The Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts brand was the first motel chain in the United States,[1] [2] founded by Edgar Lee Torrance in Waco, Texas, in 1929. By 1955, there were more than twenty Alamo Plazas across the southeastern U.S., most controlled by a loosely knit group of a half-dozen investors and operating using common branding or architecture.[3]
Marketed as "Alamo Plaza Tourist Apartments" using distinctive Mission Revival Style architecture, each formed a U-shaped court with multiple buildings fronted by a distinctive façade which mimics the face of the Alamo Mission in San Antonio. These properties attempted to distinguish themselves from other motels or cabins of the tourist courts of their era by introducing amenities such as telephones in each room (1936), Beautyrest mattresses on every bed and later swimming pools and televisions in rooms.
The roadside tactic of using distinctive, non-standard architecture to catch the attention of passing motorists would later be used by other chains, such as the Wigwam Motels which served U.S. Route 66 travellers or the easily recognised orange rooftops of the original Howard Johnson chain.
While the chain's expansion continued through both the Great Depression and World War II (wartime construction was typically near U.S. bases, where the properties were needed to temporarily house military personnel) into the heyday of the 1950s, the use of the Pop Spanish Revival tourist court façade by the chain would end by 1960 and the last new location would open in 1965.
In 1929, Edgar Lee Torrance built the first Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts in East Waco, Texas; by 1936 the then-seven motels in the Alamo chain would be among the first to install telephones in each individual room.[4]
By 1941, there were ten Alamo Plaza locations and at the chain's peak in 1955 there were more than twenty.[5]
These motels were "motor courts" as they were laid out in a "C" shape with a courtyard in the centre. With Simmons furniture and Beautyrest mattresses on every bed, the Alamo Plaza rooms were marketed as "tourist apartments" under a slogan of “Catering to those who care.” They were typically located on the U.S. Highway system in major cities in the southeastern United States.
Where they did not themselves contain restaurants, they were typically located with a restaurant adjacent or in close proximity.
Commercially, these operated as a loosely knit form of an ownership chain, in which one small group of investors controlled both the chain and the individual motels within it. As the first location in the Alamo Plaza chain opened in 1929, these pre-date both the referral chains (United Motor Courts: 1933, Quality Courts United: 1939, The Best Western Motels: 1947, Superior Courts United:1950 and Friendship Inns: 1961) and the long list of franchise chains which were to follow in the path of Travelodge (1935) and Holiday Inn (1952).
While the 1950s brought greatly increased automobile traffic, they also brought many new competitors. With 86% of all Americans travelling by car, the number of U.S. motels accelerated from 20000 in 1946 to nearly 60000 one decade later, setting off a race among motel owners to add amenities to remain competitive.
A short-lived attempt was made briefly by Bill Farner to franchise the brand at the end of the 1950s. As a response to the Great Sign of the Holiday Inn franchises, a large neon sign design was deployed. The signage, used at both owned and franchised locations, had a star atop an 'A' and an arrow pointing to "Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts". The franchise locations were conversions - existing properties to which either a "member – seek the stars – Alamo Plaza Motor Courts" sign had been added beneath the existing branding or the properties renamed outright to "Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts" with the corresponding neon signage. The franchise attempt was abandoned in 1960, after about a year of use with 50 locations listed in a "Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts - Spend the night where the price is right - free pocket travel guide". One franchised "Alamo Motel" at 19803 N US Highway 441, High Springs, Florida, is still extant with signage (minus the top star) largely intact.
The last of the Alamo properties were built or renovated in the 1960s. These (a facelift to existing Alamo sites in Chattanooga and Charlotte, plus one last new property in Shreveport) use a modern box-like architectural design with a plastic-and-metal face, abandoning the faux-Spanish Mission adobe façade which had traditionally appeared on most Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts.
As the original owners retired or left the chain, the individual motel properties were sold off by the respective families. Some retained the Alamo branding for decades after the chain itself had vanished, slowly deteriorating under new ownership as the motels had been built around a US Highway system by then long bypassed by new interstate highways. Most had been sold by the 1970s, fallen into decline in the 1980s and 1990s and in many cases would be ultimately demolished.
