For today I wanted to share a few more postcards from yesteryear, this time of hotels and motels. Let’s take a look around and see what these guests were driving. First, this Holiday Inn in Durham, NC.
Aztec Motel, Miami, FL.
Shepherds Motel, Denver, CO.
La Breeze Motel, Daytona Beach, FL.
Hotel Hiway House, Blythe, CA.
Windsor Motel, St. Petersburg, FL.
Colony Motel, Daytona Beach, FL.
If you drive down either coast of Cape Cod a lot of charming “mom and pop” hotels still cost. Rte 28 (Across the Bourne Bridge) on the right side and US 9 on the left side (across the Sagamore Bridge)
That Simca Aronde rather spoils the lineup of flashy new big cars in front of the Aztec.
I would take the Aronde over any of the other ones there.
Simca was a good looking little car, not very dependable (didn’t age gracefully) ..
I learned to drive on a 1959 Simca.. 4 on the tree.. it had a great AM radio..
That Holiday Inn looks very inviting. No 5700K LED lighting here. Is that an Alfa Romeo Giulietta in the center?
Tom, and off to the left side of that image is a black `61 Mercury Colony Park wagon, which is a fairly rare sight today.
That was rare model even then.
I couldn’t help but notice that the Holiday Inn clearly looks like the photographer went and turned on all the lights in every room while staging it for the photo. I assume it must have been taken before it actually opened, because I can’t imagine they could have done that with any of the rooms occupied.
Remember to close the curtains — the people in the parking lot can see right into your room!
I used to work for a large hotel/resort complex, and they did have professional photographers come in on occasion to do the foofy photos that appeared online or in brochures. They would sometimes do “hard staging”, where the whole thing was set up for specifically for the photograph; though often it was a combination of a real day at the business with a few details optimized. This one does look like it was done very deliberately, as it would be hard to 12 guests to accidentally cooperate on cue.
Beautiful image, yet there’s an exterior bulb that’s burned out, top and center!
I used to work doing road construction in Maine and New Hamphire. We often stayed in quaint Mom and Pop motels when we worked far from home. I had to admire the creativity of one motel owner. She sewed and she made all of the curtains in all of the rooms. She made them out of the old bath towels that were getting a bit too used. Clever.
The retro nostalgia of oversized advertising signs, is very popular again. Most obviously, prominently seen in Major League ball stadiums. I personally, quite like the restored Pepsi sign at Gantry Plaza State Park in the Long Island City neighbourhood of Queens, in New York City. Originally erected in 1940.
Not quite as iconic as the Coca-Cola script, but still very graphic, and attractive.
I`m a big fan of Alfred Hitchcock`s ‘Psycho’. Whenever our family took a drive off the main highways and cruised the secondary roads in many states, we would see older, multi cabin motels that looked well kept, but creepy. We started to call them ‘Bates Motels’. Once when I driving home from Myrtle Beach to NY, I was too tired to drive the rest of the way, so I stayed in one. Long story short, I survived the night!
Let me guess…..you showered with the curtain open? LOL
No, but I took the $40,000 I had in an envelope in with me!
Lots a cars at the “Aztec”. Lusting for the “61 Chevy” at “The Colony”.
Remove that tall central ‘Aztec’ structure, and the rest of the general exterior design of the Aztec Motel, would look very modern today.
There was a big difference between the clientele of the Aztec in Florida and the Shepherds in Colorado.
I am loving the 61 Merc Colony Park in front of the Holiday Inn (which I still want to call a Holiday Gun when I see that sign, because that was how I read it when I was learning to read). I don’t think I have ever seen one of those in real life.
The Shepherds Motel in Denver hasn’t changed a bit – it’s even using the same signage:
https://goo.gl/maps/rYtXbmyVHsCTAUSa8
From the looks of Google Street View, there are a bunch of mid-century motels along that stretch of highway, many of which look like they have their original signage. I’m guessing this used to be the main highway, and then they built I-70, and no one comes this way anymore, very much like in Psycho.
And they’re offering weekly rates, in what doesn’t look like a very good neighborhood. That’s not a good sign.
In response to Daniel M’s post re: Pepsi Sign.
I’ve worked since 1994 at UNHQ and “lore” has it that when the site of UN Headquarters was agreed upon the first Secretary-General (Trygvie Lie) objected to having to see that blaring sign accross the river from his office. Tried to convince the city to move it.
I don’t know if that is actually true or if it is merely legend but it seems plausible.
The bottling plant was still situated on the East River when I arrived but it was a bit farther South than where the sign has been re-located and that neigborhood has changed considerably.
It appears to me that the ’61 Chevy at the Colony Motel still has the window sticker attached to the back window. The man standing in front of it seems to be posing in front of his new car.
Q:The photo at the Aztec (#2), do the coupes have their windshield visors upturned?
Since the La Breeze in Daytona helpfully had its address (1114 N. Atlantic) on the side of the building, I immediately checked to see if it is still there. Sadly, it appears to an empty lot. We can’t have nice things anymore, it seems.
I love these photos! It’s interesting that a lot of these buildings are actually fairly plain boxes at their core, yet they really appeal to me in ways that modern stuff just doesn’t. I think part of that might be due to romanticizing an era that I didn’t live in, though I have held many things from the midcentury period in higher regard, even before it became popular to. The colors, the signs, the shapes, the building materials…
There is a series of courtyard motels in the Central Beach area of Ft Lauderdale. Each within easy walking distance of the beach. As time has progressed, those immediately along the cost have been replaced with 30 story hotel and condo units. Those that remain have transformed into “resorts” with resort prices.
I remember staying at one of these motels years ago. A little shabby, but close to the beach and a cocktail hour around the pool in the evening which added to the atmosphere.
A small slice of Americana lost in the name of profits.
I like the colorful exteriors of many of these .
Thanx Paul for the heads up on the Simca Aronde .
I like to join the two “TT Runs” held in So. Cal. annually they always seem to find older kitschy motels / hotels for us to stay in .
-Nate
Hiway House is so typical of California motels back then. All one story, park right in front of your room and swimming pool often out front.
I really miss these types of hotels. So colorful especially in today’s so less colorful days just like cars. These remind me of all the hotels we stayed in as we made our cross country move in June 1966, via a 1964 Galaxie 500 4dr. (5 people and 2 goldfish), to the San Fernando Valley.
I see a Ford Taunus 17M at the Shepherds Hotel.
I usually ask “Do you know the property’s history” as Mid Century Modern is a favourtite of mine.
The Continental Hotel, Denver. Early 1960s.
And on our 2018 road trip