The Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts is the first motel chain in the United States, founded by Edgar Lee Torrance in Waco, Texas, in 1929. In 1955, there were more than twenty Alamo Plazas throughout the United States southeast. , the most controlled by a loose group consisting of half a dozen investors and operating using a common brand or architecture.
Marketed as "Alamo Plaza Tourist Apartments" using the unique Mission Awakening Mission architecture, each forming a U-shaped court with many buildings fronted by a typical façade that mimics the face of the Alamo Mission in San Antonio. This property seeks to distinguish itself from other motels or cabins from the tourist courts in their era by introducing amenities such as telephones in every room (1936), Beautyrest mattresses on each bed and then a swimming pool and in-room television.
Roadside tactics using a distinctive and nonstandard architecture to attract the attention of passing motorists will be used by other chains, such as the Wigwam Motel that caters to US Route 66 travelers or the recognizable orange roof of the original Howard Johnson chain.
While chain expansion continued well through the Great Depression and World War II (wartime construction usually near US bases, where property was required for the time being of military personnel) into the heyday of the 1950s, the use of the Pop Spanish Revival tourist court faÃÆ'§ade by chains will end in 1960 and the last new location will open in 1965.
Video Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts
History
Initial expansion
In 1929, Edgar Lee Torrance built the first Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts in East Waco, Texas; in 1936, seven motels in Alamo would be the first to install phones in each room.
In 1941, there were ten locations of the Alamo Plaza and at the top of the chain in 1955 there were over twenty.
These motels are "motor courts" when they are arranged in a "C" with a courtyard in the middle. With Simmons furniture and Beautyrest mattresses on each bed, Alamo Plaza rooms are marketed as "tourist apartments" under the slogan "Serve those who care." They are usually located on the U.S. Highway system. in major cities in the southeastern United States.
Where they do not own a restaurant, they are usually located with a nearby restaurant or nearby.
"We serve tourists and traveling traders.We do not accept couples with local SIM"
Commercially, this is operated as a loose form of the ownership chain, where a small group of investors controls both individual chains and motels within it. As the first location at the Alamo Plaza chain opened in 1929, this pre-dated second chain of referrals (United Motor Courts: 1933, Quality Courts United: 1939, The Best Western Motels: 1947, Superior Courts United: 1950 and Friendship Inns: 1961) and a long list of chain franchises that follow in the way of Travelodge (1935) and Holiday Inn (1952).
While the 1950s brought increased car traffic, they also brought in many new competitors. With 86% of all Americans traveling by car, the number of US motels accelerated from 20,000 in 1946 to nearly 60000 a decade later, starting a race among motel owners to add facilities to stay competitive.
"If the place across the street adds something new," explains W. H. Farmer, owner of the southern court network of Alamo Plaza, "you should make it better or lose some customers." Recently, Farmer put a 50-foot pool in his 73-unit Dallas court "defensively." He also bought 65 live TV sets to "disturb his guest with that quarter of a quarter coin."
Franchise and redesign
A brief attempt was made briefly by Bill Farner for a franchise brand in the late 1950s. In response to the Great Mark of the Holiday Inn franchise, a large neon sign design was deployed. The nameplate, used in owned and franchised locations, has stars above 'A' and arrows pointing to "Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts". The franchise location is a conversion - an existing property in which "members - looking for stars - the Alamo Plaza Motor Courts" sign has been added under an existing brand or property renamed directly to "Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts" with corresponding neon signage. The franchise effort was abandoned in 1960, after about a year of use with 50 locations listed in "Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts - Spend the night where the price is right - a free pocket travel guide". One franchise of the "Alamo Motel" in 19803 N US Highway 441, High Springs, Florida, still there with a sign (minus top stars) is mostly intact.
The last Alamo property was built or renovated in the 1960s. This (a facelift to the Alamo site in Chattanooga and Charlotte, plus one last new property in Shreveport) using an architectural design resembling plaids with plastic and metal faces, abandoned the Spanish phobia mission adobe façade which has traditionally appeared in part great Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts.
Decline
When the original owner retires or leaves the chain, the individual motel property is sold by each family. Some retained the Alamo branding for decades after the chain itself had vanished, slowly deteriorating under new ownership as the motels had been built around the US Highway system by then long bypassed by new interstate highways. Most have been sold in the 1970s, falling into decline in the 1980s and 1990s and in many cases will eventually be destroyed.
In some instances, this property is converted to another usage.
