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 lodging compound establishment; The 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.
Warm Mineral Springs is a census-designated place (CDP) in Sarasota County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,442 at the 2020 census, up from 5,061 at the 2010 census. It is part of the North Port–Bradenton–Sarasota, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The Lightner Museum is a museum of antiques, mostly American Gilded Age pieces, housed within the historic Hotel Alcazar building in downtown St. Augustine. This 1887 Spanish Renaissance Revival style building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Gene Leedy was an American architect based in Winter Haven, Florida. He was a pioneer of the modern movement in Florida and later a founder of the Sarasota School of Architecture, whose members included Paul Rudolph, Victor Lundy, and others. After beginning his career in Sarasota, Leedy moved his practice to Winter Haven in 1954. He is best known for his bold use of exposed structural systems of precast concrete, especially in long-span, "double-tee" structural elements, as well as enclosed courtyards, flat roofs, and floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors.
The Warm Mineral Springs is a water-filled sinkhole located in North Port, Florida, a mile north of U.S. 41. The primary water supply is a spring vent deep beneath the pool's water surface. Warm Mineral Springs is the only warm water mineral spring in the State of Florida. It is an important geological and archaeological site containing Native American remnants. The site was operated as a spa from 1946 until 2000. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on November 28, 1977. The springs re-opened for swimming only in 2014.
The Bay Haven School is a historic school in Sarasota, Florida, United States. It is located at 2901 West Tamiami Circle.
The El Vernona Apartments-Broadway Apartments is a historic site in Sarasota, Florida. It is located at 1133 Fourth Street. On March 22, 1984, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The Sarasota Times Building is a historic site in Sarasota, Florida. It is located at 1214–1216 1st Street. On March 22, 1984, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The three-story asymmetrically-massed, stucco and cast stone façade, Mediterranean Revival structure was designed by architect Dwight James Baum. It is significant to Sarasota's heritage for its role as a newspaper established in 1899, and also for its architectural merits.
The Sarasota School of Architecture, sometimes called Sarasota Modern, is a regional style of post-war modern architecture (1941–1966) that emerged on Florida's Central West Coast, in and around the city of Sarasota, Florida. It is characterized by open-plan structures, often with large planes of glass to facilitate natural illumination and ventilation, that address the unique indigenous requirements of the regional climate. Many of the architects who pioneered this style became world-renowned later in their careers, and several significant buildings remain in Sarasota today.
The West Baden Springs Hotel, formerly the West Baden Inn, is part of the French Lick Resort and is a national historic landmark hotel in West Baden Springs, Orange County, Indiana. It has a 200-foot (61 m) dome over its atrium. Prior to the completion of the Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1955, the dome was the largest free-spanning dome in the United States. From 1902 to 1913 it was the largest dome in the world. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, the hotel became a National Historic Landmark in 1987. It is a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark and one of the hotels in the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Historic Hotels of America program.
The Caribbean Motel is a historic motel located in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey. It is located in the Wildwoods Shore Resort Historic District. The motel was built in 1957 in the Doo-Wop style by Lou Morey, whose family built many of the Wildwoods' original Doo Wop motels, for original owners Dominic and Julie Rossi. It was owned by the Rossi family until the early 1990s, when they sold it to multi-billionaire Mister Bolero.
Buxton Crescent is a Grade-I-listed building in the town of Buxton, Derbyshire, England. It owes much to the Royal Crescent in Bath, but has been described by the Royal Institution of British Architects as "more richly decorated and altogether more complex". It was designed by the architect John Carr of York, and built for the 5th Duke of Devonshire between 1780 and 1789. In 2020, following a multi-year restoration and redevelopment project supported by the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Derbyshire County Council, The Crescent was reopened as a 5-star spa hotel.
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.
Jack West was an architect in Sarasota, Florida and briefly in Southern California. West was one of the leaders of the Sarasota School of Architecture.
Victor Alfred Lundy was an American architect. An exemplar of modernist architecture, he was one of the leaders of the Sarasota School of Architecture. His Warm Mineral Springs Motel, outside Warm Mineral Springs, Florida, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
William J. Rupp was one of the modernist American architects considered part the Sarasota School of Architecture.
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 Scott Commercial Building is a historic building located in Sarasota, Florida at 261 South Orange Avenue.
The Warm Mineral Springs Building Complex consists of three historic buildings built in 1959 in the Warm Mineral Springs park in North Port, Florida. The buildings include a Park Spa Building, a sales building attached to the Spa Building, and a Cyclorama which contained an exhibit depicting Ponce de Leon's alleged discovery of the Fountain of Youth. The three buildings were added to the park facilities to house a Florida Quadricentennial celebration, which ran from December 14, 1959, to March 15, 1960. The Spa Building and the Cyclorama were designed by Jack West, a leader of the Sarasota School of Architecture. The buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.
