Penn-Daw Motor Hotel (Site)
GPS Coordinates: 38.7808820, -77.0795022
Closest Address: 6300 Richmond Highway, Alexandria, VA 22306

These coordinates mark the exact spot where the motel once stood. Today, the motel office is still used by the Wells Fargo Bank.
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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:
PENN-DAW MOTOR HOTEL -- 6300 RICHMOND HIGHWAY
Probably the most important motel in Fairfax County history was this one. This was the county's first ever modern motel. Samuel Cooper Dawson, Sr. was an Alexandria native. He was related to George Mason and in 1927 he partnered with Edward M. Pennell to build a modern highway hotel at the intersection of Route 1 and Kings Highway. They combined the first syllables of their last name, so "Pennell-Dawson" became the name "Penn-Daw" That's how the name came to be. The hotel originally had two buildings with eight rooms. The main building was a combined gas station, lobby restaurant and commissary. And by the year 1929, he expanded it to include brick cabins. The brick cabins were each named after states along the east coast. When, in 1942, a volunteer fire company started up operations just down the street from the hotel, they decided to call themselves the Penn-Daw Volunteer Fire Department after the hotel. So, that's how the whole surrounding community has become known as Penn-Daw. How many communities do you know of that have been named after an old motor hotel? I don't know how many, but that's a pretty unique example.
There is a big significance to the year 1927 and that being the year the hotel opened. It was also the same year in which Route 1 was paved all the way through Fairfax County. During World War II, military personnel took over this hotel and the people staying at this hotel were either working at the Pentagon or Fort Belvoir. After the war the Dawson family renovated the hotel. Dawson's son, Cooper Dawson, Jr. took over the hotel after his father died in 1957 and continued operating it until 1973. Part of the hotel building still exists today. It's now a Wells Fargo bank. It's hardly recognizable. I'm told that it has a basement, but there is nothing stored in there. That's all that's left of the motel complex. Unfortunately, it is going to be torn down to make way for the planned Bus Rapid Transit project along Route 1. So if you want to see what's left of the first Fairfax County modern motel, check it out. Go withdraw some cash or something.
In the 1920’s and 1930’s Route #1 was a country road, not a commercial avenue. The PENN-DAW MOTOR HOTEL was one of the first motels in the nation and advertised itself as having a “first,” in that the original units each had attached garages for complete drive-in accommodations.