Cowboy Motel, Amarillo, TX.
Lake Jefferson Hotel, Jeffersonville, NY.
Wildemere Hotel, Lake Minnewaska, NY.
Bavarian Manor, Purling, NY.
Grossinger’s, Liberty, NY.
Ramada Inn, Amarillo, TX.
Motel Inn, San Luis Obispo, CA.
Rexmere Hotel, Stamford, NY.
Hotel Phoenicia, Phoenicia, NY.
Delaware Inn, Stamford, NY.
Concord Hotel, Klamesha Lake, NY.
Hotel Intercontinental, Hilton Head Island, SC.
Tropical Oasis Motel, Myrtle Beach, SC.
Day’s Cottage, North Truro, MS.
The Castle motif in Amarillo I can’t see. The Spanish motif in San Luis Obispo I can see.
That castle-inspired Ramada caught my attention, so I had to look it up.
Turns out a Tulsa businessman started a small chain of castle-themed hotels in the early 1970s, called Camelot Inns. There were 3 in total – one in Tulsa, one in Little Rock, and then this one in Amarillo. The businessman, however, sold this hotel rather quickly; the Amarillo location was taken over by Ramada in 1974. Ramada probably wouldn’t have built a hotel that looked like this, but at the time, it was a nearly-new hotel that they probably picked up for a good price, so it made sense, even with the odd styling. It was called the Ramada Camelot Inn during those days.
Ramada sold the property in the mid 1980s, and it continues to operate as the Camelot Inn & Suites.
Google StreetView link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/6E8rcuoa63fD7w736
Now it makes sense as that is not a Ramada Inn look, just like not a Holiday Inn look, or Howard Johnson look of the times.
I stayed at the Camelot Inn/Little Rock in about 1980/81. It was nice then; I remember having a room on the north side of the building with a view of the Arkansas River right out the window. Hotel is now a DoubleTree.
Our family generally stayed at ‘old reliable’ Holiday Inns, or the more modern post war mpytels. We never stayed at ‘Bates Motels’, the older ones where you drive up and park in front of your room that were laid out in ‘railroad’ style..
Last Photo: Day’s Cottage, North Truro, MS.
It appears the cottages still exist. However, they are now condos.
Just google “Days Cottages Condominiums, North Truro, MS” and pop to the street view. Work your way down the row till you get to the cottages marked “BlueBell” and “Marigold” which are the ones in the photo above.
Those giant, lodge-style wooden hotels had a reputation for burning down, especially in New England. Ones that escaped midnight lightning usually met the wrecking ball, as the tiny rooms no longer suited the typical traveler.
I think I remember the Hotel Phoenicia, Phoenicia, NY. Would brunch at a little place in the same neighborhood. I owned a summer cabin just outside of Phoenicia for a few years in the late 80s when I lived in NYC. Beautiful area about a 3-1/2 hour drive out of Manhattan. In the summer it was typical to leave work early on a Friday afternoon, load up the car with cats & dog, head for the cooler mountain weather. Would get there in time for diner and enjoy the wilderness, returning Sunday night. One of my cats (Nifter) would always barf just minutes before arriving at the cabin due to the twisting road. Tubbing down a river in the area was the big attraction, I just watched. Being city boys we planted flowers, laid a stone path, added dramatic landscape lighting, etc. The deer, or other woodland creatures, ate the flowers so that was the end of my gardening experiment. My near wilderness adventure ended the second summer when a bear tried to break in our front door in the middle of the night. What was I going to do, spray it with cologne I bought at Bloomindales? Our two cats and one small fluffy white dog were not fond of our woodsy neighbors and rested better with city sirens and the occasional gunshots. That was too much nature for me so sold the cabin in the mountains and rented a beach house on the Jersey shore for the following summer season. No fear of a shark breaking down the front door in the middle of the night. But the Phoenicia area was really beautiful and not overly developed at the time.
The “Hotel Phonecia” makes the hotel on the “Andy Griffith”, show look inviting..
I like that the Rexmere has examples of intermediates from the Big Three (plus a blue Vega hiding out behind the tree). All great photos! Oh, and that castle-themed Ramada looks too imposing than something that might have appealed to my sense of fun as a kid. Maybe in different colors it might have looked a bit more appealing.
“Rex” was calling gout to me as well.
The Day’s Cottage in “North Truro, MS” certainly does not look like Mississippi to me! And it turns out it is not. North Truro is in Massachusetts which is “MA”.
Please do NOT confuse North Truro with Truro, Ma.
In the summer of 71 while at Otis AFB in Cape Cod we participated in a July 4 parade in North Truro. The locals made darn sure we knew we were in the better of the two!
Sorry, one more observation – in the photo for the Concord in Klamesha Lake, NY, I just zoomed in on the photo and it appears to show a blue Ford Granada coupe featuring something I used to see on most examples I’d spot by the ’80s: a flapping or missing piece of trim that no longer hides the rear fuel filler! What an accurate throwback.
The Lincoln goes very nicely with the Motel Inn in SLO
Nice hotels .
I wish I’da ever been able to stay in one back in the day .
-Nate
Fabulous pictures! I have stayed at The Concord when the New York State Fire Chief’s Convention was held there. I was an exhibitor for Cummins Diesels. The rooms were large and made for vacationers to enjoy the resort. No ice cream if meat was served at the meal. Only sherbet. As for Alfred, right across the street is a great ice cream parlor. We pass through Phoenicia as part of our fall foliage tours. Thanks again for all of these photos of Americana. North Truro? Oh, bell captain, when is the next train to Hyannis, please?
Thought many attractive hotels here, a number of the structures strike me, as potential fire traps.
Speaking of distant fires, one of the best one hit wonders of that era.
Funny you should mention that. When I was comparing the then-and-now pictures of the Camelot Inn in Amarillo, I noticed that one of the few changes was that windows were added to the upper story of the turret. I wonder if that was due to fire regulations? With those slit-type windows, the turret would have been inescapable.
No question. Some of the multi-storey wooden structures appear like they would burn up in minutes. Combined with dense smoke, they’d be near impossible to escape, on the top floors.