A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionaries after World War II, the word motel, coined as a portmanteau of "motor hotel", originates from the defunct motel named Milestone Mo-Tel in San Luis Obispo, California, which was built in 1925. The term referred to a type of hotel consisting of a single building of connected rooms whose doors faced a parking lot and in some circumstances, a common area or a series of small cabins with common parking. Motels are often individually owned, though motel chains do exist.
The Old Faithful Inn is a hotel in the western United States with a view of the Old Faithful Geyser, located in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. The Inn has a multi-story log lobby, flanked by long frame wings containing guest rooms. In the western portion of the park, it sits at an approximate elevation of 7,350 feet (2,240 m) above sea level.
The Central West End is a neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri, stretching from Midtown's western edge to Union Boulevard and bordering on Forest Park with its array of free cultural institutions. It includes the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis on Lindell Boulevard at Newstead Avenue, which houses the second-largest collection of mosaics in the world. The Central West End sits entirely within the 9th Ward.
U.S. Route 66 is a former east–west United States Numbered Highway, running from Santa Monica, California to Chicago, Illinois. In Missouri, the highway ran from downtown St. Louis at the Mississippi River to the Kansas state line west of Joplin. The highway was originally Route 14 from St. Louis to Joplin and Route 1F from Joplin to Kansas. It underwent two major realignments and several lesser realignments in the cities of St. Louis, Springfield, and Joplin. Current highways covering several miles of the former highway include Route 100, Route 366, Route 266, Route 96, and Route 66. Interstate 44 (I-44) approximates much of US 66 between St. Louis and Springfield.
The Wigwam Motels, also known as the "Wigwam Villages", is a motel chain in the United States built during the 1930s and 1940s. The rooms are built in the form of tipis, mistakenly referred to as wigwams. It originally had seven different locations: two locations in Kentucky and one each in Alabama, Florida, Arizona, Louisiana, and California.
The Belleview-Biltmore Resort and Spa was a historic resort hotel located at 25 Belleview Boulevard in the town of Belleair, Florida, United States. The 350,000 square feet (33,000 m2) hotel structure was the last remaining grand historic hotel of its period in Florida that existed as a resort, and the only Henry Plant hotel still in operation when it closed in 2009. The building was noted for its architectural features, with its green sloped roof and white wood-sided exterior, and handcrafted woodwork and Tiffany glass inside. Constructed of native Florida heart pine wood, it was the second-largest occupied wooden structure in the United States after 1938; only the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego was larger.
DeBaliviere Place is a neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri.
Hotels in Toronto have been some of the most prominent buildings in the city and the hotel industry is one of the city's most important. The Greater Toronto Area has 183 hotels with a total of almost 36,000 rooms. In 2010, there were 8.9 million room nights sold. Toronto is a popular tourist destination, with it having the 6th highest room occupancy rate in North America, but about two thirds of rooms are taken by commercial, government, or convention travellers.
The Leopold Hotel is a historic hotel structure in Bellingham, Washington. The surviving wings were constructed in 1929 and 1967. It is currently used as a combination apartment building and hotel.
The Dearborn Inn, A Marriott Hotel is a historic hotel in the suburban city of Dearborn, Michigan in Metro Detroit. It opened in 1931 and closed in February 2023 for renovations. It was conceived by Henry Ford, who saw a need for food and accommodations for visitors flying into the nearby Ford Airport, making it one of the first airport hotels. It is located at 20301 Oakwood Boulevard near The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and the world headquarters building of Ford Motor Company. Albert Kahn designed the Dearborn Inn in the Georgian architectural style. The Dearborn Inn is owned by Ford Motor Land Development Corporation and managed by Marriott International.
Preston J. Bradshaw (1884–1952) was one of the most eminent architects of St. Louis, Missouri, during the 1920s. Among his numerous commissions as an architect, he is best known for designing hotels and automobile dealerships in the region. Like many hotel architects of his time, he eventually moved into the actual operation of hotels, becoming owner and operator of the Coronado Hotel in St. Louis.
The De Anza Motor Lodge was a historic motel located on former U.S. Route 66 in the Upper Nob Hill neighborhood of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was built in 1939 by Charles G. Wallace, a local trader of Zuni art and pottery, who remained the owner until 1983. Wallace decorated the motel with a variety of Native American art, including a series of murals by Zuni artist Tony Edaakie in a basement room.
The Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts brand was the first motel chain in the United States, founded by Edgar Lee Torrance in Waco, Texas, in 1929. By 1955, there were more than twenty Alamo Plazas across the southeastern U.S., most controlled by a loosely knit group of a half-dozen investors and operating using common branding or architecture.
The Colonial Inn is a historic hotel at 145 Shore Road in Ogunquit, Maine. The hotel complex is anchored by an 1890 Queen Anne Victorian hotel that is one of the few surviving resort hotels of the period, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The complex also has rooms in adjacent motel spaces; its amenities include a swimming pool, game room, and dining room serving breakfast.
The Snow Flake Motel was a motel located at 3822 Red Arrow Highway in Lincoln Township, Michigan. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998, but demolished in 2006 and removed from the Register in 2021.
The St. Clair Inn is a hotel located at 500 North Riverside Avenue in St. Clair, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
The Tucson Inn is a motel located in Tucson, Arizona, in an area now known as the Miracle Mile Historic District. The motel was built in 1953 in the Googie architecture and Modernist style, and is an example of historic 1950s Mid-century modern highway motel architecture.
Historic Hotels of America is a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation that was founded in 1989 with 32 charter members; the program accepts nominations and identifies hotels in the United States that have maintained their authenticity, sense of place, and architectural integrity.
The Downtowner Motor Inn is a historic motel on Central Avenue in Downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. Opened in 1965 as the 46th property of the Memphis, Tennessee-based, Downtowner Motor Inn chain, which operated economy-priced motels in city centers across the U.S. In 1972, the motel was sold and became a Quality Inn. It has also operated as a Ramada and most recently as the Hotel Blue, which closed in 2017. In 2020, it was announced that the motel would be renovated by the Los Angeles–based ARRIVE Hotels & Restaurants to reopen in 2022. These plans were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and ARRIVE Hotels was purchased by a different hotel company, Palisociety, in 2021. After several years of delays, the project was reported in 2023 to be "back on track" with a targeted completion date of December 2024.
