Most of my interests growing up revolved around courthouses, churches, and schools. It didn’t take long before I was drawn to any building with a clock tower or cupola! I wasn’t really into motel architecture aside from Signature Inn’s intriguing porte-cochères, but I made sure to make a mental note of each that featured a cupola. They were still common in the 1990s, but they’re a dying breed today.
I drove past Muncie’s Super 8 a couple weeks ago when my gaze was drawn to its strident cupola. As I continued home, I realized it’d been years since I’d seen another cupola capping a motel! I wondered what the hell happened to all of them, then asked myself why so many motels featured them in the first place. The first question still stumps me, but I think the answer to the second lies in a study of Colonial Revival architecture.
Buildings from America’s colonial period often featured symmetrical faces, gable roofs, red brick, and cupolas for ventilation. Structures designed during Colonial Revival movement sought to evoke a sense of nostalgia for America’s past while adapting their historic elements to contemporary needs1.
The style became particularly popular in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries after the Centennial Exposition of 1876 ushered in a renewed interest in American heritage2. Colonial Revival remained fashionable through the 1930s, when the Great Depression and changing artistic inclinations simplified the style to what we usually see today3.
Colonial Revival structures built after 1945 featured less ornamentation than their progenitors and tended to be “more assembled than crafted4.” The change in priorities coincided with the rise of the cheap motel across the USA: around 22,000 old-school motor courts operated in 19475, but a staggering 50,000 motels had overtaken them by 19506!
I imagine so many motels used Colonial Revival motifs because the design conveyed a sense of tradition, hospitality, and warmth. I’m unaware of any in Muncie, but it’s easy to find examples nearby. I’ve written about the old Howard Hughes Motel in Greenfield, built as the Motel Weston in 1952. The place fit the style to a T!
The Cupola Court Motel in Oklahoma, Vermont’s Cupola Motel, the Grand Motel in Wisconsin, Santa Barbara’s Sea Captain’s Motor Hotel, and countless others utilized some version of Colonial Revival architecture. For a nation still reeling from the second World War, some suggest that the style reminded vacationers of a simpler, more virtuous time7.
Motels superseded stodgy hotels as America’s most popular place to stay in 19518. Eventually, their colonial revival aesthetic bled over to a new generation. Muncie’s Super 8 Motel was built in 1986 after South Dakota developers Clifford Visscher and Dennis R. Howell announced plans to erect the 64-unit facility9. Call me crazy, but I think I remember the cupola coming much later after a competitor sprung up a third of a mile down Bethel Pike.
Muncie’s 76-room Holiday Inn Express opened in August 199710. I lived just down the road as a kid. I distinctly remember being drawn to the $2.5 million motel solely because of the big fat cupola above its central gable! Unfortunately, it was removed sometime between 2005 and 2008, which left Super 8 as the last of its kind in Muncie.
That’s the way things go, I guess. These days, modern motels embrace the boxy aesthetic so many fast food restaurants employ in a race to modernity and homogenization. Forget differentiation- brands want to look like other brands! This might be my “old man yells at cloud” moment, but I’ll be sad when Muncie’s Super 8 Motel ditches its cupola and stops carrying on the tradition of Colonial Revival motels.
Sources Cited
1 Colonial Revival Style 1880 – 1960 (n.d.). The Pennysvalnia Architectural Feudal Guide. Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission [Harrisburg]. Web. Retrieved December 28, 2023.
2 Gyure, D.A. (2000). The Colonial Revival: A Review of the Literature. The University of Virginia [Charrlotesville]. Web. Retrieved December 28, 2023.
3 City of Anaheim Architectural Style Guide: American Colonial Revival (2020). Architectural Resources Group. City of Anaheim Planning and Building Department [Anaheim]. Web. Retrieved December 28, 2023.
4 Colonial Revival Style (1880-1955). Wentworth Studio [Chevy Chase]. Web. Retrieved December 28, 2023.
5 Coin-ops find motor courts increasing fertile field (1947, March 31). Billboard [New York]. Magazine.
6 Margolies, J. (1995). Home Away From Home: Motels in America. Bullfinch Press, Little Brown and Co. [Boston]. Book.
7 (See footnote 2).
8 (See footnote 6).
9 Black, P. (1985, July 26). New Super 8 budget motel to locate here. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 1.
10 Star bank moving to Shoney’s site (1997, August 3). The Muncie Star Press. p. 51.
Ted, sometimes on modern buildings the cupolas are used to hide ventilation fans, or plumbing vents. I suppose now they just put the vents and fans on the back side of the building.
I hadn’t thought of that but should have. Good point!
Wow! So, every time we do these CA-to-IN road trips, we stay three nights in motels or chain hotels in each direction. If we don’t have the dog with us, we usually drive as long as we can and stop either when it’s very late or when the weather gets crappy. I guess I thought those cupolas were there so that guests could unload their cars without getting their luggage wet! They also serve as a measure of perceived security for the person who stays in the car while someone else goes in to see if there’s a vacancy. But it looks like that’s not the case at all!
I think at this point the cupolas are decorative, but the Porte Cocheres that shield visitors from the elements are another interesting topic. Some, like New Castle’s Garden Inn, feature both combined!
Something else I had never thought about! I wonder if their disappearance isn’t as simple as a roofer who either damages it during removal or who doesn’t want to mess with repairs to the rotting thing when the roof gets replaced.
I always liked them on houses, but I’m glad I never had to maintain one over the long haul.