We spend a good deal of time here at CC devoted to cars, their history, and the world around them. Hotels and motels are clearly part of that world, and most of us have spent quite a few hours in one or the other. With that in mind, let’s reminisce about some of the available lodging during the 1970s.
Today’s images showcase different types of lodging, from the humble to the upscale. And this being CC, each shot was chosen not only for the variety of locales but for the assortment of vehicles as well. These images being from the 1970s, lovers of the Brougham era should find much to rejoice in. But not to worry, there are other options interspersed for those who prefer otherwise.
The featured photos are from the John Margoiles collection of the Library of Congress. They have been mildly color-corrected for this post.
Grossinger’s, Liberty, NY.
Bavarian Manor Annex, Purling, NY.
Modern Cabins, North Seattle, WA.
Granit Hotel & Country Club, Kerhokson, NY.
Alamo Plaza Motor Hotel, Houston, TX.
Bavarian Manor, Purling, NY.
Brown’s Hotel, Loch Sheldrake, NY.
Colonial Hotel, Cape May, NJ.
I remember places like these ~ I didn’t much stay in such places until adulthood .
-Nate
Surprisingly, the Alamo Plaza Motor Hotel in Houston is still standing (probably not too many 1940s-era commercial buildings have made it this long in Houston). Looks like it’s now in pretty rough condition, and functions as a long-term motel/apartment complex.
Then-and-now comparison below. Google StreetView link:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/k685nD6cugBioKdG8
That Alamo Plaza’s decorative facade looks to be crumbling even in the old photo. But what I want to know is, what are the two white structures behind it. Looks like big footballs, or vertical takeoff blimps…
Love it. I especially like seeing so many great GM brands in the lots. I immediately noticed not one but two 1976 to 1979 vintage Cadillac Seville’s parked in front of the second to last picture of Brown’s Hotel. One is the darker maroon/red and the second is the lighter maroon/red with white top. Oh, those were the days that put me in my glory.
For a moment, I thought the one who’s maroon/red with white top was a early 1981 K-car Dodge Aries/Plymouth Reliant.
Ah, two C bodies, a 71 New Yorker and 72 Newport it seems. Big blocks, torsion bar, and the 727 Torqueflite. What is not to like.
Thanks for these great pictures. I swear, like many others, my father was the inspiration for Clark Griswold in the Vacation movies. I spent a good amount of time in the back seat of our 1977 Caprice Classic motoring thru New England and upstate NY. My father took his two weeks of vacation seriously and would open his AAA Map of the Eastern United States and plot out our trips. Does anyone remember fold out maps? The night before departure the Caprice would be loaded with suitcases, tennis rackets, and my father’s beloved golf clubs. The next morning, we would set off early complete with picnic basket/cooler as there was no time to be spent stopping at diners or Howard Johnson’s. My favorite trips were to The Lake Placid Clu-Lake Placed New York, Vermont, and Cape Cod. Honorable mention goes to Southampton New York but after excessive traffic on the Long Island Expressway my father vowed never again. Thanks again for these pictures and I do enjoy your whole series.
I was using a fold-out map just the other day, and quite intently. I was navigating a 20-mile drive on dirt roads up onto the Grand Mesa, “World’s largest flat-topped mountain,” in western Colorado. There were many crossroads and forks, and of course no cell service.
“Modern Cabins” looks like an abandoned gas station. They really thought someone would stay there?
Caught my eye too. “Modern” for the “Flintstone’s /Rubble’s possibly.
Don’t ya wonder , what year the picture was taken? lol
The picture was apparently taken in 1977 – so long after the Cabins’ heyday.
I’m pretty sure the picture was taken on N. Aurora Ave. My best guess is that it’s the intersection of N. Aurora and 98th St. There’s still a few old cabins left on that block of 98th St. (used as commercial offices now, but you can tell they were once residential). But that’s just a guess.
Don’t know, but there’s a 59 Pontiac parked there.
Those cabin-style lodges were turning into weekly “long-stay” motels in the 60s. Now “long-stay” means meth motel, but they were already disreputable back then.
That looks to be the office; one can just see part of a row of little cabins in the back. That was the common style to build in the 1920s, the direct precursor to the motel.
One more detail about that building. There’s a big Prestone wall thermometer next to the door. Those thermometers sell for hundreds of dollars these days.
Here’s the one in the picture next to one currently for sale on eBay:
The blue “Pontiac” , at “Grossingers”, is “me”! “Brown’s” has a “Pinto squire”. ((remote chance it’s a “Bobcat”))
Wow look at how long that blue Chrysler looks compared to the Ford wagon and beige Pontiac (?), the proportions of those Fuselage models were wild!
