Friday, August 28, 2009

Early Motor Travel

With a few precious free moments this afternoon, I was looking through one of my postcard albums of old black-and-white images of early roadside tourist businesses. I have tons of them, and they're one of the most sought after type of postcard for roadside collectors. I'm too lazy to scan many of them today, but here are five which really give one the feel for various aspects of early automobile travel. All are on Route 66. Some day I hope to have all of them online.

Jimmie O'Brien's Modern Camp, Niangua, MO

Lebanon, MO Hotel and Texaco Station

Lee Walker's Resort, Hazelgreen, MO

Central Auto Court, Holbrook AZ

Shell Camp, Vinita OK -- artificially colored sky

5 comments:

Ron McCoy said...

I wonder how many of those old tourist businesses gave S&H Green Stamps? :-)

Laurel said...

I venture to say that some of them were around even before Green Stamps!

Beth said...

Great images, and you're right...you don't often see B&W postcards! I love the Central Auto Court one...with the bays right next to the units. Reminds me of the late, lamented Coral Court. *sniff*

Trevor Hilton said...

Laurel, I see a good opportunity for you. If you printed and sold reprints of those, you could make a million bucks.

On the other hand, maybe I should do instead.

Anonymous said...

The "Modern Cottages" sign looks very similar to the John's Modern Cabins sign. (Not surprising, as we've been told the sign at John's was a stock design that would be modified to suit a particular business, but still cool to see another of that type.)