Motor lodges of the past are going extinct; a woman is documenting them

“One day, we were driving through Sturbridge, maybe 15 years ago, and I realized, ‘Oh my God, the American Motor Lodge is abandoned.’ This place that was the source of so many great memories was gone. It had an impact on me,” Hussa said. “That’s when I really started seeing it. There are so many abandoned old motels. I realized this is something that I could actually research and document in some way.”
She described one motel in particular, the American Motor Lodge in Sturbridge, as her childhood happy place. Her family visited OId Sturbridge Village and stayed at the 55-room inn on Route 20 (touted as just 1,000 yards from the Massachusetts Turnpike!). They swam in the indoor heated pool and enjoyed meals in the restaurant.
Her fascination with the motor lodges and small mom-and-pop hotels that once dotted roadside America took hold during bucolic childhood summers spent in New England. Thirty years later, E. Hussa can still tick off the names of the motels where she stayed as a girl.
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She started documenting the phenomenon through her website, Dead Motels USA, which launched in 2018. She also introduced a Dead Motels Instagram account, which nearly 200,000 motel enthusiasts follow. Hussa’s website and Instagram account show Kodachrome-preserved photos and postcards of these motor lodges in their midcentury glory, alongside updated, moribund pictures of the remaining ruins.
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Not all motor lodges are facing extinction. In some lucky cases, new owners have come in and restored or re-envisioned these unique places. Locally, the Nevada in York, Maine, Tourists in North Adams, the Rye Motor Inn in Rye, N.H., and the Freebird Motor Lodge in Yarmouth have been successfully resuscitated and are thriving. There are still travelers with a taste for unique or retro accommodations, but the success stories are few and far between. Mostly, the mom-and-pop motor courts have been slipping into ruin and fading from memory.
Hussa is a bit of an enigma. She’ll only reveal the initial of her first name; she vaguely describes her profession as “the medical field” and her location as “somewhere in Virginia.” She wants the focus to be on the motels, their stories, architecture, and history, not on her. She’s not looking to make a profit from her work. It’s simply an all-consuming hobby. She also rarely grants interviews, preferring that her website and Instagram account tell the sad stories of the rise and decline of the roadside inn.
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“It’s just more fun for me to separate my real life from this almost fantasy hobby,” she said. “And nobody ever has to know who I am.”
A postcard of Barefoot Boy Restaurant in Bethlehem, N.H. It was the on-site restaurant of the former Baker Brook Motel. The cabins have been demolished, and all that remains is the dilapidated restaurant. Christopher Muther/Globe photo illustration
We got her on the phone from her home in Virginia to discuss the end of the family-owned classic motor lodge and how she’s cataloging these vintage gems.
Are these motels fading from the map because they don’t fit current lodging tastes?
I think people, over time, have started to view these roadside motels as too trashy or sketchy for your typical American family vacation. I don’t believe they are seeking out small, quirky motels to stay in on their family vacation anymore, especially not in 2024.
After seeing the abandoned American Motor Lodge in Sturbridge, you were inspired to do all this. But I imagine your family probably spent many summers in interesting mom-and-pop motels.
I started with Sturbridge and then began researching places around where I grew up. I grew up in New Jersey and noticed there, too. But once I branched out, I realized this is happening everywhere. There are abandoned motels or hotels, resorts, or just closed buildings in every part of the country. I had a lot to go on, and I never ran out of anything to research because it seemed like a never-ending topic. I don’t know if anyone else is researching to the extent that I am.
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The Storybook Motor Inn in Glen, New Hampshire, pictured at its 1950s peak, and a photo of what the sight looks like today. The website and Instagram account Dead Motels USA is tracking the slow death of mom-and-pop roadside motor lodges. Christopher Muther/Boston Globe Photo Illustration
At what point did you start hearing from people about their motel experiences? I’m guessing you get suggestions of places to research all the time.
I think after I hit around 50,000 followers on Instagram, I really noticed a lot of people reaching out with suggestions. And that’s been so helpful for me. I work full time. I can’t just go and drive to a place and explore. So it’s nice when people send me the recommendations and I can do that research from my couch. So it’s opened up many different areas of the country for me that I wouldn’t otherwise know about in terms of abandoned places.
Do you find that when you go on vacation, it now revolves around finding or staying in old motels?
Not specifically. If I can tie it into a vacation, that’s generally what I do. I just went up to New England. I lived in New England for a long time, and on this trip, I visited the part of New Hampshire where I once lived. I drove around Lake Winnipesaukee and noted all the weird rundown and maybe even abandoned places. I sometimes stopped to take pictures and creep around. But I also got to stay in some of the cute motels I’ve admired for years. Not all hotels there were closed or rundown, which was nice to see.
On her website, Dead Motels USA, E. Hussa tracks the decline of the classic American motor lodge while trying to preserve their history. Christopher Muther/Boston Globe Photo Illustration
Are there regions of the country where these classic motels have fared better than others?
They’ve definitely fared better in some areas of New England. There are very specific areas of New England that really attract tourists, so a lot of the smaller places there have survived simply based on crowds and demand. Sometimes a motor lodge is your only option if you want to stay on the lake or near a beach.
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The before-and-after photos of the motels are captivating. I know this is a hobby, but I think creating a coffee-table book should be your next project. I’d be the first to buy a copy.
I would love to. A couple of people have reached out about coffee table book projects, but I just haven’t felt moved or compelled to do it. So, maybe in the future. I promise you’ll be the first to know.
Christopher Muther can be reached at christopher.muther@globe.com. Follow him @Chris_Muther and Instagram @chris_muther.