Former Hotel/Motel "Meccas"

[thenetwork]

This thread is dedicated to all the former areas of concentrated mom & pop hotel/motel establishments that disappeared when US routes were replaced &/or bypassed by the interstates.

One former "motel mecca" of sorts was in my old stomping grounds when I was a kid:  Strongsville, OH along US-42/Pearl Road.  My parents would drive the whole stretch and I'd always try to count how many motels there were.

Back in the mid 50's, when the Ohio Turnpike was completed, US-42 was *THE* most used exit for east-west traffic to access Cleveland as well as Columbus. Lodging facilities were springing up like weeds -- totaling around 30 motels -- mostly within the borders of Strongsville which comprised about a 5-7 mile stretch of US-42.  For whatever reason, the motels did not blossom as much in neighboring Brunswick or Middleburg Hts.

Here is an aerial photo of US-42 from 1969, about a block north of the Turnpike.  About 6 or 7 motels were in this photo shot alone:  http://images.ulib.csuohio.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/press/id/9231/rec/1 -- only 2 remain.

By the mid to late 60s, I-71 was completed, and the then-Exit 10 was reconfigured to make I-71 the main connection, although the "old" Exit 10 for US-42 was still connected to the new Toll Plaza ramps. https://www.google.com/maps/@41.3379733,-81.826631,1252m/data=!3m1!1e3!6m1!1e1.   Many of the motels remained in business through the 70s, but the smallest were slowly reverting to "No-Tell Motels" & long term "apartments" for lower income people.

By the 1980s, the only original motels left for the overnight travelers were affiliated with the major chains (Quality Inn, Howard Johnsons,...), but were finally overtaken by the much larger chain hotels which were growing along the exits from I-71, while the larger mom & pops were being sold to make way for new businesses. 

Today, only a handful of the motels that were part of the "parade of neon and 'RCA COLOR TV' signs along Pearl Road are still standing.  The only "chain" motel remaining is a lower-budget Knights Inn (a former HoJos).

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Any other good stories of former "motel strips" across the country that are now pretty much gone are welcome here.

[busman_49]

US 40 between Bexley and 270 on Columbus's east side still has a fair number of older motels scattered along the way.  i can only imagine what it looked like when it was THE route...

[Rothman]

There was a large travel motel near where the Thruway's Exit 24.  Looks like it was just called the "Thruway Motel," if it's the same one I'm thinking of.

http://www.amazon.com/Thruway-Motel-Albany-2-view-postcard/dp/B00EV8209Q

[GCrites]

US 40 between Bexley and 270 on Columbus's east side still has a fair number of older motels scattered along the way.  i can only imagine what it looked like when it was THE route...

Ahh, the "crack motels". There used to be twice as many through there when I was kid.

[Pete from Boston]

Route 17 in New Jersey and New York (I guess the pre-Quickway alignment for the latter) has had a declining remnant of motor courts and the like over the years, left over from when a New York vacation meant driving to the Catskills.  There are a handful of them in New Jersey in Upper Saddle River, clearly of another era.

The Berlin Turnpike in central Connecticut (Route 15) has about twenty little old motels from the era before I-91.  Somehow they are still going, which is probably a testimony to the number of destitute people in places like Hartford, New Britain, and Meriden.

[jwolfer]

US 1 in the Carolinas, Georgia and around Jacksonville, Florida

[leroys73]

Perry, FL used to have many.  It may not compare to some of the above.  Several of them are being rebirthed.  I stayed at one called the Royal Inn or was it Royal Motel.  When I stayed the owner was in the process of redoing it and not so good at that time but I understand it is much better now.

[cpzilliacus]

US 1 in the Carolinas, Georgia and around Jacksonville, Florida

Also U.S. 1 between the District of Columbia and Baltimore.  There were "motor courts" at many places along this section of the highway (and a few survive still, though not always as lodging establishments).  There was once a decent-sized one on the north edge of College Park - just north of the I-95/I-495 interchange - which was sold and demolished to make room for an IKEA store.

[jwolfer]

US 1 in the Carolinas, Georgia and around Jacksonville, Florida

Like other areas US 1 south of Jax known as Philips Highway.. Many now charge by the hour or are low income residences, one is a drug rehab, many are abandoned

[mariethefoxy]

NY 27 out east has a bunch of random motels along the beach areas because the Hamptons wont let them build proper chain hotels.