Post-War Roadside Motels: 10 Cozy 1950s Stops Welcoming Growing Car Culture

Highways widened, gas cost pennies, and Detroit stamped out tailfins as long as fishing poles. Suddenly every family with a shiny V-8 wanted to “make good time” clear across the map. Chain hotels were rare, so independent motor courts painted neon arrows toward tidy rows of rooms—each with carport parking and a bedside radio crooning Top 40 hits. From desert stucco hideaways to Ozark stone cottages, these ten authentic motels turned overnight breaks into mini-vacations and helped transform the great American road trip into a national pastime.

Blue Swallow Motel — Tucumcari, New Mexico

A towering swallow in pink neon beckoned drivers off Route 66. Built in 1939 and booming through the ’50s, the U-shaped court featured garages attached to every room, plus hand-painted wall phones promising “Dial Long Distance.” Warm hospitality became legend; travelers still note guest books filled with 1950s thank-yous penned in fountain-pen ink.

Munger Moss Motel — Lebanon, Missouri

After the war, Nellie Munger Moss moved her roadside sandwich stand closer to Route 66 and added turquoise-trimmed rooms in 1946. By 1955 the property glowed with a 40-foot neon arrow and advertised “Sizzling Radiant-Heat Hot Water.” Families loved the kidney-shaped pool, while truckers appreciated covered parking that spared whitewall tires from Ozark storms.

Wigwam Village #6 — Holbrook, Arizona

Opening in 1950, twenty-foot concrete teepees ringed a gravel lot like a tribal council of mid-century kitsch. Each cone hid tiled showers, cast-iron heaters, and postcard views of distant mesas. Kids raced between faux buffalo cutouts while parents snapped Kodachrome shots certain to wow classmates at Monday show-and-tell.

Holiday Motel — Las Vegas, Nevada

Glitter Gulch extended south along U.S. 91, and in 1952 the Holiday Motel joined the light show with a star-spangled sign crowned by chasing bulbs. Air-cooled rooms and a palm-fringed pool lured motorists who couldn’t afford casino towers. Bellhop cartoons on roadside billboards promised “Champagne on a Beer Budget”—a slogan that packed the parking lot every summer.

Wagon Wheel Motel — Cuba, Missouri

Stone cabins erected in 1934 got a Streamline Moderne facelift after World War II. By the mid-’50s, glowing wagon-wheel neon, knotty-pine interiors, and gas-fired floor furnaces made the stop a Route 66 highlight. Traveling salesmen praised postcard service, while honeymooners booked the curved “suite” cottage for its heart-shaped mirror over the vanity.

Thunderbird Motel — Bloomington, Minnesota

Strategically parked between new Interstate 494 and the soon-to-open Met Stadium, the Thunderbird took flight in 1958. Its sprawling wings of rooms wrapped a Tiki-style lobby filled with totem poles and Polynesian prints. Guests could back Chevrolets under cedar-shake awnings, then walk inside for steak dinners served on ceramic plates shaped like tomahawks.

Motel Safari — Tucumcari, New Mexico

Built in 1959, this low-slung adobe embraced “Googie” angles and sported a leaping camel neon that blinked to the beat of passing traffic. Tile-front bathrooms, Serta “sleepmaker” mattresses, and clock-radios came standard. Motor courts often felt generic by decade’s end, but Safari’s playful roofline and global theme kept rooms booked solid each Easter break.

Coral Court Motel — St. Louis, Missouri

Art Deco curves and rose-tinted glass brick made Coral Court a Route 66 jewel when expansion finished in 1953. Car-hops skated milkshakes to room doors while travelers soaked in oversized tile tubs. Local rumor claimed mobsters liked the attached garages’ privacy, but family scrapbooks mostly document birthday cake candles glowing under its pink-and-aqua marquee.

El Rancho Hotel & Motel — Gallup, New Mexico

Hollywood’s western stars filmed nearby mesas, then bunked at El Rancho’s rustic log lobby built in 1937. A 1950s motor lodge wing added tile-roofed rooms so everyday road trippers could sleep “like the movies.” Navajo rugs, a double-height stone fireplace, and menu-board enchiladas turned what might have been a pit stop into a roadside stage set.

Desert Sands Motor Hotel — Albuquerque, New Mexico

Opened in 1957, Desert Sands flaunted a neon script sign wider than its pool. Breezeway brick patterns cooled corridor shade, while turquoise doors matched car fins outside. An on-site diner poured green-chile stew until 2 a.m., making the motel a preferred crash pad for East-to-West truckers outrunning the sunrise across New Mexico’s high desert.