Colony House Motor Lodge

About Colony House Motor Lodge

Colony House Motor Lodge is one of a small number of largely intact Googie-style motor courts surviving in the United States. The futuristic sensibility ran through every detail: starburst shapes, boomerang angles, folded-plate rooflines, original neon, and Space Age references that peaked in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Colony House earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places and sat dormant for years before a full restoration completed in 2025 returned it to operation. The property sits on US-220 in Roanoke, Virginia, where the Appalachian Valley narrows toward the Blue Ridge. The Blue Ridge Parkway begins five miles south.

What Colony House Motor Lodge Is Known For

The Colony House Motor Lodge survived because the right people looked at a 1959 roadside motel on a Roanoke hillside and saw what it actually was before it could disappear. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources spent the time to document and list it. The renovation team spent the time to restore it without erasing it. The folded-plate rooflines and the exterior corridors and the pool enclosure and the neon are not interpretation, they are the original building, brought back to working condition and opened again in July 2025. A National Register listing is not given out for sentiment. It is given to structures that are genuinely irreplaceable, and the Colony House earned that designation honestly.

Amenities

• Pets Welcome
• WiFi
• Pool
• Original neon signage
• Exterior corridors with parking outside each room

The Room

Rooms at the Colony House are accessed directly from exterior corridors, with parking immediately outside each door. The building's two-story design means upper-floor guests walk out onto an exterior walkway; ground-floor guests step directly onto the apron. The 1959 Googie structure gives the rooms their proportions and their orientation, both of which the renovation worked with rather than against. The interiors reflect the property's mid-century bones: updated furnishings and quality bedding in rooms shaped by the original architecture rather than erased by a renovation that tried to forget it. Each room faces either the property's internal grounds or the wooded hillside behind the site.

The Grounds

The Colony House occupies a dramatic position along US-220, on a hillside site with 450 feet of road frontage that makes the property impossible to miss at speed. The original breeze-block pool enclosure anchors one end of the property; the two buildings with their signature folded-plate rooflines define the other. The wooded hillside rises behind both structures. Original neon signage illuminates the site at night, not reproduced or restored from archive photos, but the actual signage that has been here since the building opened. Parking is directly in front of each room. The Blue Ridge Parkway entrance is five miles south.

The Experience

The Colony House sits between Roanoke and the Blue Ridge in the most useful way: close enough to the city for dinner and a museum, angled toward the mountain for the days that matter most. McAfee Knob, the most photographed overlook on the Appalachian Trail, is twelve miles out, a 7.9-mile round trip with views that justify the drive. The Blue Ridge Parkway begins five miles south, with overlooks and trailheads accessible for the length of the range. Downtown Roanoke has the Taubman Museum of Art and the Roanoke City Market, both within three miles. The property's own architecture is part of the stay: a Googie motor lodge from 1959 with National Register credentials is not a common accommodation. Guests who know the category will understand immediately. Guests who do not will figure it out by the second morning.

Details

Frequently Asked Questions

Things to Do Near Roanoke and the Blue Ridge

Blue Ridge Parkway

5 miles, about a 10 minute drive, or you can bike there.

The scenic byway runs the length of the Blue Ridge Mountains with overlooks, trailheads, and one of the most celebrated drives in the eastern US -- accessible within minutes of Roanoke.

Downtown Roanoke

3 miles, about a 5 minute drive, or you can bike there.

A compact and walkable small-city downtown with independent restaurants, the Taubman Museum of Art, and the historic Roanoke City Market -- one of Virginia's oldest continuously operating farmers markets.

McAfee Knob

12 miles, about a 25 minute drive.

The most photographed overlook on the Appalachian Trail -- a 7.9-mile round-trip hike with sweeping views across the Catawba Valley and the Blue Ridge ridgeline.