Many of the New York State hotels are located in the “Borscht Belt” of Sullivan & Ulster county. Many Jewish families from the NYC area would vacation at these hotels and resort for the summer from the 1920’s thru the 1970’s.
As time passed, the area fell out of favor. There are on-line photos of several of these hotels abandoned and in a derelict state.
Yes. We stayed at one in the summer of 1968 (IIRC); two young Austrians we had met a few years earlier were working there for the summer. Very old school.
Brown’s Hotel, Loch Sheldrake, NY:
The hubcaps on the Green Mark III look like they belong on a Mercury.
Great pictures.
When I was a kid in the 1960s, we traveled most summers to New England and the highlight/objective was “cabins” like that shown in the “North Seattle” photo. I distinctly recall one in Crescent Beach Maine that even had a sign like the one in photo. As a little kid, this seemed like an impossibly far destination (not helped by the drive from Baltimore up the east coast in the 1961 Plymouth wagon without air conditioning). Now not only are the classic Maine (and apparently Washington state too!) cabins gone, but in fact I know that Crescent Beach is only about 90 minutes from where I live in MA. In fact, I drove right by there on the way to a car show for a day trip last weekend.
The building in the last picture, labeled as “The Colonial Hotel” in Cape May is still there and in operation now as “The Inn of Cape May”. https://innofcapemay.com/?sa=X&ved=0CNIGEMiuA2oXChMI-L3yl_PeiAMVAAAAAB0AAAAAEFE Cape May is a lovely place that has a number of Victorian-era inns and buildings, great bird watching, WWII shore observation structures and embattlements, a ferry to Delaware, and a number of decent breweries.
New England and the Northeast (just so we can include New York which is absolutely not New England 😉 ) does still have quite a few of the sorts of places shown in these pictures. Notable ones are:
The Mount Washington Hotel — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Washington_Hotel — particularly interesting for history buffs as the site of the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 that established much of the post-WWII economic order (and the consequences thereof). It arguably inspired Kubrick’s Overlook Hotel in the Shining. I’ll just say that I can’t visit the place without thinking about REDRUM or looking for Jack Torrance in the historical photos of the place.
The Poland Springs Resort — https://polandspringresort.com/presidential-inn/ — a classic New England/Northeast “I came for the waters” Victorian era curative resort. From back in the day (150 years ago) when people used to travel to places to escape and cure disease. When there, I also check historical (1920s) photos of parties there for people in the crowd who look like Jack Nicholson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abey64kpZws&ab_channel=BillyReno
And sadly, the Catskills resorts are also now all gone. Google these and you will find a number of wonderful documentaries.
Thank you Rich for another great post.
The Pinto wagon is indeed a Bobcat, you can tell by the characteristically Mercury chrome trim around the woodgrain. Ford Division wagons had light-woodgrain plastic moldings.
Great observation! I never realized that about Ford & Mercury woodgrain trim.
“Good to know”!! Thanks. I only knew the “Bobcat’s”, usually had nicer “interiors”.
In the 70s and early 80s, stayed in a cool, rickety old hotel in victorian Ocean Grove, NJ. No A/C in the rooms. Shared bath at the end of the hall. Nearest dining was a cafeteria-style hotel a block away. And as far as the eye could see were full-sized American cars, and dressed-up old people wearing white shoes. Such a different world.
This is a great set of photos, so I keep coming back to them. Just noticed the Capri with a vinyl roof parked at the Bavarian Manor.
Spotted it “early on”. Always thought they were “cool cars” as a kid. Found out later, they had a lot of “electrical issues”.
I’m just old enough to remember the Nevele, Grossinger’s, Brown’s etc in Ulster and Sullivan counties still open but on the wane. That was the mid 80s. Sadly most of those places are empty lots now.
Wow, two colonnade Pontiac LeMans’ in the same day!
The Alamo Plaza is on US Highway 90A/Old Spanish Trail (or OST as most of the locals call it). This was one of the old highways through Houston; part of 90A further out from town was the original path of US 59 before the freeway was built and the road rerouted. I grew up in the 70s in the SW suburbs (Stafford, Missouri City and Sugar Land) and remember when the SW Freeway was originally constructed as well as the subsequent remodeling/enlargements!
The Houston area is so spread out from rampant growth, that it really is car centric. You can get places on the Metro bus system and Metro Rail, but the train is in mainly the central city. Buses will get you there but it likely won’t be a direct route and it’ll take some time especially in off peak hours.
I used to go on 90A to several work locations, two or three times a week, so I got familiar with the scenery. Alamo Plaza’s glory days are long past…. Looking at the aerial view/satellite view from Google Maps, there is a main entrance arch that has three buildings on either side. Apparently there was once a fountain out front, it looks to have been filled in some time ago but the concrete surrounding is still there.
That whole area of Houston has seen better days, but there’s some renewal and gentrification going on.