, and behold two sleeping rooms with a couple of berths in each. Beneath the lower berths are lockers for additional provisions. On the floor are handsome rugs and at the end original hand paintings. Curtains rustle with a homelike air and camp stools furnish seats around the festive board. Below is slung the driver’s bed in a sort of patent hammock, while oil and tools are suspended at his feet.”
Andrew Woodmansey calls McMaster an important pioneer of early RVs and his design a significant milestone.
Dupont’s Camper Car Offered On-The-Job Temporary Housing -1911
American politician T. Coleman Dupont designed a functional camping vehicle from a Stoddard-Dayton. He was overseeing a road project in Delaware where he had trouble finding a hotel, so he converted his car.
According to the Florida RV Trade Association (FRVTA)
“Mr. Dupont started off by using waterproof balloon silk instead of the typical canvas for the side tents. He then simply used three six-foot poles for support and the 150 amp car battery for electric lighting. The Dupont camping auto was thus born! Over time, unfortunately, it became a somewhat forgotten fabric of American recreational ingenuity and RV history.
This was a departure from the homes on wheels others created, Dupont’s camper was a significant step in the development of Early RVs.
Touring Limousines Inspired Hoity-toity Travelers-1910
The Pierce-Arrow Touring Landau of 1910 was preceded by a long line of early RVs. Still, many people consider it the first of its kind.
The touring limousine concept was first seen in France in 1904 with De Dietrich’s Voiture de Route. Daimler produced a similar vehicle in Germany in 1906.
According to RVHistory,
“The Pierce Arrow had a copious rear seating area and lots of luggage space, but was not specifically designed for sleeping in – its few wealthy owners were expected to stay in hotels en route. Rather than being manufactured, it was custom-built in very small numbers to the order of wealthy clients.”
The Pierce-Arrow Touring Landau offered a fold-out bed and chamber pot with a sink. With a hefty price point for the time, only the wealthy could afford it and most used it only when a hotel was not available.
Roland Conklin And Family Rolled Across America – 1915
Renegades like Alice Huyler Ramsey and Horatio Jackson took cross-country auto trips in the early 1900s. But Roland R. Conklin’s double-decker land yacht of 1915 also known as The ‘Gypsy Va was most significant milestone in Early RVs and possibly the first true motor home.
A financier, Conklin owned the Chicago Motor Bus Company, the New York Motor Bus Company, Hexter Truck and the Roland Gas-Electric Vehicle Corporation among his many business pursuits. He commissioned his ultra-luxury summer cottage on wheels. In the summer of 1915 he and his family set out on a two-month, transcontinental journey from Long Island, New York to San Francisco, California. They also brought a modest staff including a mechanic, chauffeur, chef and housekeeper.New York Times, August 23, 1915 wrote:
“The land-going yacht in which R.R. Conklin, of the Motorbus Company of New York, and a party of twelve are going from Rosemary Farm, near Huntington, L.I., to the Panama-Pacific Exposition, came near foundering on her second day out, and was obliged yesterday to send a save-our-yacht call at 4:32 P.M. to the nearest port, Briar Cliff.”
Due to a last-minute change in plans, they drove through Briar Cliff instead of White Plains where they encountered a bridge that was too narrow for their bus.
“The automobile, with its kitchen, hot and cold water, beds, tables, and even a roof garden, was stuck fast in the slippery mud, which lined the channel, the State road just north of Briar Cliff. Puffing contentedly, the big double-decked cross between a Fifth Avenue bus and a prairie schooner left Long Island on Saturday and proceeded on the first leg of its 5,000-mile transcontinental voyage.”
After two months on the road, Conklin’s odyssey ended in San Francisco. They returned home by steam ship. They shipped the famed Land Yacht back to New York.
View Early RVs And Much More At Volo Museum
What began in Volo, Illinois in the 1800s as a farm house with a small collection of fix-and-flip Model T’s is now The Volo Museum. Today it has one of America’s largest collections of modern and classic collector cars as well as an antique mall with 300 vendors, and over 60 acres of fascinating and bizarre mechanical marvels.
These photos of just a few collector’s items from the Volo Museum show the progression of Early RVs.
1928 Ford Model A House Car–During the great depression, many people lost their homes. They converted cars into House Cars so they could travel from city to city to find work. This is one of 2 known to exist that were built by Ford.
The interior has been authentically restored with the original fixtures, hardware and a wood burning stove.
1932 Covered Wagon–This was the first factory produced camper. Only 6 are known to exist and Volo features 2. This one is all original except for new exterior leatherette.
The interior is mostly original and unrestored.
Racing Nellie Bly
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