4. Research Questions
• What was the historical timeline of each of the
tourist camps and motels?
• What contributed to their downfall?
• How did their owners adapt or fail to adapt to the
changing needs of tourists?
• Why should their memory be preserved?
• How should this information be presented to the
public?
7. • Hunter’s Old Spring Tourist Camp
• Lord Calvert Hotel & Cottages
• Long’s Motel
• Shady Grove Motel
• Haass Haven/College Park Motel
• William H. Schrom’s Tourist Cabins
• Royal Pine Tourist Court
• Hillcrest Motor Court
• Park Lane Motel
• House in the Tree Motel
• Justa Tourist Camp/Stewart’s Modern Brick Cottages
• Colonial Plaza Motel and Dormitories
• Cherry Hill Campcity
• Canary Cottages and Trailer Park
• Del Haven White House Cottages
List of Establishments
8. Larger Trends
• Lack of interest in up-and-coming generation
• Referral, franchise, and chain hotels
• Construction of the interstate highway system
9. • Construction of the Capital Beltway in the 1950s
and 1960s
• Industry changes
• Growth of the University of Maryland
• Self-redevelopment
Specific Factors
10. Intangible Heritage
• Gone does not mean unimportant
• What is not there at least as important as what is
• Where we came from
• How we got to where we are
• Where are we going?
12. Case Study #1: Justa Tourist Camp/Stewart’s
Modern Brick Cottages
1940 Franklin Atlas
• Purchased by John and Irene Stewart in 1923
• Originally known as Justa Tourist Camp
• Offered cabins, rooms, breakfast, and lunch, and
featured a Standard service station
13. Case Study #1: Justa Tourist
Camp/Stewart’s Modern Brick Cottages
• Cabins
• Rooms
• Good food
• Air conditioning
• Heat (most likely
steam)
• Private baths
• Heated garages
• Esso service station
• Restaurant on
premises that
served home-
cooked food
14. Case Study #1: Justa Tourist
Camp/Stewart’s Modern Brick Cottages
• Property (about 18
acres) sold to State
Roads Commission
of Maryland in 1963
• University Blvd.
intended location of
Capital Beltway exit
• Ramps pushed north,
requiring Stewart’s to
sell their property
15. Case Study #2: Royal Pine Tourist Court• Built by George Siebens
in the early 1940s
• Originally contained 10
units connected by
garages
• Importance of housing
the automobile
• Southwestern appearance
• Automobile roadside as
unsettled frontier
• Civilizing the roadside
16. Case Study #2: Royal Pine Tourist Court
Left: 1975 ad
Right: 1980-81 ad
• 1957- Felix Irwin gave
his son-in-law and
daughter, Ed and
Jeanette Sims, the
down payment on the
Royal Pine
• Transformation by
Sims into a highly-
reputable Best
Western motel
17. Case Study #2: Royal Pine Tourist Court• Motel’s capacity
increased to 115 units
from 1960s-70s
• Four additions
• Garages and
southwestern
embellishment removed
during first renovation
• Former garage space
connected to the
adjoining motel room,
creating larger family
units
18. Case Study #2: Royal Pine Tourist Court
Site plan, courtesy
of College Park
Code Enforcement
• Final, 3-story,
90-room
addition in
1977
• Relocation of
the main
house to the
rear of the
property
19. Case Study #2: Royal Pine Tourist Court
Photo from ramada.com
Photo by Meredith Gorres, 2013
20. Reasons for Success
• Passed on to interested members of next generation
• Membership in Best Western referral chain
• The University of Maryland
• Construction of the Capital Beltway and University
Boulevard
• Area’s economic growth
• Proximity to Washington, D.C.
21. Preservation Justification
• Motels part of narrative of growing dependence on
the automobile
• Integral aspect of College Park’s development
• Evolution of roadside lodging in College Park
follows on a smaller scale the nationwide trend from
camps to motels to hotels
22. Options for Interpretation
• Brochure
• Driving tour
• Historypin
• Interpretive panel(s)
• iPhone app
• Public presentations
23. Conclusions
• College Park’s motels as a microcosm
• Factors detrimental to some but
advantageous to others
• Right mix of factors led to success
• Case studies embody two main reasons for
decline of motels
24. Dr. Dennis J. Pogue
Christine Henry
Aaron Marcavitch
Susan Pearl
Doug McElrath
City of College Park
MNCPPC
Acknowledgements
My name is Meredith Gorres, and my project is entitled “Route 1’s Intangible Heritage: The Lost Motels of College Park.” I chose this topic not only because of my interest in roadside architecture and enjoyment of historical research, but also because we can learn at least as much about College Park and its past, present, and future development by studying its intangible heritage as we would by examining its current architecture.
