The Motel in America

Explores the history of the motel, from the introduction of roadside tent camps and motor cabins in the 1910s, to the kitschy motels of the 1950s and the anonymous chains of today. More than just places to sleep, they were often the first places Americans saw colour TV or used a coffee maker.

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Authors John Jakle, Keith Sculle, and Jefferson Rogers take an informative, entertaining and comprehensive look at the history of the motel. From the introduction of roadside tent camps and motor cabins in the 1910s to the kitschy motels of the 1950s that line older roads, and today's comfortable but anonymous chains that lure drivers off the interstate, Americans and their cars have found places to stay on their travels. Motels were more than just places to sleep, however. They were the places where many Americans saw their first colour television, used their first coffee maker, and walked on their first shagpile carpet. Illustrated with more than 230 photographs, postcards, maps and drawings, the book details the development of the motel as a commercial enterprise, its imaginative architectural expressions and its evolution within the place-product-packaging concept along America's highways.