Endangered Species

Mom-Pop motels join list of endangered places
CANOE Travel News - travel.canoe.ca

WILDWOOD, N.J. (AP) - The Lollipop and The Starlux. The Shalimar and The Caribbean. The Imperial 500 and The Tangiers.

With garish neon signs, multicoloured exteriors and sweeping deck overhangs, the "Doo Wop" motels of the Wildwoods are the architectural equivalents of a Vitalis-slicked pompadour.

But they, too, are fading into the past.

One by one, the Mom-Pop motels are being razed, rendered economically obsolete by a real estate boom that has made the land underneath too valuable to support a few dozen $100-a-night motel rooms.

More than 50 of the motels have been demolished in the last three years, giving way to pricey condominiums with none of their charm - or history.

"Without a concerted attempt to halt demolition, these colourful vestiges of American life will go the way of the ducktail haircut, the '57 Chevy and the drive-in double feature," said Richard Moe, executive director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The Trust, based in Washington, D.C., included the motels on its list of the 11 most endangered historic places in America.