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Colonial Home Motel (Site)

GPS Coordinates: 38.7208579, -77.1254854
Closest Address: 8770 Richmond Highway, Alexandria, VA 22309

Colonial Home Motel (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact spot where the motel once stood. Today, it is a bank building.


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Here follows an excerpt from Chris Barbuschak's presentation, "The History of Motels on Route 1 in Fairfax County" on behalf of the Mount Vernon Regional Historical Society:

When the MVRHS first asked me to talk about motels, I thought there's probably 20 tops on Route 1. Boy was I wrong, there are 62! So, a little context about hotels and motels on Richmond Highway. Route 1 is over 2,400 miles long. It's known as America's first main street and it stretches from Maine to Florida and its chock full of mom and pop shacks and businesses, diners, fortune tellers, truck stops and motels. U.S. Route 1 between Washington and Fredericksburg more or less followed the Potomac Path, which was a Native American route along the Potomac River. And when the Europeans came and settled it, they chose the shortest route along the bank of the Potomac as well.

In 1918, the state designated State Route One, which is part of the old Jefferson Davis Highway, and it was called SR1 in 1923. It became State Route 30 in 1926. In less than a year by 1927, the entire stretch of roadway was paved and motels practically popped up overnight. From the 1920s and 1930s, there were tourist ports which were individual cabins that you could stay in. They were arranged in a horseshoe fashion, usually around an office or a picnic area or a restaurant. Then in the 1940s and 1950s, you get into the low slung ranch style motels. And then in the 1960s and 1970s we get a couple of chain motels that come in.

So, Route 1 was the main north and south artery for many years, almost 50 years until Interstate Highway 95 opened up. That connected to Fredericksburg in 1964 and almost overnight all the businesses in the Richmond Highway corridor went downhill and continued to do so. Route 1 kind of had this "no tell" motel vibe to it. Ever since the 1960s, the county tried to get those motels to close and one by one they did. As of today, only nine of those original motels still exist. A couple of them are already on the chopping block.

So buckle up, and lets look at them all:

COLONIAL HOME -- 8770 RICHMOND HIGHWAY
If you think this building looks like Mount Vernon, you'd be exactly right. It's still standing today. In May of 1941, Walter and Florence Clem spent $7,000 to start building an eighteen-room brick dwelling on their recently purchased property on Route 1. The residence was built to be a replica of George Washington's Mount Vernon, which stands just three miles away. Upon its completion, the Clem family resided there and operated it as the Colonial Home. The motel was closed in 1964 and was converted into a branch office of the Woodlawn National Bank. It has been operating as a Wells Fargo Bank since 2010, but they recently vacated the property within the last couple years.

Despite a couple of renovations, remnants of the buildings original purpose are still visible, especially up on the third floor and in the attic. It's still reachable via a pull-down ladder. Tammy Mannarino and Chris Barbuschak had the opportunity to tour the property a couple of years ago, and you can easily see the remnants of the rooms in there. One of the doors still has a motel room number attached to it, there's still a bathtub there, and a window is still open, to name a few examples. Just like Mount Vernon, this building also has a cupola at the top. Climbing over the ladder up into the cupola, you can see great views of Route 1 and the McDonald's restaurant. Also, we found some dirty magazines up there, so we think somebody had their private time up there. Currently, the building is not scheduled to be demolished. They are going to try to preserve the property. Originally, it was going to be torn down to make way for a bus rapid transit project widening Route 1, but they have now said they are going to preserve it.

ABOUT ME

Award-winning local historian and tour guide in Franconia and the greater Alexandria area of Virginia.

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ADDRESS

Nathaniel Lee

c/o Franconia Museum

6121 Franconia Road

Alexandria, VA 22310

franconiahistory@gmail.com

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