Miami Motel

About Miami Motel

The Miami Motel was built in 1952 on State Routes 5 and 20 on the northern edge of Canandaigua, New York, in the Miami-inspired Art Deco style fashionable for roadside motor courts in the postwar highway era. Valerie and Dennis Calkins, neither of whom had any hotel experience, bought the property roughly a decade ago after leaving corporate careers, drawn to its mid-century architecture. They describe the building as a Frank Lloyd Wright want-to-be with a Palm Springs sensibility: organic in its massing, horizontal in its orientation, and emphatically of its era. The Calkinses have been restoring the motel room by room, keeping the original exterior intact while rebuilding each room with new fixtures, period-appropriate furniture, and its own distinct color scheme. Visit Finger Lakes describes it as a chic budget property with a cult following.

What Miami Motel Is Known For

Valerie and Dennis Calkins did not hire a design firm and they did not complete the work in a single season. They have been renovating this 1952 motor court room by room for over a decade, learning as they go, sourcing period-appropriate furniture, and maintaining the original exterior that gives the Miami its identity. Guests who first visited fifteen years ago return today to find rooms that were not available on their last stay. The building itself, described by its owners as a Frank Lloyd Wright want-to-be with a Palm Springs sensibility, has never been replaced or demolished and rebuilt with a cleaner version of itself. It is the same building it was in 1952, made better at a time.

Amenities

• Pets Welcome
• Breakfast Included
• WiFi
• Individual room carports with covered drive-up parking (select rooms)
• Jacuzzi rooms available
• Unique color scheme and furniture layout in every room
• Complimentary breakfast
• Outdoor gazebo seating
• Pet-friendly accommodations
• Original 1952 mid-century exterior preserved

The Room

Each of the rooms has been individually renovated with its own color scheme, furniture configuration, and layout. Room types include queens, double queens, kings, and Jacuzzi rooms. Some rooms have private carports where guests can park directly beneath a covered overhang adjacent to the door. All rooms include a refrigerator, microwave, free WiFi, and what guests consistently describe as luxurious linens. Bathrooms have been updated with new fixtures. Period-appropriate furnishings and decor give each room a distinct mid-century feel without feeling artificially themed. The room-by-room renovation means that specific room finishes vary. Guests who have strong preferences on bed configuration or amenities (such as Jacuzzi rooms) should specify when booking. Reviewers consistently describe rooms as spotless, well-appointed, and comfortable, with consistent quality that draws comparisons to hotels at significantly higher price points.

The Grounds

The Miami Motel is a single-story motor court on a stretch of Routes 5 and 20 with vehicles parked directly in front of rooms. The property sits on a generous footprint with green space and outdoor seating areas, including covered gazebos where guests gather. The motel is a short drive from downtown Canandaigua and the public beach on Canandaigua Lake. The surrounding landscape is the characteristic combination of rolling vineyard hillsides, farm fields, and lake views that defines the central Finger Lakes region. Complimentary breakfast is served on-site.

The Experience

Canandaigua is the northwestern anchor of the Finger Lakes wine country, the region where Routes 5 and 20 have carried travelers since the 19th century and where the lake draws visitors for boating, swimming, and the annual food and wine festivals that mark the summer calendar. The Miami Motel sits on that corridor, one mile from downtown, and has become the preferred base for the travelers who discovered it and came back: guests who want an independently owned property with an actual design point of view, not a chain room that looks the same everywhere in the country. Valerie and Dennis are the kind of owners who know their guests, respond to specific requests, and have put a decade of their lives into every room of this building. The reviews reflect it. The cult following is real: guests return because the combination of the room quality, the pricing, the personal service, and the mid-century setting is genuinely difficult to find anywhere else in the Finger Lakes.

Details

Frequently Asked Questions

Things to Do Near the Finger Lakes

Canandaigua Lake

1 miles, about a 5 minute drive, or you can walk.

Canandaigua Lake is the westernmost of the eleven Finger Lakes, stretching 15.6 miles along a north-south axis from the city of Canandaigua to Naples, New York. The Canandaigua City Pier and public beach are about a mile from the motel. The lake supports boating, swimming, kayaking, and fishing, with waterfront wineries and restaurants along its eastern and western shores.

Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion

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

Sonnenberg Gardens is a 50-acre Victorian estate in downtown Canandaigua built in 1887 for Frederick and Mary Clark Thompson. The grounds include nine distinct formal gardens in period styles including Japanese, Italian, and Rose gardens, all surrounding the Queen Anne mansion. The estate is a National Historic Landmark and one of the best-preserved 19th-century garden complexes in the United States.

Finger Lakes Wine Country

10 miles, about a 20 minute drive.

The Finger Lakes is one of the most significant wine-producing regions in the United States, with more than 100 wineries concentrated along the shores of Seneca, Cayuga, Keuka, and Canandaigua Lakes. The region is particularly known for Riesling, Gewurztraminer, and cold-climate red varieties. The Canandaigua Lake Wine Trail connects a dozen wineries within a short drive of the motel.