Existing comment:
Ring's Rest
By the 1930's, clusters of family-owned tourist cabins, restaurants, and gasoline stations kept long-distance motorists fed, rested, and ready to go. Fred E. Ringe Sr. and his teenage children operated Ring's Rest, four tourist cabins on Route 1 near Muirkirk, Maryland, north of Washington. Ring's Rest was cozy, homelike, and convenient, but isolated. Tourist cabins never achieved the respectability of hotels. Many had a slightly sinister atmosphere after dark. Some had reputations as criminal hangouts or dens of vice. The Ringes refused service to locals in order to screen out the "hot-pillow" trade. [The audio track that plays for this exhibit has the kid telling the traveler that he can't stay here because his license plate is from Virginia -- the Ringe's prohibited people from Maryland, DC, or Virginia since they might be illicit couples or other undesirables.]
Creating Consistency
Comfort, cleanliness, and clientele varied greatly at mom-and-pop tourist cabins, and motorists could not always find satisfactory lodgings on the road. Some cabin owners joined referral organizations that promised higher standards -- as did the few chains of franchised cabins or courts that appeared before World War II. After the war, motel chains such as Holiday Inn, Howard Johnson, and Best Western set a new standard for lodging, removing the guesswork and worry from long-distance automobile travel, as well as the local flavor and personal touches.
"Jim Crow" on the Road
Roads were open to all motorists, but the facilities that lined them were not. Some African Americans owned automobiles by the early 1920's, but the discriminatory practices of hotels, tourist cabins, and other lodgings made highway travel difficult. Some African Americans opened roadside accommodations, but not all communities had such conveniences. Black motorists either sought black-owned establishments or stayed with friends and relatives. At times, they were forced to spend uneasy nights parked at service stations or beside highways when commercial hospitality was nowhere to be found. |