A New Golden Age of Mid-Century Roadside Motel

“We noticed a listing for a motel on Nextdoor,” Sinclair said. “Jared said he passed the motel every day on his way to middle and high school, and that it was a fun excuse to get out of the house on a dreary November day.”

When they arrived at the motel on Albany Post Road, they were immediately struck by the beauty of the setting and the promising bones of the structure. The motel was built in 1960 and the most recent owner bought it in 1973, eventually shifting it from most overnight stays to short and long term rentals.

“The mid-century aesthetic appealed to us for a number of reasons,” says Sinclair. “With the way we rethink it, we hope not only to create a beautiful space where people can escape for adventures in the Catskills, but also to show them that not everything has to be bought new. They can be recycled and recycled, and used in new ways. This is also why we named it the Motel recovered. “

The name couldn’t be more apt for the current wave of interest in renovated roadside motels. Once a quick object of fascination that you whisked off on your way to another place, these 50s and 60s must-haves have become destinations in and of themselves.

Part of this is due to convenience – COVID has made it safer and easier for city dwellers to travel to the Catskills by car rather than flying to Cairo – but it’s also due to a trend of buyers before – caretakers to take care of them and to zhuzh.

Now even home improvement shows are capitalizing on fixing. The new Magnolia network ‘(RE) motel’ series presents the transformation of the Graham & Co. Motel in the Catksills and the Starlite Motel.

Two of the area’s pioneering ‘moteliers’ who brought the classic mid-century motel into the 21st century are Alix Umen and Adriana Farmiga, owners of the Starlite in Kerhonkson. The couple spent years in the Catskills while working in New York during the week in visual products and design (Umen) and as artist and associate dean at the Cooper Union School of Art (Farmiga).

Both brought their professional and personal experiences to the refurbished Starlite, which opened in 2019. It was an instant and constant success, until the pandemic forced them to press a hiatus for a few uncertain months. Once things started to reopen, they realized their motel was perfectly suited for social distance travel.

“We created a contactless check-in system, and that saved us,” says Umen. Motels have exterior entrances to rooms, which avoids potentially cramped elevators and hallways for guests, which is likely another reason they spend a while.

Umen spent years traveling to Palm Springs and South Beach to visit her grandparents and fell in love with the aesthetics of Miami motels, while Farmiga grew up on weekends in the Catskills and s’ inspires mid-century Caribbean, Scandinavian and Japanese design movements. Their inspirations came together to create an entirely redesigned, yet oddly familiar, comfortable space.

This juxtaposition is part of the allure of the revamped roadside motel: it has one foothold in the last century, and another firmly rooted in the here and now. But it’s often the past that new owners find compelling.

Victoria Nelson first describes her Terrace Motel, soon to open in Ellenville, as bittersweet “because we fell in love with the mid-century modern design and the beautiful surroundings, but felt overwhelmed by the the idea of ​​buying and renovating an entire hotel.

Once she and her business partners considered the potential of hosting events, they realized that drug rehab would be a safe investment. They plan to open their doors in 2022.

“The bones are beautiful and the space, on eight acres, is incredible,” says Nelson.

Renovated Catskills and Hudson Valley Roadside Motels