I will begin with my Problem Statement, move on to my Research Questions, which will be followed by Methodology and Project Details. Finally, I will wrap up with my conclusions.
My main preservation problem is summed up by the question why and how should the memory of College Park’s lost tourist camps and motels be preserved?
During the course of my research, I attempted to answer the following questions:
What was the historical timeline of each of the tourist camps and motels?
What contributed to their downfall?
How did their owners adapt or fail to adapt to the changing needs of tourists?
Why should their memory be preserved?
How should this information be presented to the public?
Over the course of this project, I…
Made site visits
Conducted research using primary and secondary sources
Consulted with long-time residents of College Park, families involved in the operation of the camps and motels, experts on the history of College Park, and city and county departmental agencies
My study area extends from the border between College Park and Beltsville to just south of the University of Maryland, College Park campus. Many tourist camps and motels were located along Route 1 to take advantage of tourist traffic heading to and from Washington, D.C., and those that existed in College Park alone provided a rich sample on which to base this investigation. This Google Earth map provides an aerial view of the project area and depicts the distribution and clustering of roadside lodging establishments in early-mid-20th century College Park.
This project is based on the research I conducted on 15 tourist camps and motels. I focused on camps and motels that were established from the 1920s to the 1950s. They were found using city directories, vintage postcards, oral interviews, and historical maps. They represent a variety of architectural styles which reflect their eras of construction, although most took the form of cabin camps.
Certain trends affected motels nationwide. The first was disinterest on the part of the children of motel owners in dedicating 7 days a week to running a motel. What made it less desirable was the need to compete with referral, franchise, and chain hotels, which had more experience and stronger financial backing, in addition to their increase in popularity amongst tourists starting in the 1950s and 60s. The construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950s and 60s was advantageous to some motels, but destructive to others, as my case studies will show.
Overall, I considered several factors which contributed to the disappearance of College Park’s motels: Construction of the Capital Beltway, industry changes, such as the rise of chain and franchise hotels, which resulted from being located near the Beltway, a college campus, and Washington, D.C., and contributed to the increase of hotels (which require less land), growth of the University of Maryland, as more students led to the need for higher roadside lodging capacities, more student housing, and more college student-oriented businesses, and self-redevelopment by capable owners to keep up with those changes.
College Park’s motels not only fit into the category of the recent past, but also intangible heritage, as they no longer exist in their original condition or location and comprise an important part of both Route 1 and College Park’s heritage. Just because they are gone does not mean they are unimportant. They simply fell victim to unfortunate situations and historical trends. Secondly, what is no longer extant is at least as important as what is. Like I mentioned earlier, what is no longer standing and why says at least as much about a place, its culture, and its people as what is there today. It says a lot about the values of not only those who preceded us, but also of those who are still living. Historical buildings that are still standing, in College Park and elsewhere, in combination with our intangible heritage, show us where we came from and how we got to where we are today. Knowledge of the trends and trajectories that brought us here can and should influence future planning decisions.
I chose 2 case studies to focus on for this presentation, not because of their level of documentation, but because they are strong examples of how the larger trends and more specific factors mentioned earlier affected College Park’s motels.
My first case study concerns Stewart’s Modern Brick Cottages. It was purchased by the Stewart’s in 1923 and was originally known as Justa Tourist Camp, the most creative name out of all of College Park’s motels. Initially, it offered fairly basic amenities.
After the name change, the owners advertised a longer list of amenities. Heated garages probably came in handy mostly during the winter to cut down on the time it took for customers to warm up their cars.
The Stewarts sold the property to the State Roads Commission of Maryland in 1963. The Capital Beltway was supposed to have exited onto Route 1 at the location of University Blvd., but the ramps were pushed north to their current location, shown here. This required the Stewart’s to sell their land to the state. The motel’s site is now the location of the Beltway entrance and exit ramps. This case study shows in a more immediate form the impact the construction of the interstate highway system had on motels all across the country.
