Please welcome Steve Lancaster. He is the founder of a great Facebook group, Manufactured Housing and Mobile Homes. I’ve never met a more knowledgeable person when it comes to modern and classic mobile home models. I asked Steve to write about his favorite model of all time, the Fleetwood Festival which is also known as the Fleetwood Broadmore in some parts of the country. His knowledge and passion for mobile homes are unparalleled.
Steve Lancaster Explains Why the Fleetwood Festival is One of His All-Time Favorite Classic Mobile Home Models
From the early 1970’s to the early 1980’s Fleetwood made a single wide that I have always admired. It was called the Fleetwood Festival though in some markets the company used the name Fleetwood Broadmore.
It was a very attractive home with a floor plan that made excellent use of space, both in the twelve wide and the later fourteen wide models.
Original Interior Decor
The decor of the home generally included wood beams on the ceiling with matching wood plank cabinet doors in the kitchen and laundry.
The dining area had a built-in hutch.
Fleetwood Festival Kitchen and Laundry Room
The kitchen had a large overhead lighting system as well as unique cross plank ceiling.
Leaving the master bedroom and walking toward the front door, you entered the small back hallway which had the back door and the laundry area. The laundry room cabinets matched the kitchen cabinets. To the right was the HVAC unit. Beside that was a pantry closet.
Related: See 6 great mobile home kitchen makeovers.
Going from the laundry room into the kitchen there was a long row of cabinets and an area along the front side of the home that housed the stove, sink, and the fridge. Across from that was a built in bookcase and a cabinet for storage.
Classic Mobile Home Models – Fleetwood Festival Living Rooms
In the living room, many models had a bar with a top surround above it.
Here’s an original living room in a Festival (no updates):
Related: See 9 amazing mobile home bedrooms here!
Fleetwood Festival Master Bedroom
The master bedroom had two windows, one on the front side of the home and the other on the back side. This was rare at the time.
Entry to the master bath was through a large open door with a plexiglass and wood surround.
The opposite wall of a master bedroom, typical of many classic mobile home models:
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Fleetwood Festival Master Bathroom
Unique for the time, the Fleetwood Festival offered a garden tub as well as a single person shower in the master bath. The master bath must have really been a showpiece at the time. It impresses me still today.
Related: See 7 before and after bathroom remodels here.
It had the garden tub at the left rear (front side) of the home. The commode was beside it, though there were various layouts throughout the years and factories.
Also featured in the master bath was a faux marble sink, a single vanity, and a linen closet or additional master closet, right beside the shower stall.
Second Bathroom
Related: Learn about Spartan Trailers here.
The front bathroom had an entry from the short hallway as well as the front bedroom. The exterior of the front door repeated the entry to the master bath with plexiglass windows beside the entry door.
Summary for Experts Reveal their Favorite Classic Mobile Home Models
Changes were slow and evolutionary and as time went on the Fleetwood Festival, or Broadmore as some know it, lost much of its original charm. But, if they came out with this home (at the very least the same floor plan) I would buy one asap.
Thanks, Steve!
A huge thank you to Steve Lancaster for sharing his knowledge with us!
Thank you for reading Mobile Home Living!
Do you have any favorite classic mobile home models? Tell us in the comments below.
Image Sources: Craigslist, PeeDee Realty, Zillow
My mom lived in a Fleetwood doublewide for18 years and with all the doublewides I’ve seen through the years, hers was so spacious, have never seen one that even came close to the amenities and spaciousness of it. It had an open floor plan and the biggest most amazing master bath I’ve even seen.
Hi Karen!
This is an exciting time for you! Congratulations on that well-deserved retirement. MHVillage.com and Craigslist are my go-to sites for buying and selling mobile homes. I think it may be best for you to buy the property and the home separately although it won’t be easier. NC and southern VA are both areas I’m very familiar with and manufactured homes are a big chunk of real estate so you may want to keep an agent close while still looking around for land and a home. I think it’s more likely that you’ll get in the exact area and find the exact home you want by tackling the land and home separately.
Hope that helps! Best of luck! Let me know how it turns out!
We purchased an 1989 terry older type mobile and have a ton of plumbing problems , drainage from the tub ? An solution s?
Hi Crystal,
Another great article! I love visiting your site.
I’m wondering if you, or any of your readers, know the best way to search, and find, older mobile homes/house trailers for sale. I’m a little over a month away from retirement, and we’re thinking of buying a piece of land in North Carolina/southern Virginia, either with an older mobile home on it or put one there, but I’m not having much luck finding listings other than trailers that are overpriced on realtor.com. We’ll be driving down there in March or so (we have grown sons living in N.C.) but kind of don’t even know where to begin to find something like this.
My experience with realtors down there has been that they start talking “houses” that are priced way more than what we want.
Not finding much of anything on Craigslist or Ebay, either.
A lot of what I’m finding on line are mobile homes in parks that will have monthly rent, but we don’t want that. We’re looking to buy property with an older, vintage like trailer to live in part of the year. Any ideas how to get started?
Hi Linda!
Thanks for commenting! I bet he could teach all kinds of things about the homes!
In the early 70’s my husband worked for Fleetwood, and built Broadmore Barrington mobile homes, in Woodland, Ca
I have never found a floorplan of it, but I could draw one!
Oddly, this plan was used by others, such as Schult, without the biffer windows, especially the kitchen sink window. I have not seen those in original decor but saw two recent remodels listed on my Facebook page and others. Here is one of them, the other is below it in link. IF this transfers in the message. https://www.facebook.com/pg/Manufactured-Housing-814927971959067/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1379558838829308
For such a modest exterior, the interior was a total surprise. It looked so bright with the larger windows. I’m wondering if this was an expensive model at the time? Now, as I search country for original mobile homes, I will add “Fleetwood Festival” to my list. Thanks so much for sharing!
I would love to find out the model of our 1977 fleet wood. I would also like to see the floor plan of the model you featured in the article.