In September 1924, an extraordinary homemade-looking vehicle appeared in Washington, D.C.: the “auto house” of Will A. Harris of Texas. A National Photo Company photograph, now held by the Library of Congress, shows Harris and his family beside a large, house-like structure built onto an automobile chassis near the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building.
With its boxy body, multiple windows, and unmistakably domestic appearance, Harris’s creation looks like a striking early forerunner of the motorhome. It was the sort of machine that made the boundary between car, camper, and house seem negotiable decades before recreational vehicles became a familiar part of American travel culture.
The surviving photograph provides only limited background, however. The Library of Congress notes that the available record does not establish whether the vehicle was the family’s primary residence, a purpose-built camping vehicle, or how and where Harris constructed it. It also leaves unanswered whether the family drove it all the way from Texas to Washington.
That uncertainty is part of its appeal. The auto house remains an evocative artifact of the 1920s—an era in which automobiles were transforming travel and individuals were beginning to imagine radically new ways of living on the road.
Image: A photograph of the “auto house” of Will A. Harris of Texas taken on September 2, 1924 via Library of Congress, no known restrictions
