Allan Wallis, writing in Wheel Estates, says: “The mobile home may well be the single most significant and unique housing innovation in twentieth-century America. No other innovation addressing the spectrum of housing activities- from construction, tenure, and community structure to design- has been more widely adopted nor, simultaneously, more widely vilified.”

In 1966, Elmer Frey, a pioneer in the industry who is credited for coining the term “mobile home,” and for lobbying to change the laws to allow ten-foot wide homes on the highways, envisioned twin towers of manufactured homes in Milwaukee. Each tower would be 332 feet tall with 16 single-section homes on each floor of the 20 stories, totaling 504 homes. He planned the first six floors for shopping and parking, a restaurant on the top of one and a community center atop the other tower. He projected the rent to be $150-200 a month, as treehugger informs MHProNews.

A very large revolving elevator would move the MH up to their 2,640 square feet lots in the sky, and an elevator and stairs were for residents. Frey was not successful in getting the large version built, but did construct a three-story prototype that held nine homes. However, he was not able to pump water to the upper deck during winter, and the company was “invovluntarily liquidated” later in 1966. Had it been built in Florida, as one proposal indicated, it may have been successful. ##

(Photo credit: SkyRise Terrace Corp.-vertical manufactured home community)

Article submitted by Matthew J. Silver to Daily Business News-MHProNews.