We’ll Leave the Neon Light On For You

“The motel might seem like an ageless fixture of the American landscape, but in fact, this roadside mainstay didn’t exist before Dec. 12, 1925. That’s when Arthur and Alfred Heineman, two brothers with a successful Southern California architecture practice, opened the Milestone Mo-Tel, the first ‘motor hotel,’ in San Luis Obispo, roughly halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.” NYT (Gift Article) on the Neon Signs, Swimming Pools and American Dreams represented by 100 Years of the Motel. (When my dad first moved to America, he was taking a bus across the country. At one point, he leaned over to his travel companion and asked, “Who is this guy Motel, he owns half the country?”)