‘[No] Vacancy, Honeymoon Suite or By-the-Week: Motel Culture in Niagara’ is an exhibit at the Niagara Falls History Museum that runs until until Sept. 7, 2014. It celebrates the "midcentury modern" architecture that sprung up along roadways in the post WW2 era when family roadtrips became popular. Motels began to decline with the advent of chain hotels that were built along newly constructed freeways. Today few remain.
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| [No] Vacancy greets visitors with a mock reception desk (circa late-60s) complete with vintage brochures and a cigarette lighter, mustard-coloured chairs on a checkerboard floor, and an oscillating fan near the key-fob rack. |
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| Image: Cosmo Condina/Courtesy Niagara History Museum |
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It’s kind of boring to be in NYC, Vancouver, or Timbuktu, and have the room look like the chain’s rooms in every other city.
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