Retro Motels in the Midwest

Boots Court Motel

Carthage, MO

Streamline Moderne architecture from 1939 with covered carports where guests park directly beside the door, saved from demolition in 2022 and fully restored. Clark Gable stayed in Room 6.

Rocket Motel

Custer, SD

A 1950 family-owned property with retro mid-century character and a vintage tile bathroom worth photographing. Custer State Park less than a mile away.

The Saugatuck Retro Resort Motel

Saugatuck, MI

A kidney-shaped pool, French cafe music, and a fire pit surrounded by Adirondack chairs in a 1950s property that turns a familiar roadside form into somewhere worth coming back to. The details are the whole thing.

The Sierra Motel

Traverse City, MI

A 1957 cedar-clad property renovated in 2023, with hardwood floors, aqua fridges, cedar ceilings, and princess phones. Five-minute walk to downtown.

Al & Sally's Motel

Michigan City, IN

Renovated in 2021 by local owners and set right at the park edge, with a fire pit and s'mores kits at the center of it. The vintage bones were worth keeping.

Evergreen Inn Motel & RV Park

Pratt, KS

Original vintage tile bathrooms, a Burlington Northern caboose on the grounds, and an outdoor pool from an operation that has been husband-and-wife for more than seventy-five years. The underground storm shelter is there when the sky calls for it.

Motel Tipton

Tipton, IA

A classic single-story roadside motel in Tipton, independently owned and thoughtfully renovated with a warm patriotic-meets-retro look. Rooms open to the outdoors and are kept spotlessly clean, with a manager who loves sending guests off to the right corners of eastern Iowa.