The Manchester House Motel, Inglewood, CA.
Desert Gem Motel, Gilla Bend, AZ.
International Motel And Parkade, San Diego, CA.
Motel Islander, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Cactus Motel, St. Petersburg, FL.
Tamanaca Downtown Motel, New Orleans, LA.
Lido Motel, Daytona Beach, FL.
The Down Towner Motel, Salinas, CA.
The Tides Motel, Locust Valley, NY.
Towne Motel, Seattle, WA.
Downtowner Motor Inn, Little Rock, AR.
Howard Johnson Motor Lodge in Willow Grove, PA.
Lido? Whoah oh oh oh.
The Cactus Motel in St. Petersburg is still in business and still looks like the old ppostcard
Does it rent by the hour these days?
Will, you’re thinking of the Rand which was about a mile north of the Cactus. The Rand had mirrored ceilings and showed porn on the room TV’s.
Downtowner’s was quite the chain back in the 1960s at the latest. There was one in downtown Charlotte and a nicer one on Independence Blvd
I worked just down 7th Street from the Downtowner in Little Rock from the early 1980s to the early ’90s. In fact, that’s the building I worked in peaking over the motel, just to the left of the St. Andrew’s Cathedral steeple. The building to the right of the steeple, I seem to associate with Southwestern Bell, but I may be off there. I remember eating a decent burger at the bar/grill/restaurant sometime in the late ’80’s. By that time, the motel had a pretty seedy reputation for crime, prostitution, and the other usual vices. It was torn down and replaced by a parking lot, maybe 20 years ago. That’s progress!
The Towne Motel building managed to survive until 2017, though it seems to have ceased being a hotel sometime before 2011.
Here is what occupies that corner now.
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6165837,-122.3400707,3a,75y,277.89h,92.63t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sVjnBHSQu6QemmQ7eikhDBQ!2e0!5s20241001T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-2.6330932095161472%26panoid%3DVjnBHSQu6QemmQ7eikhDBQ%26yaw%3D277.8911758719611!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDYzMC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
The last image here is actually the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge in Willow Grove, PA. It was built in 1956 at a Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange – a good location for the motor lodge, and the restaurant got a lot of local customers.
I grew up near there, and while I don’t remember eating there as a kid, after the motor lodge closed in the 1980s, the site was redeveloped as a Pep Boys, which was my local auto parts store, so I was there quite a bit.
The site’s address is 1509 Easton Rd., Willow Grove, PA. There’s nothing there now that gives any hint about its former use. Google StreetView link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/rqwmnpWmCzXPzjL46
Wasn’t there a car museum there in the ’70s?
That caption seemed odd when I typed it last night, but I couldn’t track the right location properly. I updated it to its full name, thanks.
The International, in San Diego, was pretty much right at the end of 395 after Balboa Park. You can tell I am older time San Diego as I call it 395 and not 163 of later. Was on 818 Beech Street which runs up and off to the left.
Got to look up “parkade”..
Very pleased these are headlined as modernist rather than ‘mid century’ the latter phrase still grates a bit with me. Over here this architecture was until a couple of years ago referred to as post war. Only another couple of years until we get to call it brutalist optimist or something else faddy. This sounds a bit grumpier than I meant it to but it’s been that kind of a Monday.
Wow, the Islander in Victoria. In the late ’60s/early ’70s we stayed there as a family a few times. Eventually it changed owners, names and expanded like most such places. It hung on until 2010 or so but I hadn’t stayed there in decades when I noticed it was gone. There’s a multi unit condo there now.
Places like this were everywhere once, and usually offered reliable lodging at a reasonable price. We travelled BC a lot when I was a kid and I remember such places well. Great post!
Like the red/white, “Pontiac” there.
Wonderful memories of traveling coast to coast with my Air Force family in the 1950s. All the motels we visited had to have a swimming pool. A day in the car, brother and I would jump into a motel swimming pool while parents would cool off with a dry martini.
A room with color TV, air conditioning, and a Magic Fingers Coin Operated Motel Bed Massager were big deals back then.
As kids we were always glad to see a Magic Fingers bed.
Back in 2020 Curbed.com put together a list of California’s best midcentury motels (Sorry Ed Stuchbery, I’m just using the same terminology as the article) that might be of interest to readers here. (It is a 5 year old article so some entries may be out of date).
https://la.curbed.com/maps/midcentury-retro-hotels-motels-madonna-inn-california
Particularly fitting the modernist theme are the Flamingo in Santa Rosa and the Sage Motor Inn in Pasadena.
Inside they look like motels, they all do scored a spa bath in some pools at others Ive been sent to that was a bonus, parking for a truck and trailer rates well too.
Nice ;
One of the annual road trips I take always searches out these typ of places, sometimes a bit worse for the wear but always fun to stay the night in .
-Nate
The Cactus Motel is wryly amusing to this Australian’s eyes, as “cactus” is old slang for “dead”.
You can check out any time you like, but….
The Tamanaca looks too much like a cell block for my taste.
A dinosaur myself perhaps, but I like the old Motel layout. Park by your room without having to schlep things from the far end of the parking lot, to the lobby, to the far end of the establishment. Particularly as my wife does not pack lightly.
But I really like the architecture of the Desert Gem Motel in Gila Bend, AZ. I’m guessing the front overhangs provide significant shade from peak sun, which is likely pretty warm down there.
Wow! Color TVs too!
Top Photo: The Manchester House Motel:
Note the two credit card signs to the top left of the photo (AMEX & Dinner’s Club). This is when credit cards were readily adopted by the travel and hospitality industry. I remember when you could use you Gulf Oil credit card at Holiday Inn motels.
Also, any Holiday Inn would find you a room at another Holiday Inn if the hotel had no rooms for the night. This situation was partially resolved with the adoption of the toll free 1-800 reservation systems which were just coming into play. Also, the hotel would gladly make reservation for your next stop along your route.
That’s why many independent motels at the time joined Best Western. Each Best Western hotel was independently owned and operated, but were members of a non-profit membership association which acted as a marketing cooperative.
Christopher inn. Unfortunately gone.