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 Milestone Mo-Tel of 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.
Kinston is a city in Lenoir County, North Carolina, United States, with a population of 21,677 as of the 2010 census. It has been the county seat of Lenoir County since its formation in 1791. Kinston is located in the coastal plains region of eastern North Carolina.
Sevierville is a city in and the county seat of Sevier County, Tennessee, located in eastern Tennessee. The population was 14,807 at the 2010 United States Census and 17,117 according to the 2019 census estimate.
Econo Lodge is an economy motel chain based in the United States and Canada. Econo Lodge is the second-largest brand in the Choice Hotels system. It aims to provide affordable rooms to budget travelers. The properties contain a minimum of 40 guest rooms and are often located near highways or highway access. All hotels provide a free breakfast.
The historic U.S. Route 66 ran east–west across the central part of the state of New Mexico, along the path now taken by Interstate 40 (I-40). However, until 1937, it took a longer route via Los Lunas, Albuquerque, and Santa Fe, now roughly New Mexico State Road 6 (NM 6), I-25, and US 84. Large portions of the old road parallel to I-40 have been designated NM 117, NM 118, NM 122, NM 124, NM 333, three separate loops of I-40 Business, and state-maintained frontage roads.
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.
Belvidere Café, Motel and Gas Station is a historic building in Litchfield, Illinois along Route 66. The site also has a residence and two motel units.
The Wildwoods Shore Resort Historic District, or Doo Wop Motel District, is an area in The Wildwoods, New Jersey, that was home to over 300 motels built during the Doo-Wop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Officially recognized as a historic district by the State of New Jersey, it lies primarily in the municipality of Wildwood Crest, along a two-mile stretch between Atlantic and Ocean avenues, and includes areas in Wildwood and North Wildwood. The term doo-wop was coined by Cape May's Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts in the early 1990s to describe the unique, space-age architectural style, which is also referred to as the Googie or populuxe style.
The Harland Sanders Café is a historic restaurant located in Corbin, Kentucky. Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, operated the restaurant from 1940 to 1956. Sanders also developed the famous KFC secret recipe at the café during the 1940s. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 7, 1990.
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.
Nob Hill is a neighborhood in Albuquerque, New Mexico, consisting of a commercial district along Central Avenue and surrounding residential areas. Located just east of the University of New Mexico, the neighborhood was developed between about 1925 and 1950 and has since become a popular tourist and shopping destination. Known for its eclectic mix of mostly locally owned businesses, Nob Hill has been described as "the heart of Albuquerque's Route 66 culture and also its hippest, funkiest retail and entertainment district". The neighborhood is named after Nob Hill in San Francisco.
The Birch Lodge, also known as the Birch Lodge Hospital and Summer Resort Sanitarium or the Trout Lake Sanitarium, is a resort facility located on the northern shore of Trout Lake, off County Route H-40, .6 miles (0.97 km) west of MI-123, in Trout Lake Township, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1987.
The Coral Court Motel was a 1941 U.S. Route 66 motel constructed in Marlborough, Missouri and designated on the National Register of Historic Places in St. Louis County in 1989 as a valuable example of the art deco and streamline moderne architectural styles. It expanded to 77 rooms in the heyday of automobile tourism on US 66, only to decline after the highway was bypassed by Interstate 44 in the 1970s and close its doors forever in 1993. Despite strong local efforts advocating historic preservation, it was demolished in 1995 for a suburban housing development.
The Del E. Webb Construction Company was a construction company that was founded in 1928 and developed by Del Webb. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, it became the Del E. Webb Corporation in 1960. The same year, the corporation unveiled Sun City, outside Phoenix, as the first sun city senior homes designed by Del E. Webb. Many more Sun Cities were built by the corporation in the following decades. Along with construction, the corporation was also involved in real estate and owned several properties mainly hotels and casinos, many of which were built and/or expanded by the company. The company was purchased in 2001 by Pulte Homes. Pulte Homes since merged with Centex Corp. and is now PulteGroup. Del Webb continues as a brand of PulteGroup.
The Arizona Rancho, also known as the Higgins House, Brunswick Hotel and Arizona Hotel, is a former hotel in Holbrook, Arizona. It was originally built between 1881 and 1883 as a residence, the expanded as a boarding house, a hotel, and finally as a motel. The original structure is thought to be the oldest extant structure in Holbrook.
The Cactus Motor Lodge, later known as the Cactus RV Park, was a motel located along historic U.S. Route 66 in Tucumcari, New Mexico. I.E. and Edna Perry built the lodge in 1941. The motel included three wings of units forming a "U" shape and an office, the latter of which was a dance hall when the motel opened. In 1952, Norm Wegner purchased the motel; Wegner added an artificial stone exterior to the buildings and converted the dance hall to an office. After Route 66 was decommissioned, the motel lost much of its business, and by the 1990s it became an RV park; the motel units fell into disuse. The motel's neon sign was restored in 2008. In October 2018, the sign was sold and removed to be relocated to an Albuquerque neon-sign park. Many other items were sold off before the owners sold the property itself to O'Reilly Auto Parts. O'Reilly razed all structures before beginning construction of their store at the location.
The Twin Pines Lodge and Cabin Camp, also known as the Twin Pines Motel and Frontier Court, is a tourist camp in Dubois, Wyoming on the way to Yellowstone National Park on U.S. Route 287. The camp was established in 1929 by Dubois businessman Oliver Ernest Stringer who designed the camp and assisted in its construction. Stringer had previously been involved in the construction of the Brooks Lake Lodge, where he built furniture.
The Tewa Lodge is a historic motel on Central Avenue in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is notable as one of the best-preserved Route 66 era motels remaining in the city, and one of the few still operating as a motel. It was built in 1946 and was added to the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties and the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