In a few instances, these properties were converted to other uses.
The last Alamo was built in 1965 along I-20 in Shreveport, Louisiana, as a fully modern motel with a version of the updated metal-plastic façade; it is now a Travelodge.
A loosely connected chain in which several owners operated multiple locations each, the group was largely built around founder Edgar Lee Torrance, his former employee William Farner (and Farner's business partner Charles Mooney) and various others brought into the fold by Torrance or Farner. The resulting chain was a collection of nominally independently owned motels that depended on the personalities of various owners.[3]
E. Lee Torrance (founder), a former used car dealer, owned eleven of the twenty-two Alamo Plaza locations. A local Waco judge, Drummond W. Bartlett, was initially co-owner of the one original Waco Alamo property but had no further involvement in the expansion of the Alamo Plaza chain.
William (Bill) Farner worked for Torrance at the Waco location initially; he later would go on to build new locations in the chain (mostly in Texas) in partnership with Charles Mooney. Farner was also involved with efforts to bring new owners into the chain, including a brief entry into franchising at the end of the 1950s.
W.G. "Mac" McGrady, a nephew of E. Lee Torrance, operated a group of "St. Francis Hotel Courts" in Alabama cities which used the original architecture and were Alamo in all but name. The motels' picture postcards promoted these as "The three largest and finest courts in Alabama's three largest cities, Mobile, Montgomery and Birmingham. Total of 255 rooms, tile baths, carpeted floors, room telephones, air-conditioned, hotel service and fine restaurants – Approved by AAA and Duncan Hines."[6]
Conversely, E. L. McLallen used the name and features but not the Alamo architecture. A lumber merchant by trade, he entered the chain by purchasing the Memphis Alamo Plaza not long after Torrance had started it. McLallen soon began his own branch (Nashville, Louisville, Knoxville, and Indianapolis) using primarily Colonial-style architecture.
William P. and Mary W. Robinson, as newcomers to the hospitality industry, were introduced to the chain by Farner and Mooney. They opened one 29-unit "Plaza Hotel Court" in Columbus, Georgia, in 1941 using Alamo architecture. Initially serving Fort Benning during World War II, the location was renamed Alamo Plaza Hotel Court with Torrance's blessing.
Milton Stroud of Waco established the Park Plaza Courts (see below), using a similar façade but different branding, mostly on or near U.S. Route 66. These were not part of the main Alamo chain but used the same architect and design.
Other properties with independent ownership but modeled on the Alamo façade architecturally:
A chain of six motel courts, these were architecturally similar to the Alamo model but share neither name nor ownership with the main Alamo Plaza chain. These were originally built by Milton Stroud (Sr.) and his brother Lemuel Stroud, with the first location opened in West Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1942. Milton Stroud (Jr.) and his wife Mickey were also involved with the chain after 1950.[20]
Locations were chosen to be at one-day travel intervals by motorcar. Four of the six locations were in U.S. Route 66 cities: St Louis, West Tulsa, Amarillo and Flagstaff.[23]
The remaining two Park Plaza Courts were in Raton, New Mexico and Texarkana, Arkansas.
The St. Louis location, opened 1948 as the fifth in the Park Plaza series, had an adjacent Golden Drumstick restaurant operated by the same owners.[24]
The sixth and final location (East 7th at Hickory, Texarkana) was on U.S. Route 71. Its postcards touted "On U.S. Hwys 67-71-82, 2 minutes from downtown. Phone 222767. 85 lovely rooms and suites. Year-round guest control air-conditioned. Swimming pool and playground. Room phones, T.V. radios, room service. Town House Restaurant on premises. Also affiliated Park Plaza Motels in Fort Worth, Amarillo, Raton, Flagstaff, St. Louis, Town Park in Memphis, Belmont in Dallas, Catalina in Wichita Falls."
Most of these are now gone; the original West Tulsa location was sold by the Stroud family to Dorothy Harrison, but by the 1980s was serving as refuge for the homeless.[25]
The New Grande Courts in Sullivan, Missouri, were owned by Abe Schwartz but modelled architecturally on the design of the Park Plaza Courts in St. Louis, which in turn were based on the Alamo Plaza design.