Not all of College Park’s motels succumbed to change and completely disappeared, however. Some motel owners engaged in self-redevelopment to meet new demands. The Royal Pine is one example of this. It was built by George Siebens in the early 1940s to cater to tourists making their way to the Capital via Route 1. It originally contained 10 units connected by garages. The fact that garages were incorporated into the fabric of many motels during this period shows the level of importance that was placed on the automobile. Its characteristic southwestern appearance made it the most thematically-embellished motel in College Park. The owners’ belief that the automobile roadside was an unsettled frontier that needed to be tamed and civilized is indicated by the beautiful landscaping. Many early motels were thoughtfully laid out with greens, trees, and gardens.
In 1957, Felix Irwin, the owner of Del Haven White House Cottages, gave his daughter and her husband the down payment on the Royal Pine. Ed Sims immediately began to work on transforming it into a highly-reputable Best Western motel.
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Sims increased the capacity of the motel to 115 units through the construction of four additions. The first expansion involved the removal of the garages and the southwestern embellishment. The former garage space was connected to the adjoining motel room, creating larger family units. One of the additions is shown here.
The final addition in 1977 resulted in the $10,000 relocation of the motel’s main house to the rear of the property, rather than demolishing it. The Sims family continued to reside in the house after its relocation.
On the left is the result of the fourth and final expansion. On the right is the main house as it looks today. It is the only motel main house still standing. It is now used as the main house for the Ramada. The site still appears much as it did when Sims sold the property in 1988. Upon sale of the property, the hotel became a Ramada.
The success of the Royal Pine can be attributed to several factors. The first advantage that the Royal Pine had was that Ed Sims was essentially handed a motel by his father-in-law to keep him and his daughter in the area. The Irwin’s were professional motel operators, and the tradition continued on into the Sims family. Even to this day, the Sims are involved in the local hospitality business. The second reason was the incorporation of the motel by the Sims into the Best Western referral chain, putting it a step above the rest of College Park’s motels. The University of Maryland also contributed to its success. The number of students quadrupled between the Sims’ acquisition of the property and the early 1980s. As of 1987, the motel catered mostly to university students and university-generated traffic. Because of the 1960s construction of the Capital Beltway and University Boulevard the area had become more congested, which meant higher visibility. Thus the new highway system was actually advantageous to the Royal Pine. The area’s economic growth also contributed to the motel’s business. The motel catered to business-people year-round and tourists during the summer. Families who came through to visit Washington, D.C. often stayed at certain College Park motels, like the Royal Pine, because of their family atmosphere.
Motels that have stood test of time, as well as those that have not, are part of a local and national story of growing dependence on the automobile, which is visible in suburban development as well as landscape and architectural design. College Park’s roadside lodging is an integral aspect of the city’s development. In addition, the evolution of roadside lodging in College Park follows on a smaller scale the nationwide trend from cabin camps to motels to hotels.
Based on the intangible nature of these sites and the fact that they are owned by private entities, we need to think creatively when it comes to interpretation. There are several options, such as the creation of a brochure, which could be made available online, or a driving tour. Information on College Park’s roadside lodging establishments could be made available to the general public on historypin. One or more interpretive panel(s) and an iPhone app (featuring a driving tour or historical image overlays) could also be designed. Lastly, presentations on this material could be made at public meetings to generate interest within the community.
Motels on the College Park level existed as a microcosm of nationwide trends. What was detrimental to some motels was advantageous to others. Motels that were bypassed by the interstate highway system closed their doors. Those that were in close proximity to highway exits and major tourist attractions, such as Washington, D.C., had made a reputable name for themselves, and were able to grow and expand to meet new demands were able to succeed. The two case studies I discussed embody within their stories the two main forces in the decline of motels: the construction of the interstate highway system and the evolution from family-run to chain-operated motels and hotels.
I would like to thank the following people and organizations that played a valuable part in the research and editing process: Dr. Dennis J. Pogue, Christine Henry, and Aaron Marcavitch, the members of my advisory committee, as well as Susan Pearl, Doug McElrath, the City of College Park, and MNCPPC.
