The Motel Inn (originally known as the Milestone Mo-Tel), located in

San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfwa ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, was the first

motel A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central lobby. Entering dictionaries ...

in the world. It opened on December 12, 1925, and closed in 1991. The building is now the administrative building of the Apple Farm Inn hotel next door.

Concept

The emergence and popularization of the automobile in the United States of the early 20th century inspired many car owners beyond commuting into town. The poor roads of the era, combined with lower vehicle speeds and reliability, required two or more days of nearly all day driving for 400-mile trips such as

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. Nearby destinations of 40 miles or less could be visited in a day to include a return trip. Longer trips required an overnight stay and often left travelers looking for places to pitch tents – or sleep in their automobile – if prior arrangements hadn't been made in destinations or stopovers that happened to have hotels or inns. Motel Inn (

The lack of niche accommodations to fill the need for automobile travelers who only needed an overnight stay to continue their trip inspired many entrepreneurs. The combination of the convenience of a campground with the comforts and respectability of a hotel or inn spurred the creation of the

. The hotel's architect, Arthur S. Heineman (1878–1974), picked

as a midpoint location between

and

, which took two days of driving on the roads at the time.

Architecture

The original plan of the Milestone Mo-Tel was to include both bungalows and attached apartments with parking outside each unit, though some would have a private garage. Each location of the chain was to include laundry facilities, a grocery store, and a restaurant. Each unit included an indoor bathroom with a shower, obviously a level of privacy not found at campgrounds. The exterior of the buildings was modeled after the

Spanish missions in California The Spanish missions in California ( es, Misiones españolas en California) comprise a series of 21 religious outposts or missions established between 1769 and 1833 in what is now the U.S. state of California. Founded by Catholic priests o ...

; the three-stage bell tower was a reflection of the

Mission San Luis Rey de Francia Mission San Luis Rey de Francia ( es, Misión San Luis Rey de Francia) is a former Spanish mission in San Luis Rey, a neighborhood of Oceanside, California. This Mission lent its name to the Luiseño tribe of Mission Indians. At its prime, M ...

in Oceanside.

Business

The motel cost $80,000 to build in 1925 ($ in dollars). It originally charged $1.25 per night per room ($ in dollars). The Milestone Interstate Corporation, created by Arthur Heineman and his brother Alfred, was incorporated in an attempt to seek capital from outside investors in order to build a chain of eighteen motor courts at 150–200 mile intervals in response to the growth in automobile travel in

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

and

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

. At the time, this spacing would have represented a day's drive between sites. The Motel Inn (as the Milestone Mo-Tel was renamed) was intended to be the prototype for the proposed chain. The Heinemans were unable to register the name as a trademark, which allowed competitors to use the name. Severe competition in the market as well as competitors with lesser designs but lower pricing also hampered the chain in getting off the ground. The plans for expansion as a chain ultimately disintegrated as the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

caused investment dollars to become scarce and ultimately caused the Heineman brothers to lose the one existing Motel Inn property to

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mortg ...

Today

The Motel Inn closed in 1991. Many of the buildings were torn down in 2006; only two fragments of the original buildings exist, including the mission-style bell tower. Located at 2223 Monterey Street, at the end of the street next to an on-ramp to

U.S. Route 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...

, the Motel Inn is now the administrative building of the hotel next door, the Apple Farm Inn, at 2015 Monterey Street.History in San Luis Obispo County
Retrieved April 9, 2012.

References

External links

Huell Howser – California Gold Episode #202
(December 10, 1991) – Motel Inn and Central Coast

– Photography page with history description
The Very First Motel
(2004) – by Rachel Anne Goodman,

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...