A Hotel and a Motor Lodge
I selected two rather random slide scans, but there is a theme (as you can see by the title of the post). Where can you stay when you go to Palm Springs or Santa Barbara? Stay tuned!
This 1963 scan was a mystery to me. Sure, we can see a funky place called the "Dunes Hotel", with that distinctive whatsit out front. A pergola from outer space? With the name of the hotel,, and the desert-ish environs, I thought that this might be on the outskirts of Las Vegas, but it is in fact Palm Springs. The Dunes is still around, and has been updated; it looks clean and modern. But they seem to have lost the Venusian pergola.
Here's a vintage postcard...
Next is this undated (but certainly 1950s) photo showing two well-dressed ladies near the ocean (you can see a pier in the background), with an avenue of stately palm trees, which is apt since they are at the Ocean Palms Motor Lodge. It was simple enough to find out that this was in Santa Barbara, CA. I believe that it is now known as the Ocean Palms Resort Hotel, because motor courts are squaresville, daddy-o.
We love vintage postcards! Typically the dead fronds on palm trees are trimmed off, but somebody wanted to be sure to provide a good home for rats.
Another vintage postcard!
I hope you have enjoyed your visit to Palm Springs and Santa Barbara.
12 comments:
Major-
"A pergola from outer space?"
Genius description-! What function does it serve beyond just sitting there and "looking pretty"-?? Bizarre - especially that odd, pole light light fixture featured within it. (I'd love to see the catalog that one was featured in-!) Also - I love the black wall phone in the guest room. So convenient.
The image of the Ocean Pams Motor Lodge could be from late 1948, as the automobile peeking-out from behind the palm trees is a 1949 Chevrolet.
Thanks, Major.
This looks eye-catching! The Venusian pergola is what sets it apart. And they removed it? I guess TRE is a problem on Venus as well.
The rooms look nice, but I'm not sure I could sleep with all that saturated yellow and orange. It's like the surface of the sun!
The palm trees at the Ocean Palms Motor lodge need a haircut. There's nothing worse than hippy palm trees!
So evidently, the long-haired hippy palms are a desirable feature here at Ocean Palms. It's a 'look'. To each his own. They should tie-dye the fronds.
One desert. One seaside. And yet they look quite similar... except for that ocean thing out there. Thanks, Major.
These are awesome pictures! Get in the time machine, kids, we're goin' to a motel! I am such a sucker for the Dunes architecture; the "outer space" roof of the pergola is great for snow and rain, but I guess that's not really much of a concern in Palm Springs!
Can any botanist types identify the little bush/shrub across the sidewalk from the fire hydrant in the picture of the Ocean Palms? It looks like a wet hay bale to me, but that seems pretty unlikely. "Myrna, we're not staying here one more night! It's like a barnyard after a nor'easter!" The last postcard makes me think of a book I loved as a kid called The Pink Motel, by Carol Ryrie Brink.
While the pergola is certainly groovy, nothing says 70s chic more than the orange and brown interior decor!
In that first photo of old Santa Barbara, 'Sambos' is a just a few feet closer towards us.
MS
I love the Venusian Pergola! I will name my ska band after it. And I want those armchairs in their original fabric. Contrary to popular belief, it does rain in Palm Springs, infrequently, but sometimes torrentially. I could tell you a funny story about a building owner there who thought that you didn’t need to worry about leaks in the desert. For another time.
At first glance, I thought the Santa Barbara pics were Palm Springs, since trees like that line Palm Canyon Blvd in Palm Springs. Yes, that is rat thatch.
Thanks for the postcards, Major!
JG
Melissa, I think the “hay bale” is the end of a rubble stone wall between the green hedge planter and the sidewalk. It does look like hay though.
JG
Wow, back-in angle parking. I didn't realize that was a think so far back. Is it a common thing in California? DOTs keep trying to introduce it here in the NE, but people don't get it and park head-in anyway.
Dean Finder, I recently went looking for information on an old movie theater from a nearby small city in New York, and the comments section in one article was FLOODED with comments from older people about how the number one thing that destroyed the downtown area around the theater was back-in angle parking! You know, not suburban sprawl, not the changing economy, not any of the factors that depressed downtown areas all over the USA, nope, it was the introduction of back-in angle parking! I hadn't had such a good laugh in a long time!
Nanook, I do think the “pergola” is principally a decorative object, something to catch the eye of a person driving past. “Let’s stay there!”. It might have actually looked pretty striking at night with those colored lights inside. Yeah that black wall phone is weird! Thanks for the date on the Chevrolet, I’d guess that the slide is from the early 1950s, but it’s only a guess.
JB, there’s always an issue with architecture that recalls a specific style and era. It will go through a phase where it is considered ugly and “must be changed or torn down”. But if they saved it long enough, it would become a beloved artifact. But nobody is ever willing to wait long enough for that to happen! I don’t mind the yellow and orange, it probably didn’t look so lava-like in real life! I honestly look at the palms trees in Santa Barbara and imagine how many rats live in them. Thousands??
Melissa, with the exception of the “pergola”, I can’t say that the Dunes does much for me. In fact I think it’s kind of ugly! But it is what it is. I think we’re seeing the end of a stone wall in that Ocean Palms photo, though it does sort of look like a wet bale of hay!
MS, someday, orange and brown will come back, more popular than ever! YOU’LL SEE!
JG, “Venusian Pergola”, would you be a Prog Rock band? Or a psychedelic band? My best friend’s dad worked on the construction of many buildings in California in which the very idea of dealing with rain runoff was not even considered. I hope those folks liked opening up their checkbooks six months later! I’ve never been to Palm Springs, and didn’t know that they actually had rows of palm trees, similar to photo #2.
JG, I concur!
Dean Finder, something tells me that the person who backed into that parking space was a maverick, and that it wasn’t normally done by most people!
I think the purpose of the Venusian Pergola was just to signify from the distance of the highway, "HEY, CHUMPS, THIS IS A HOTEL!" The porte-cochère, a covered entrance under which a vehicle could stop while its occupants got out, went into the lobby, checked in, dealt with luggage, etc., all while they and the vehicle were sheltered from the weather, had been a standard feature of hotels for so long, that adding an oversized one to the office building of the Dunes was probably more form than function.
Maybe not... LOOK HERE.
Nanook, ha, you’re right - AND I shared that same postcard on today’s blog!
Melissa, you are probably right, though I appreciate the extra effort, since they could have just made a big lit-up sign like so many other hotels did. They got artistic!
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