At America's vintage motels, it's 1950
all over again - every single night.
Something about the swath of carpet grass in front of
a motel makes you feel like a kid again. Look at that grass, and
you think of sleeping in the backseat of the car, wheels eating up
the road below, your little brother jostling for more space. You
think of the rocket-shaped cookie jar where Dad threw his loose
change. He and Mom would empty the jar right before vacation, roll
the coins, and exchange them at the bank for traveler's checks.
The motel arose because of America's love affair with the
automobile. The motels blazed roadsides with neon, turned to tiki
when soldiers returned from the
South Pacific and to space-age
design when we traveled to the moon. Now its appeal is as much
about retro chic as it is about the
swimming pool, TV, and
air-conditioning. Some motels are registered as historic places.
Others, endangered by development, have devotees of mid-century
modern design lobbying for their protection.
Around the
United States are motels where you can step across the
threshold - or stare at the lawn - and enter the past. These are 15
of our favorites.
1.
Starlux, Wildwood, New Jersey The Starlux is just
one gem in the Wildwoods resort area, known as the center of
doo-wop architecture. You know doo-wop: buildings meant to look as
if they were transplanted, intact, from Tiki Island or Mars or
Candyland (for more, see
www.doowopusa.org). This stretch of
the Jersey shore is chock-full of 1950s and '60s motels, not to
mention chrome-plated diners and elaborate neon signs. Even
contemporary businesses are getting in on the act: Subway has a
doo-wop sign, and the
Harley-Davidson dealership is tricked out
like a '50s movie theater.
But the Starlux is the motel most worthy of the Rat Pack. You can
almost see
Dean Martin in his white sport coat, leaning against the
registration desk in the soaring, glass-walled lobby (he probably
wouldn't try sitting in the bat-wing chairs, though). Weekend rates
start at $89 in the winter, $199 in the summer. (609) 522-7412
If it's booked, try …
2.
Caribbean Motel, which is so doo-wop that it has
fake palm trees by the pool. Rates vary wildly, even week to week
during the summer, but they start at $60.
www.caribbeanmotel.com, (609)
522-8292
3.
Kate's Lazy Meadow Inn, Mount Tremper, New York
When Kate Pierson of the band the B-52's saw this collection of
1950s cabins (at the time, they were so decrepit they were more
accurately called shacks), she fell in love. She bought the motel,
on nine acres in the Catskills near Woodstock, and set to work
remodeling, with the assistance of designer buddy Bill Stewart.
Fittingly, she also called for help from the two artists whose home
served as the set for the band's "Love Shack" video. The result:
rustic outside, groovy inside. Each cabin is stuffed with colorful
mid-century furniture and fixtures (think checkerboard tile,
chrome, and vinyl), and some have '50s-style kitchens complete with
vintage Frigidaires and stoves. Evidence of Pierson's
around-the-world travels is everywhere: Her souvenir tchotchkes
decorate the place, and the toiletries are a mix of products used
in hotels she's visited on tour. But the place isn't all about
decor - there's a creek on the property for fishing and tubing. And
hey, it's the Catskills, so there's
skiing, hiking, biking, and
more to do nearby. Not to mention the eponymous meadow for lazing
in. Rates start at $150.
www.lazymeadow.com, (845)
688-7200
4.
Palmer House Resort Motel, Manchester, Vermont
Palmer House has the kind of lawn other vintage motels pine for.
For one thing, it's huge - 22 acres. And it's manicured, slightly
rolling, so pristine that the white clapboard buildings could be
oddly shaped
golf balls on a giant's putting green. The lawn
invites strolling, perhaps to the
tennis courts for a game, to one
of the pools, to the nine-hole golf course, to the Ye Olde Tavern
restaurant, or to the North Shire Museum & History Center, all
of which are on the grounds. Obviously, this is no 1950s
kitsch-o-rama; it's the motel, old New England style. And it
happens to be in a town that's inexplicably full of well-preserved
relics of the grand automobile age, and which attracts leaf gazers
in autumn, skiers in winter, fly-fishermen in spring, and outlet
shoppers in summer. Rates start at $85. www
.palmerhouse.com, (800) 917-6245
If it's booked, try …
5.
Red Sled Resort Motel, with its own version of the
perfect motel lawn, plus a stocked trout pond. Weekend rates start
at $98.
www.redsled.com, (802)
362-2161
6.
Orbit In, Palm Springs, California Furnishings by
the likes of Eames, Noguchi, and Saarinen have earned this refabbed
1957 motel the moniker Modernist Heaven - and that in a town where
mid-century architecture is the chic magnet. This place manages to
make pink bathroom tile look cool. Lounge music floats over the
saltwater swimming pool. The poolside bar sports requisite lava
lamps and martinis. Even the cups in the kitchenettes are vintage
Melmac. Weekend rates start at $229. www
.orbitin.com, (877) 996-7248
If it's booked, try …
7.