The Alamo was last built in 1965 along I-20 in Shreveport, Louisiana, as a modern motel filled with updated metal-plastic façade versions; now is Travelodge.
Ownership and investor
A loosely connected chain where several owners operate several locations each, the group is mostly built around the founders of Edgar Lee Torrance, a former employee of William Farner (and Farner's business partner Charles Mooney) and various other people brought into the fold by Torrance or Farner. The resulting chain is a collection of independently owned motels that depend on the personalities of the various owners.
E. Lee Torrance (founder), a former used car dealer, owns eleven out of twenty two Alamo Plaza locations. A local Waco judge, Drummond W. Bartlett, was originally a co-owner of an original Waco Alamo property but had no further involvement in the expansion of the Alamo Plaza chain.
William (Bill) Farner works for Torrance at Waco's original location; he will then build a new location in the chain (mostly in Texas) in partnership with Charles Mooney . Farner was also involved with attempts to bring new owners into the chain, including a brief entry into the franchise in the late 1950s.
W.G. "Mac" McGrady , E. Lee Torrance's nephew, operates a group of "St. Francis Hotel Courts" in Alabama towns that use original architecture and are Alamo in everything but names. The motel's postcard promotes this as "The three largest and best trials in the three largest cities of Alabama, Mobile, Montgomery and Birmingham.A total 255 rooms, tiled baths, carpeted floors, room phones, air conditioning, hotel services and luxury restaurants - Approved by AAA and Duncan Hines. "
By contrast, E. L. McLallen uses names and features but not the Alamo architecture. A timber trader with a trade, he entered the chain by buying Memphis Alamo Plaza shortly after Torrance started it. McLallen immediately started its own branches (Nashville, Louisville, Knoxville, and Indianapolis) using Colonial-style architecture.
William P. and Mary W. Robinson , as a newcomer to the hospitality industry, were introduced to the chain by Farner and Mooney. They opened 29 units of "Plaza Hotel Court" in Columbus, Georgia, in 1941 using the Alamo architecture. Originally serving Fort Benning during World War II, the location was renamed Alamo Plaza Hotel Court with the Torrance blessing.
Milton Stroud from Waco founded Park Plaza Courts (see below), using a similar façade but different branding, mostly on or near Route 66 AS. It is not part of the main Alamo chain but uses the same architect and design.
Maps Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts
Location
Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts
Other properties with independent ownership but modeled on the Alamo faÃÆ'§ade architecturally:
- El SueÃÆ' Â ± o , Route 66 AS, Claremore, Oklahoma, built by Jack Sibley in 1938, became Adobe Village Apartments.
- Lakeview Courts , west of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Park Plaza Courts (six locations) by Milton and Lemuel Stroud from Waco. E. Lee Torrance provides Strouds with access to architects and the Alamo design but this is an independent chain with a Alamo-like façade.
Park Plaza Courts
A chain of six court motels, these are architecturally similar to the Alamo model but do not share names nor ownership with the main Alamo Plaza chain. It was originally built by Milton Stroud (Sr.) and his brother Lemuel Stroud, with the first location opened in West Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1942. Milton Stroud (Jr.) and his wife Mickey were also involved with the chain after 1950.
Locations are chosen to be at a one-day travel interval by car. Four out of six locations are in the US Route 66 city: St. Louis, West Tulsa, Amarillo, and Flagstaff.
The other two Park Plaza Courts are located in Raton, New Mexico, and Texarkana, Arkansas.
Location St. Louis, opened in 1948 as the fifth in the Park Plaza series, has an adjacent Golden Drumstick restaurant operated by the same owner.
The sixth and final location (East 7th in Hickory, Texarkana) is on Route 71 USA. The postcards are touted as "In the US Hwys 67-71-82, 2 minutes from the city center Phone 222767. 85 beautiful rooms and suites, year-round guests air-conditioned controls Swimming pool and playground Phone phones, TV radios , room service, on-site Town House Restaurant, Also affiliated with Park Plaza Motel in Fort Worth, Amarillo, Raton, Flagstaff, St. Louis, State Park in Memphis, Belmont in Dallas, Catalina in Wichita Falls. "
Most are now gone; the original West Tulsa location was sold by the Stroud family to Dorothy Harrison, but in the 1980s served as a refuge for the homeless.
The New Grande Courts in Sullivan, Missouri, owned by Abe Schwartz but modeled architecturally on the design of Park Plaza Courts in St. Louis. Louis, who in turn is based on the Alamo Plaza design.
See also
- List of motels
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments