Ford Motor Court Motel (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact spot where the motel once stood. Today the only visible remains of the motel is the motel office building now being used as a pool shop.


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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:

FORD MOTOR COURT -- 6130 RICHMOND HIGHWAY
Right next to the Days Inn on Richmond Highway stood the old Ford Motor Court Motel. Lynn Wood and Lilia Ford built this in 1951 and it took them two years to build it. It was beautifully furnished and it had a shower and tub in every room and you could sleep on a Beauty Rest mattress. That's a big deal. The Virginia Room at the Fairfax County Public Library has a great postcard view of it. It had rooms for two, three, or four people and it was also recommended by Duncan Hines. Most of the buildings were torn down in 1972, but amazingly the motel's office building still exists today. It's been in use as the Hawaiian pool store for decades. This property is also currently for sale, in conjunction with the neighboring Days Inn. So, you could buy two motel properties for the price of one.