The motel in America

In The Motel in America, John Jakle, Keith Sculle, and Jefferson Rogers take an informative and entertaining look at the history, architecture, and business of motels in the United States. Like Jakle and Sculle's acclaimed The Gas Station in America, this book explores the effect on American culture as citizens became motorists. The new breed of automobile traveler rejected the hotels of the railroad era, which were located in congested downtown areas and lacked adequate parking.

Instead, they came to favor the roadside lodgings outside city limits which came to be known as motels, a term first used in Arthur Heineman's Milestone Mo-tel, opened in San Luis Obispo, California, in 1926.

The popularity of motels grew steadily throughout the century, booming after the Second World War and reaching a peak in 1961, when there were some 61,000 motels operating throughout the country, the vast majority of them independently owned. These motels were an integral part of the American landscape, shaping their guests' ideas about modern living, introducing Americans to the consumer novelties of the age: color televisions, automatic coffee makers, shag rugs, even residential swimming pools.

By the 1980s, most of the country's 40,000 motel establishments were affiliated with referral and franchise chains, reflecting the traveler's need for uniform quality and the entrepreneur's desire for regional or national recognition.

The history of the motel, from autocamp to franchise, has long been overlooked. Although motels have come to be taken for granted, they illustrate much that is central to the American experience. In The Motel in America, motels at last receive the careful interpretation they deserve.