Thursday, December 10, 2015

Lakewood Manor Motorist Motel

Several miles east of the Harbor View Motel in Lakewood was the 66-room Lakewood Manor Motorist Motel, shown above in a vintage postcard.

The motel was quite large, with entrances on both Lake Avenue (shown above) and Clifton Boulevard (U.S. Routes 6 and 20). It’s unusual (to me at least) because it was pretty much located in a residential area, although there was a gas station next door.

In the vintage postcard below (courtesy of the Cleveland Memory Project website) it doesn’t appear that the motel had expanded north to Clifton yet, because a different building (seen on the far right of the photo) occupies that portion of the property. But it’s hard to tell.

You can see what I mean in the circa 1951 aerial photos below, (courtesy of the Cleveland Memory Project website). By then, the motel was at full size. That’s Clifton Boulevard on the left, and Lake Avenue just barely in the photo on the right.
In this aerial photo (below) from 1951, Lake Avenue is on the left and Clifton is visible on the lower right. Looking at the huge building, it looks like it expanded as time went on.
And in this last vintage postcard from the Cleveland Memory Project website, you can get a better view of the rest of the motel.
In the 1990s, and early 2000s, I did a "then and now” vintage postcard feature for an employee newsletter that was published by the company I work for. In one issue, I photographed the Lakewood Motorist Motel, which by then was part of the Days Inn chain.
It looks kind of rough in my photo (below). The grounds are pretty barren too.
So what’s on the property today? The motel is still part of the Days Inn network, and looks pretty nice (below).
Lastly, here’s an image from the Days Inn website (below).

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