Vintage 1960 Spartan Camper Is a $210K, 50-Foot-Long Midcentury House With a Hitch
The Spartan Carousel is a mighty one-bedroom you’d be wise to buy and park somewhere, for good.
I don't know about you, but I never get tired of seeing vintage mobile homes like this. It's a 50-foot-long 1960 Spartan Carousel that measures a full 10 feet wide, which makes it bigger than your neighbor's toy hauler. It's probably a lot more expensive, too, with a listing price of $210,000. Nobody I know can afford that, but if any of us won the lottery, this would be a day-one purchase for sure.
Vintage Spartans were made of aluminum, a lot like the Airstreams everyone is familiar with. They've always been pretty high-end, and a simpler 1953 model I wrote about a couple of years ago went for $62,700. That one was only 35 feet long, though—the trailer we're talking about today is more like a full-size home that stays parked year-round. Spartan's own website says it cost $9,897 originally, which equals roughly $103,000 in today's money.
It's been totally renovated, according to the for-sale ad that's been posted across the web. It may only be a one-bedroom, but that doesn't mean it's lacking usable space. That's a complete living room you're looking at there, all without the cumbersome slide-outs that modern camper trailers rely on. The decor is period-correct without being tacky; retro but not tired.
What's most striking is that front wall that's made almost entirely of windows. It almost looks like a garage door, but in a good way. Natural light beams through the wall-o'-glass as well as a skylight to illuminate the circular kitchen, which also features what's called a Sputnik light fixture. The original table, chairs, and bar stools are apparently included.
New plumbing, wiring, paneling, flooring, and insulation sweeten the deal, as do a pair of 12,000-BTU mini splits. I'd put some skirting around this sucker and stay in it all winter if I could, assuming I could find someone to pull it and somewhere to park it.
Because of its size, whoever buys it will almost surely need to hire a driver to tow it out. Information I'm finding online says it isn't particularly heavy at 12,400 pounds empty, so a person with the proper license endorsements could pull it with a modern one-ton pickup. Whatever tow vehicle they use, it'd better be short, because they'll need an entire cornfield to turn this bumper-pull around.
The Spartan is currently located in Asheville, North Carolina if that helps you total up the freight costs. My guess is if you're worried about that then you may not have enough to buy it in the first place. I surely don't, but then again, it's been a minute since I've bought a scratch-off. What better time to start than today?
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