I found it ironic that Carmi chose Sepia for this weeks theme for the Thematic Photograph, I passed this place on my way home Wednesday and felt the need to blog about it so I grabbed the camera and got some photos. These seemed to fit the sepia theme well.
This is the Scenic Motel, ever since I moved to Utah it has been here. It has recently been torn down. What makes this motel stand out from others is even though it may have been an old motel and not really up to date, it seemed to be a nice clean comfortable motel. I think one reason is that it was not on the seedy side of town so it didn't get the hourly rate stays.
Recently this Motel has been torn down. This was the last of the iconic landmarks in this area to go, across the street is Foothill Village that has been updated and is now a strip mall that look like any other strip mall built in the 90s. Next door has been a Marie Calendars that still had the look it had for years which is now a Red Robin. There was an old fashioned service station next to that.
I found a topographical map that showed Foothill Blvd, the road this Motel was located on, used to be Highway US-40, since Interstate 80 appeared I believe the Feds took away the funding for this and it is now a state funded highway (Utah 186). I can only imagine the sort of US 40 traveler that has stayed at this motel. It reminded me of days that the road trip was the vacation, and the destination only a place to land. The movie "Cars" does a fine job of relating back to that era "Cars didn't drive on it to make great time. They drove on it to have a great time. " There are times I travel the old US roads just to enjoy the small towns on the way, this is the kind of traveler that Motels of this sort were built for.I found photos of the Scenic Motel when it was still open here on Flickr posted by arts enthusiast. Thank you for taking them and having them available for people to view.
7 comments:
I'd hears something about the Scenic Motel being torn down. Bummer, dude.
Just the other day I asked Dad (age 86) how old he thought that motel was, and he said he was pretty sure it was there when he moved to Salt Lake, which was right after WWII.
I'll post my one shot of it for you over on my blog. The thing's been there my whole life, so it is disconcerting to have it gone.
Oh, and Foothill Village was a mall in the 1960s. It was rebuilt after a fire in 1977 or 1978, and it was expanded and redone to its present size during the summer of 1987 -- if you really care.
Oh, the gas station you remember was a Phillips 66.
Very nice (sad) story to end an era I remember traveling with my parents. We would have, and may have stayed in this kind of motel. If it had "AAA" on the sign it was a keeper! Thanks for the awesome photos left there, and the link to more.
I don't know why my first comment isn't here....but here goes again. I just love this step back into a time when my family would spend the night at a place just like this. Love you story, sorry for this lovely motel now lost and thanks for the photos...very nice!
Yeah, Max, it is gone. I was bummed to see it go.
PBW, thank you for some background, I couldn't remember how long ago the fire at Foothill Village was.
Karen, I hadn't checked my e-mail at all today until now. Sometimes I take a bit to get to them, other times I am at work and availability of this website is hit and miss at best. I liked what both comments had to say so I went with both.
Thanks all for visiting.
Feel free to download my photo if you'd like a copy of it. :)
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