The Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts brand was the first motel chain in the United States, founded by Edgar Lee Torrance in Waco, Texas, in 1929. By 1955, there were more than twenty Alamo Plazas across the southeastern U.S., most controlled by a loosely knit group of a half-dozen investors and operating using common branding or architecture.
Marketed as "Alamo Plaza Tourist Apartments" using distinctive Mission Revival Style architecture, each formed a U-shaped court with multiple buildings fronted by a distinctive façade which mimics the face of the Alamo Mission in San Antonio. These properties attempted to distinguish themselves from other motels or cabins of the tourist courts of their era by introducing amenities such as telephones in each room (1936), Beautyrest mattresses on every bed and later swimming pools and televisions in rooms.
The roadside tactic of using distinctive, non-standard architecture to catch the attention of passing motorists would later be used by other chains, such as the Wigwam Motels which served U.S. Route 66 travellers or the easily recognised orange rooftops of the original Howard Johnson chain.
While the chain's expansion continued through both the Great Depression and World War II (wartime construction was typically near U.S. bases, where the properties were needed to temporarily house military personnel) into the heyday of the 1950s, the use of the Pop Spanish Revival tourist court façade by the chain would end by 1960 and the last new location would open in 1965.
History
Initial expansion
In 1929, Edgar Lee Torrance built the first Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts in East Waco, Texas; by 1936 the then-seven motels in the Alamo chain would be among the first to install telephones in each individual room.
By 1941, there were ten Alamo Plaza locations and at the chain's peak in 1955 there were more than twenty.
These motels were "motor courts" as they were laid out in a "C" shape with a courtyard in the centre. With Simmons furniture and Beautyrest mattresses on every bed, the Alamo Plaza rooms were marketed as "tourist apartments" under a slogan of “Catering to those who care.” They were typically located on the U.S. Highway system in major cities in the southeastern United States.
Where they did not themselves contain restaurants, they were typically located with a restaurant adjacent or in close proximity.
Commercially, these operated as a loosely knit form of an ownership chain, in which one small group of investors controlled both the chain and the individual motels within it. As the first location in the Alamo Plaza chain opened in 1929, these pre-date both the referral chains (United Motor Courts: 1933, Quality Courts United: 1939, The Best Western Motels: 1947, Superior Courts United:1950 and Friendship Inns: 1961) and the long list of franchise chains which were to follow in the path of Travelodge (1935) and Holiday Inn (1952).
While the 1950s brought greatly increased automobile traffic, they also brought many new competitors. With 86% of all Americans travelling by car, the number of U.S. motels accelerated from 20000 in 1946 to nearly 60000 one decade later, setting off a race among motel owners to add amenities to remain competitive.
Franchising and redesign
A short-lived attempt was made briefly by Bill Farner to franchise the brand at the end of the 1950s. As a response to the Great Sign of the Holiday Inn franchises, a large neon sign design was deployed. The signage, used at both owned and franchised locations, had a star atop an 'A' and an arrow pointing to "Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts". The franchise locations were conversions — existing properties to which either a "member – seek the stars – Alamo Plaza Motor Courts" sign had been added beneath the existing branding or the properties renamed outright to "Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts" with the corresponding neon signage. The franchise attempt was abandoned in 1960, after about a year of use with 50 locations listed in a "Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts — Spend the night where the price is right — free pocket travel guide". One franchised "Alamo Motel" at 19803 N US Highway 441, High Springs, Florida, is still extant with signage (minus the top star) largely intact.
The last of the Alamo properties were built or renovated in the 1960s. These (a facelift to existing Alamo sites in Chattanooga and Charlotte, plus one last new property in Shreveport) use a modern box-like architectural design with a plastic-and-metal face, abandoning the faux-Spanish Mission adobe façade which had traditionally appeared on most Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts.