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.
Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park is a designated U.S. historic park preserving two separate farm sites in LaRue County, Kentucky, where Abraham Lincoln was born and lived early in his childhood. He was born at the Sinking Spring site south of Hodgenville and remained there until the family moved to the Knob Creek Farm northeast of Hodgenville when he was two years old, living there until he was seven years of age. The park's visitor center is located at the Sinking Spring site.
The Illinois Historic Preservation Division, formerly Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Illinois, and is a division of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. It is tasked with the duty of maintaining State-owned historic sites, and maximizing their educational and recreational value to visitors or on-line users. In addition, it manages the process for applications within the state for additions to the National Register of Historic Places.
U.S. Route 66 was a United States Numbered Highway in Illinois that connected St. Louis, Missouri, and Chicago, Illinois. The historic Route 66, the Mother Road or Main Street of America, took long distance automobile travelers from Chicago to Southern California. The highway had previously been Illinois Route 4 and the road has now been largely replaced with Interstate 55 (I-55). Parts of the road still carry traffic and six separate portions of the roadbed have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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 Double Diamond Dude Ranch Dining Hall was built in 1945 as the centerpiece of a dude ranch operated by Frank Williams and Joseph S. Clark, Jr. in Grand Teton National Park. The ranch was opened in 1924 with a dozen tent cabins and log buildings for a kitchen and dining hall, lounge and commissary. In 1943 Williams built log tourist cabins, followed by the larger dining hall in 1945. The 1985 Taggart Lake Fire destroyed much of the ranch, sparing only the dining hall and five cabins. The dining hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an example of rustic architecture. Since 1970 the Double Diamond property has been a hostel for mountain climbers in the Teton Range, and is known as the Climbers' Ranch.
The Gettysburg Battlefield Historic District is a district of contributing properties and over 1000 historic contributing structures and 315 historic buildings, located in Adams County, Pennsylvania. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 19, 1975. Most of the contributing elements of the Gettysburg Battlefield are on the protected federal property within the smaller Gettysburg National Military Park.
The Hunter Hereford Ranch was first homesteaded in 1909 by James Williams in the eastern portion of Jackson Hole, in what would become Grand Teton National Park. By the 1940s it was developed as a hobby ranch by William and Eileen Hunter and their foreman John Anderson. With its rustic log buildings it was used as the shooting location for the movie The Wild Country, while one structure with a stone fireplace was used in the 1963 movie Spencer's Mountain. The ranch is located on the extreme eastern edge of Jackson Hole under Shadow Mountain. It is unusual in having some areas of sagebrush-free pasture.
The Park Motel is a historic building located in Denison, Iowa, United States. It is an example of a well-preserved highway motel during the early age of motoring. It appears this is also an early example of a motel in Iowa and may be one of the earliest in the Midwest.
US 30 Diner, known until June 2018 as Lee's Diner and in 2018/2019 as Vicky's Diner, is a stainless steel diner on U.S. Route 30 in West York, York County in Pennsylvania. Originally opened in 1951, it went out of business in late 2019.
The Harland Sanders Café is a historic restaurant located in North 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 Bryce Canyon Lodge Historic District surrounds and includes the Bryce Canyon Lodge in Bryce Canyon National Park, as well as the survivors of a large complex of buildings that comprised the core of the park's visitor services area in the 1930s.
The S.S. Grand View Point Hotel, also known as the Ship Hotel or Ship of the Alleghenies, was a historic hotel and roadside attraction in Juniata Township in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. It was built in 1927 as a hotel, but did not become the Ship Hotel until the additions which made it look like a ship were completed in 1932. The hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997, but after the hotel burned down in 2001 it was delisted in 2002.
Chester Waterside Station of the Philadelphia Electric Company is a historic former coal-fired power station, located on the Delaware River in Chester, Delaware County, southeastern Pennsylvania.
The Wagon Wheel Motel, Café and Station in Cuba, Missouri, is a 19-room independently owned historic U.S. Route 66 restored motel which has been serving travelers since 1938. The site opened as a café in 1936; the motel has remained in continuous operation since 1938. The motel rooms were fully restored in 2010, adding modern amenities such as HDTV and wireless Internet.
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.
Lacawac is a historic estate located in Paupack Township and Salem Township, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, United States.
Big Chief Restaurant, located at 17352 Manchester Road in Wildwood, Missouri, currently operates under the name Big Chief Roadhouse. It was also formerly known as Big Chief Highway Hotel and Big Chief Dakota Grill. The restaurant opened in 1928 as part of a tourist camp that included overnight accommodations for travelers on the newly opened U.S. Route 66 in Pond, Missouri, now incorporated within Wildwood. After the highway was later routed to bypass Pond, the business struggled to survive, operating as housing for government employees during World War II. Eventually the cabins were demolished, and the restaurant was used for other business operations. It was reopened as a restaurant in the 1990s.
The Westside Service Station and Riverside Motel, at 325 W. River St. in Eureka, Kansas, was built in 1939. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
