Archives: Memory Motels

Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, NewYork, on January 30,1882. He was buried there, at his family estate, on April 15, 1945. So it’s fitting that—in 1951—Hyde Park also became home to the Roosevelt Inn. The charming motel generally catered to tourists—sightseers who traveled to and from the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site to pay their respects to the late president.

In 1971, Raili Rudowski and her husband, Horst, began managing the motel. As they raised their family, they added a second story to the original building. A widowed Raili now shares management duties with her daughter, Karen, who grew up cleaning and cooking on premises.  This dynamic mother-daughter duo has maintained the tradition of greeting travelers to the Hudson Valley with a style unique to their family’s European roots.

“We’re famous for our flower boxes on our railings, and we still keep that up like they do in Germany,” says Karen. Each winter, when the inn is closed during January and February, Karen and her mother often travel to other parts of the US and Europe to harvest ideas for keeping the motel cozy, comfortable, and attractive.

Give Rich and Donna Metcalf a “ten” for courage. When they first beheld the K&S Motel in 2008, the classic Colorado sleeper had been vacant for the previous to years. Yet somehow, the Metcalf’s still decided to buy the aging lodge…

“I have no idea why we bought it,” Rich admits, shrugging his shoulders… “We felt like [the motel] had a huge amount of charm. If we fixed it up right, it would be a cozy place to stay” he says.

The Metcalfs’ courage echoes that of Francesco Armitta—an Italian immigrant who had the gumption to start the motel in the 1930s shattered economy. Under his American name—Pat Lewis—he badly opened Pat’s Motor Court, composed of a five-unit motel and a gas station. A carport snuggles beside each room…

After World War II, innkeeper Tom Gay decided that a new breed of high-plains drifter—the traveling salesman—deserved a clean, comfortable place to park his dusty boots for the night. So Gay built a fourteen-unit motor lodge along US 85… Tom proudly named his inn the Gay Motel—unaware that history would deal a controversial hand to that gentle term. The Gay’s name was changed to the Ace Motel in the 1960s.

Nowadays… Huge deposits of oil have been discovered in the area—enough to usher in a new breed of fortune hunter. Like generations of travelers before them, the new pioneers will need a clean and classy place to hang their hats at the end of the day. Odds say many of them will stay at the Ace, where comfort and first-class hospitality have always been in the cards.

Seasoned travelers say that the cherry on top of Polson, Montana, is the Cherry Hill Motel, operated by Glen and Vera Lack since 1989… Cherry Hill Motel arrived in Polson in 1946, catering to the travel siege that followed World War II.

The motel exudes a relaxed vibe, which the Cherry Hill Motel provides in some surprising ways. Take the two-acre lawn out front… Kids can play on the grass while parents lounge in Adirondack chairs under the shade of spruce trees. Line dried sheets with, themed rooms, and cherries sold at roadside stands in the town add to the motel’s quaintness and charm.

Those who much their cherries in the motel’s gazebo might encounter the Cherry Hill’s most loyal fans: a Montana couple who realized that with the homey Cherry Hill as an option, they didn’t need to buy a cabin on the lake at all—they just have to book their favorite room for a summer’s worth of weekends. Why get stuck with cabin maintenance when you could be putting your feet up? That would not only be unnecessary—it would be the pits.

Baby-Face Nelson needed a place to stay…

Nelson and his cohabitants—debonair bank robber John Dillinger, homicidal clown Homer Van Meter, Canadian cutthroat John Hamilton, and boxer-turned-badman Tommy Carroll—had settled in for the night when FBI watchdog Melvin Purvis arrived and opened fire on the building. As the lead rain thundered, the others slipped away without  ring a shot. But Baby didn’t like to be bothered. He returned fire before burrowing into the brush, hijacking a car at a nearby home, and killing Special Agent Carter W. Baum. The stolen ride broke down on County Road H near Boulder Junction. And that’s how the outlaw ended up on foot at dawn, stumbling out of Powell Marsh to behold his next place of refuge: a three-room, red-framed cottage sitting serenely on the shore of White Sand Lake—the cabin of Ollie Catfish.

Ollie was a Chippewa elder. Along with his wife, Maggie, and niece, Mary Schroeder, he spent the spring season manufacturing maple syrup. Over the next few days Nelson stayed with the Catfishes. He chopped wood, tapped maple trees, and—under the pillow of his cot—hid the three guns he’d brought with him. The odd quartet discussed everything from family to religion as Nelson laid low and recharged.

Today that charming little hideaway continues to welcome guests.

Owner George Kelloff tells how his parents built the Star Drive-In in 1955. “Back in the fifties drive-ins were the thing, you know,” he remarks. In 1964 George’s dad, tired of teaching music to supplement his income, hit on an innovative concept: combine the drive-in with a motel. He built a motel a stone’s throw from the screen. Then he fixed rooms with huge picture windows and piped-in sound.

Today, the Movie Manor is the only drive-in left in Colorado’s vast San Luis Valley. The Manor trades not only in current cinema but also in nostalgia. Accordingly, its themed décor honors the films of yesteryear, with each room bearing the name of a famous star: Grace Kelly, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, John Wayne. The newer additions update Hollywood history, adding names such as Sharon Stone and Nick Nolte. Each room boasts framed pictures of various stars and film-strip trim.

When Clint Brown bought a chunk of land near Dunsmuir, California, in 1922, he began to serve travelers by building a fire circle.

People would come in their cars with all their camping gear. They’d circle up the cars,” says Louie Dewey, owner of Cave Springs Resort, which now occupies the same ground. Brown built a restroom and a shower next, adding cabin in the mid-1920s.

“Clint foresaw that the highway—US Highway 99—would always be routed through growth,” Says Dewey. “He knew that travel by road would one day eclipse travel by rail.”

What first brought auto travelers to Cave Springs continues to draw travelers now—big trees, blue-ribbon fishing, and a bed along the old US Highway 99 travel corridor. And where once Clint Brown offered campers a fire circle, now history is hot, too.

Oak Harbor itself has a strong Dutch influence to this day, when one of the annual highlights is Holland Happenings. The town may have been founded by mostly Irish families in the 1860s and 1870s, but the influence of Dutch people who arrived in the 1890s prevailed.

The windmill remains the focal point of the sixty-year-old motel. The electrically-powered blades rotate, whether it’s windy or not. The first floor of the windmill’s interior houses the lobby, decorated with imports from the Netherlands such as tiles, wooden shoes, and figurines. Above the lobby lies the windmill suite, graced with a  replace and hand-painted flowers on the walls, as well as everything from a four-poster bed to a dining area to a two-person Jacuzzi. Other rooms offer more basic amenities.

Visitors will also find a mermaid sitting beside her own pond and a chimney complete with nest and stork.

Tucked away in the northwest corner of California’s San Joaquin Valley is a fairy godmother’s gift of a mom-and-pop motel. The Cinderella Motel–with its massive neon sign shining like a wishing star–invites you to spend a night of sweet dreams in Hollister, California.

Christine Busk and her family have owned the hotel since 1978, and they were inspired to decorate their rooms after storybook themes. You’re sure to find your favorite pick of fairy tale settings–from princess to cowpuncher, with a bit of little mermaid and salty sea thrown in between.