Motels almost by definition include a parking lot, while older hotels were not usually built with automobile parking in mind. Because of their low rise construction, the number of rooms which would fit on any given amount of land was low compared to the high rise urban hotels which had grown around train stations. This was not an issue in an era where the major highways became the main street in every town along the way and inexpensive land at the edge of town could be developed with motels, car dealerships, fuel stations, lumber yards, amusement parks, roadside diners, drive in restaurants, theaters, and countless other small roadside businesses. The automobile brought mobility and the motel could appear anywhere on the vast network of two lane highways. Motels are typically constructed in an I, L, or U shaped layout that includes guest rooms an attached managers office a small reception and in some cases, a small diner and a swimming pool. A motel was typically single story with rooms opening directly onto a parking lot, making it easy to unload suitcases from a vehicle. A second story, if present, would face onto a balcony served by multiple stairwells. The post war motels, especially in the early 1. Western imagery of cowboys and Indians to contemporary images of spaceships and atomic era iconography. U. S. Route 6. 6 is the most popular example of the neon era. Many of these signs remain in use to this day. Room typeseditIn some motels, a handful of rooms would be larger and contain kitchenettes or apartment like amenities these rooms were marketed at a higher price as efficiencies as their occupants could prepare food themselves instead of incurring the cost of eating all meals in restaurants. Rooms with connecting doors so that two standard rooms could be combined into one larger room also commonly appeared in both hotels and motels. A few motels particularly in Niagara Falls, Ontario, where a motel strip extending from Lundys Lane to the falls has long been marketed to newlyweds would offer honeymoon suites with extra amenities such as whirlpool baths. HistoryeditThe first campgrounds for automobile tourists were constructed in the late 1. Before that, tourists who couldnt afford to stay in a hotel either slept in their cars or pitched their tents in fields alongside the road. These were called auto camps. The modern campgrounds of the 1. Auto camps and courtseditAuto camps predated motels by a few years, established in the 1. As demand increased, for profit commercial camps gradually displaced public camp grounds. Until the first travel trailers became available in the 1. The next step up from the travel trailer was the cabin camp, a primitive but permanent group of structures. During the Great Depression, landholders whose property fronted onto highways built cabins to convert unprofitable land to income some opened tourist homes. The usually single story buildings for a roadside motel or cabin court were quick and simple to construct, with plans and instructions readily available in how to and builders magazines. Expansion of highway networks largely continued unabated through the depression as governments attempted to create employment but the roadside cabin camps were primitive, basically just auto camps with small cabins instead of tents. The 1. 93. 5 City Directory for San Diego, California, lists motel type accommodations under tourist camps. One initially could stay in the Depression era cabin camps for less than a dollar per night but small comforts were few and far between. Travelers in search of modern amenities soon would find them at cottage courts and tourist courts. The price was higher but the cabins had electricity, indoor bathrooms, and occasionally a private garage or carport. They were arranged in attractive clusters or a U shape. Often, these camps were part of a larger complex containing a filling station, a caf, and sometimes a convenience store. Facilities like the Rising Sun Auto Camp in Glacier National Park and Blue Bonnet Court in Texas were mom and pop facilities on the outskirts of towns that were as quirky as their owners. Auto camps continued in popularity through the Depression years and after World War II, their popularity finally starting to diminish with increasing land costs and changes in consumer demands. In contrast, though they remained small independent operations, motels quickly adopted a more homogenized appearance and were designed from the start to cater purely to motorists. Tourist homesedit. Cabins for Colored, 1. South Carolina. In town, tourist homes were private residences advertising rooms for auto travelers. Unlike boarding houses, guests at tourist homes were usually just passing through. In the southwestern United States, a handful of tourist homes were opened by African Americans as early as the Great Depression due to the lack of food or lodging for travelers of color in the Jim Crow conditions of the era. There were things money couldnt buy on Route 6. Between Chicago and Los Angeles you couldnt rent a room if you were tired after a long drive. You couldnt sit down in a restaurant or diner or buy a meal no matter how much money you had. You couldnt find a place to answer the call of nature even with a pocketful of money. Route 6. 6 in the 1. The Negro Motorist Green Book 1. Directory of Negro Hotels and Guest Houses in the United States 1. U. S. Travel Bureau specialized in accommodations. Segregation of U. S. tourist accommodation would legally be ended by the Civil Rights Act of 1. Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States affirming that Congress powers over interstate commerce extend to regulation of local incidents such as racial discrimination in a motel serving interstate travelers which might substantially and harmfully affect that commerce. Early motelseditThe term motel originated with the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo, originally called the Milestone Mo Tel, which was constructed in 1. Arthur Heineman although some hotels with a similar architecture existed at least as early as 1. In conceiving of a name for his hotel, Heineman abbreviated motor hotel to mo tel after he could not fit the words Milestone Motor Hotel on his rooftop. Many other businesses followed in its footsteps and started building their own auto camps. Combining the individual cabins of the tourist court under a single roof yielded the motor court or motor hotel. A handful of motor courts were beginning to call themselves motels, a term coined in 1. Many of these early motels are still popular and are in operation, as in the case of the 3. V Tourist Court1. St. Francisville, Louisiana, built in 1.