These SoCal vintage motels have found new life. But you can't sleep there

19 hours ago 1

There were nary vacancies beneath the aged neon Farm House Motel motion past Saturday — nary impermanent rooms astatine all, successful fact. But the 1950s Riverside property, present known arsenic the Farm House Collective, was busier than it has been for decades.

By 10 a.m., erstwhile a ribbon-cutting marked the Farm House’s rebirth arsenic a mini-mall, nutrient hallway and euphony venue, the parking batch was full.

The motel's aged carports adjacent to the impermanent rooms were enclosed and became indoor retail spaces.

By midday, Steve Elliott of Smokey Steve’s barbecue had sold astir 160 pounds of nutrient from his pop-up booth and determination was a agelong enactment for $6 tacos astatine Bar Ni Modo.

By sundown, an assemblage of respective 100 had gathered to spot L.A. indie stone set Allah-Las instrumentality the outdoor stage.

Until this redesign, the Farm House Motel “was a stateless encampment for a agelong time,” said James Elliott, 29, lasting by the pop-up marketplace astatine the expansive opening event. “As agelong arsenic you person the vision, you tin alteration anything.”

The Farm House Collective hasn't reached afloat spot yet; astir fractional of its tenants are yet to open.

The renovation task — which has included much than $4 cardinal successful plan and operation enactment — has held onto the aged motel’s agrarian theme, the reddish buildings trimmed to evoke barns, a vintage Ford F-100 motortruck parked alongside the walkway. Next to the repainted, rewired Farm House motion basal a fiberglass equine and buggy, contributed by the Camou family, owners of the motel for decades.

As midcentury motels slice into history, immoderate determination upscale and go boutique hotels, immoderate are leveled oregon acquired by authorities agencies arsenic transitional housing. And a uncommon fewer successful Southern California — including the Farm House, Roy’s Motel successful Amboy and the Pink Motel successful Sun Valley — person taken connected caller commercialized afterlives that don’t impact sleepovers but bash evoke the past. At each location, a vintage motion flickers, inviting guests to measurement into a throwback American country oregon seizure it with a camera.

The astir melodramatic nonprofit illustration of motel rebirth whitethorn beryllium the Lorraine Motel successful Memphis, Tenn., which was the tract of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 assassination and reopened successful 1991 arsenic the National Civil Rights Museum. Recent commercialized examples see Fergusons Downtown successful Las Vegas, a 1940s motel reborn arsenic a nutrient and retail halfway successful 2019. A buying halfway task astatine the erstwhile La Hacienda Motel successful Albuquerque is owed to unfastened this year.

“There are a batch of these midcentury buildings that inactive person possibilities if radical privation to get successful determination and prevention them,” said Beverly Bailey, co-founder and improvement manager of the Farm House project. “They’re jewels, and it brings beingness to a city.”

Roy’s of Amboy, a godforsaken icon

In the godforsaken outpost of Amboy, on Route 66 astir 210 miles eastbound of Los Angeles, a tiny squad of workers sustains California’s astir iconic nonfunctional lodging: Roy’s Motel and Cafe. Its 1959 motion whitethorn beryllium misleading (neither the motel nor the cafe has been unfastened for astatine slightest 30 years), but the unit sells gas, souvenirs and snacks and sometimes hosts filming and peculiar events.

Every day, Amboy manager Ken Large said, godforsaken rats, lovers of Route 66 and galore travelers connected their mode from Las Vegas to Joshua Tree converge beneath the red, blue, achromatic and yellowish sign, which rises 50 feet and is lighted nightly. About 80% of those who stop, Large said, person travel from Europe.

“It’s shocking however galore tattoos I’ve seen of that sign,” Large said. “I stake I’ve seen a thousand.”

The proprietor of Roy’s (and each of Amboy) is Kyle Okura, whose precocious father, entrepreneur and philanthropist Albert Okura, bought it successful 2003. He relighted the motion successful 2019, ending much than 30 years of darkness. The younger Okura and institution person been upgrading infrastructure steadily and would similar to reopen the motel — possibly adjacent get the six cottages unfastened successful clip for the Route 66 centennial successful 2026.

But arsenic Large acknowledges, that “might beryllium a stretch.” The groundwater successful Amboy is astir 10 times saltier than the sea, Large said, and for years, each drinking h2o has been trucked in. To turn substantially, Large said, Roy’s and Amboy request easier entree to potable water, astir apt done a groundwater purification process.

For present the cottages basal idle by the glass-walled motel bureau and its rakishly tilted roof. The bureau includes an past Zenith TV, a typewriter, a expansive soft and the switches that airy up the motion — each the makings of a signifier acceptable for a play successful the tone of Sam Shepard oregon Samuel Beckett.

If determination are travelers connected manus astatine sunset, Roy’s adjunct manager Nicole Rachel said, “We’ll invitation them to travel successful and airy the motion themselves. I’ve had radical successful tears.”

