Why are there so many motels on Lincoln?

February 10, 2007 7:20 PM

ChicagoFilter: Why are there so many motels on Lincon, ~north of Lawrence out to the city limits? You know, the pretty old ones with (mostly) neon signs.

Driving north on Lincoln today I was struck by how many old motels there are on the strip of pavement north of Lawrence out to Lincolnwood. What's the history of this?

posted by rbs to society & culture (12 answers total)

s/Lincon/Lincoln
posted by rbs at 7:23 PM on February 10, 2007

That's US 41, which used to be the main route between Chicago and Milwaukee before the Interstate Highway System.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 7:38 PM on February 10, 2007

There's a strip of shitty motels on the outskirts of almost all cities, and like Steven says, they run along old major highways - see much of Route 1 on the east coast, and Route 50 on the way west out of DC (these are just the places that spring to mind).
posted by crabintheocean at 7:52 PM on February 10, 2007

That should be old (mostly shitty) motels. New shitty motels are everywhere.
posted by crabintheocean at 7:53 PM on February 10, 2007

Gapers Block has a nice article on it as well. I've lived just off of Foster and Lincoln since 2000 and in that time, five hotel/motels have been knocked down to make room for condos, a cop station and other stuff. Still quite a few though.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 8:06 PM on February 10, 2007

I've lived just off of Foster and Lincoln since 2000

Ha! Kevin, we were almost neighbors (or might have been for a few months) -- I lived just off Lincoln a few blocks south of Foster (Winnemac Ave.) till mid-2000.
posted by scody at 8:54 PM on February 10, 2007

I'm also in the 'hood. I love some of those old hotel signs. I keep hoping for a mid-century modern revival up here....sigh. Found these. Hey, KevinSkomsvold, is this yours? Nice.
posted by jeanmari at 9:45 PM on February 10, 2007

Heheh Scody. I take my daughter to the hot dog place right next to that intersection. Small world!

Jeanmari - those aren't mine. I did get this shot before they tore it down.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 9:53 PM on February 10, 2007

Now we just need the story behind Karaoke Restaurant.
posted by asuprenant at 12:22 AM on February 11, 2007

Bill from Outofcontxt has some nice shots of the (defunct) Stars Motel.
posted by Bighappyfunhouse at 3:25 AM on February 11, 2007

Brian from ChicagoBloggers and I had a good laugh about the old Stars Motel. Right before it was torn down, someone had broken a window. To repair it, they used a wooden sign from the Blagojevich for Governor campaign. We both remember seeing it there at different times.

Ah, Chicago. How I love ya.
posted by jeanmari at 8:35 AM on February 11, 2007

Wow - I grew up right by California/Lincoln. This question made me really miss the old neighborhood.
posted by Alpenglow at 6:40 AM on February 12, 2007