Caliente Tropics, where Polynesian-style digs
meet the Palm Springs desert. Weekend rates start at $79.
www.caliente
tropics.com, (888) 277-0999
8.
Wigwam Village Motel, Holbrook, Arizona No,
they're not wigwams or even imitation wigwams. They're imitation
tepees (a completely different kind of structure), made of concrete
instead of buffalo skin. And they're Route 66 landmarks. The sixth
wigwam motel, originally built in the late 1940s, it's still
furnished with the original lodgepole furniture and still run by
the same family. Outside, the parking lot is studded with cars from
the age of fins. Rooms cost about $45. (928) 524-3048
If it's booked, try …
9.
Wigwam Motel, Rialto, California Weekend rates
start at $60.
www.wigwammotel.com, (909)
875-3005. Or ...
10.
Wigwam Village Motel, Cave City, Kentucky Doubles
start at $45.
www.wigwamvillage.com, (270)
773-3381. Built by the originator of the Wigwam Motel, Frank A.
Redford, they've been renovated recently but still retain their
vintage flavor.
11.
The Sands, Treasure Island, Florida. The Recent
Past Preservation Network adopted this seaside town near Tampa when
developers decided to tear down the Surf, a jewel of a mid-century
beachside motel, to build condos. Though that preservation effort
failed, the town is still a would-be haven for modernists, with a
scattering of stucco-and-neon motels and three causeways considered
so architecturally significant that they're on the National
Register of Historic Places. South Beach it's not, but South Beach
Jr. it might be, if preservationists persuade developers that
sprucing up the one-of-a-kind motels would be better than scrapping
them to make room for another bland-new building. In the meantime,
try the Sands of Treasure Island, where neon will welcome you to a
courtyard of striped umbrellas, hibiscus, and white stucco
buildings with 1950s casement windows. Rates start at $55 in low
season, $65 in high season.
www.surf
andsands.com, (727) 367-1969
If it's booked, try…
12.
Thunderbird Beach Resort. Though renovation has
blurred the resort's modernist roots, the original neon sign still
beckons from the foot of the historic Treasure Island causeway.
Rates start at $79. www
.thunderbirdflorida.com, (800) 367-2473
13.
Madonna Inn, San Luis Obispo, California So over
the top that its men's room has a rock waterfall for a urinal … it
looks like the owners cornered the market on pink paint … it makes
Graceland seem like a model of self-restraint … and that's why so
many people stop here when they're cruising
Highway 1. Built back
in the 1950s as a 12-room motel, the Madonna has grown to 108
rooms, each a unique creation. Jungle Rock has stone walls, zebra
bedspreads, and a waterfall shower; American Beauty has rose
wallpaper and a rose bedspread; Cave Man has rock on the walls,
floor, and ceiling, with leopard print everywhere else. Rates start
at $147; reserve the most outlandish rooms far in advance.
www.madonnainn.com,
(800) 543-9666
If it's booked, stop by the nearby Motel Inn, where the word motel
originated in 1925. It's under renovation to become part of the
Apple Farm Inn next door.
14.
Austin Motel, Austin, Texas Built in 1938 when
the motor-hotel rage had just begun, the Austin Motel now happens
to stand smack-dab in the hippest neighborhood in the city. Not to
be outdone, the motel oozes retro charm, from its neon sign to its
kidney-shaped pool. In place of a greasy-spoon café, a Mexican
restaurant serves up live music along with its enchiladas and
migas. Within a few blocks are antiques shops, vintage-clothing
stores, a folk art gallery, and the
Continental Club, a choice live
music venue. Doubles start at $85, including tax.
www.austinmotel.com, (512)
441-1157
If it’s booked, try …
15.
Hotel San José, built in the 1930s as a motor court and since remodeled into minimalist splendor. Doubles with in-room bath start at $145.
www.sanjosehotel.com, (512) 444-7322
drawn to the (neon) lightfor 10 years, andrew wood and his wife, jenny, have traveled the united states in search of motel neon. the fruits of those journeys are displayed on their website,
www.motelamericana.com, and in a book, road trip america. we recently asked wood about his sign collection.
how did your motel quest start?when i was going to grad school in ohio, my wife and i would drive back to
florida, where i’m from. once, we got off the interstate and drove the back roads, and we found these old motels with really cool signs. jenny’s a photographer and i’m a writer, and we decided to share motels from all over the country with people via the internet.
any favorites?one is the blue swallow in tucumcari, new mexico, the oldest continually running motel on route 66. its neon sign is absolutely sublime. the former owner, lillian redman, would hand out this card that said something like, “we are all travelers between eternities.” she saw the motel as a place to contemplate life.
and you can’t go too wrong with the munger moss motel, in
lebanon, missouri. its neon sign is so big and gaudy, it’d be illegal in most cities.
where should people look for interesting motels?anywhere on a two-lane highway. you’ll find motels in any state. even in places you think might be too desolate, there are motels to be found. anywhere.