“I’m fascinated with this portion of the country,” said Chris Birdsall, a 51-year-old trucker from Omaha who lingered arsenic sunset neared 1 caller night. “I privation to spot the motion lit up. That large arrow. ... It’s astir got an extraterrestrial connection.”

A fewer minutes later, Rachel invited Birdsall successful to propulsion the switch, and the motion blinked to beingness implicit the windswept desert.

In Sun Valley, movies and midcentury grit

At the Pink Motel connected San Fernando Road successful Sun Valley, the past overnight impermanent checked retired astir 10 years ago. But the movie crews support coming.

The family-run 3.5-acre property, which includes a 20-room motel and the closed-to-the-public Cadillac Jacks Cafe, has entered a precise L.A. afterlife arsenic a filming and peculiar lawsuit location. Instead of cash-strapped travelers and unsafe liaisons, the motel hosts euphony videos, canine shows, wedding photos, car nine meetings, societal media gatherings and skateboarding events successful its bare pool.

To beryllium sure, this is not what Maximillian Joseph Thomulka and his wife, Gladys Thomulka, imagined erstwhile they built and opened the spot successful the aftermath of World War II.

“It was built successful 1946. But the vibe is similar 1955, ’56,” said co-owner Tonya Thomulka, granddaughter of the founders, successful aboriginal 2025. (Subsequent messages were not returned.)

The cafe was built successful 1949, the excavation successful 1959, erstwhile San Fernando Road was portion of Highway 99, seething with drivers heading to and from the San Joaquin Valley. Then came Interstate 5. The vicinity went south.

By the precocious 1970s, the founders’ son, Monty Thomulka, was moving the motel, restoring aged cars and conscionable opening to rent the determination retired occasionally. In 1986, the edifice closed. Then successful 2015, the twelvemonth Monty Thomulka died, the household stopped renting rooms overnight.

But accumulation crews, lured by the midcentury benignant and gritty vibe, kept coming. Among the motel’s tv credits: episodes of “Law & Order,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “Dexter,” “The O.C.” and “GLOW” (2017-19). Among its movie credits: “Drive,” “Grease 2,” “Pink Motel” and Stacy Peralta’s “The Search for Animal Chin,” a 1987 skateboarding movie that features a teenage Tony Hawk.

Nowadays the spot (not unfastened to the public, but partially disposable from the street) is afloat of throwback visuals, including its sign, the edifice and 7 rooms outfitted successful ’50s and ’60s styles. The Los Angeles Conservancy calls it “a fantastic illustration of the mid-century roadside commercialized resources that are truthful swiftly disappearing from the landscape.”

New beingness astatine Riverside’s Farm House

dramatically overhauled cottages and carports of the aged motel.

Before 1969, University Avenue successful Riverside was a engaged highway, portion of U.S. 395, making the Farm House Motel a premier halt for travelers. But arsenic that postulation moved to State Routes 60 and 91, commerce faded on that agelong of University Avenue, contempt the maturation of UC Riverside nearby. The vicinity faded further, locals say, aft the 1989 closing of adjacent Riverside International Raceway (now the Moreno Valley Mall). Farm House Motel unopen down successful 2007, and a twelvemonth later, the spot passed to metropolis ownership.

The Baileys, whose Perris-based household business, Stronghold Engineering, has been doing electrical, plan and operation enactment for much than 30 years, bought the aged motel from the metropolis successful 2018. Under that deal, the household paid the metropolis $210,000 for the 1-acre Farm House property, which “we thought astatine the clip was a large buy,” said Beverly Bailey.

The Farm House Collective connected its opening time connected Saturday, March 29, 2025.

The household hired the Orange County consulting steadfast LAB Holding, which has worked connected retails projects including the LAB Anti-Mall, the Camp and Anaheim Packing District (housed successful a historical gathering complex). The aged carports adjacent to the impermanent rooms were enclosed and became indoor retail spaces — an acai vessel eatery, works shop, artisan boutique and different spots person opened, with much to come.

An outdoor stage, which stands wherever the motel swimming excavation was, is flanked by 10 elm trees and assorted kid-friendly games. The Baileys program 1 oregon 2 euphony performances per month, possibly much later, and the signifier volition besides connection movie screenings, TV sports viewing and different events.

Not each motel is simply a beardown campaigner for a nonlodging afterlife, arsenic developers elsewhere person learned the hard way. But with a assemblage handy, section leaders successful enactment and an encouraging start, respective locals said the Farm House seems suited for the challenge.

“It’s a ace chill spot that you tin conscionable chill at,” said Amy Martinez, who grew up successful Riverside, moved to Upland and returned to spot the opening with her family. The vicinity has travel a agelong way, she said, and “to spot the remainder of the shops unfastened up, that’ll beryllium nice.”