Caribbean Motel
Encyclopedia
The Caribbean Motel is a historic motel
located in Wildwood Crest
, New Jersey
, in an area now known as the Wildwoods Shore Resort Historic District
. The motel was built in 1957 in the Doo-Wop style
by Lou Morey, whose family built many of the Wildwoods' original Doo Wop motels, for original owners Dominic and Julie Rossi. It was owned by the Rossi family for more than 30 years, until the early 1990s, and was the first motel to use the full-size plastic palm trees that now adorn most of the Doo Wop motels in the area.
The motel was saved from demolition in 2004, when it was purchased by George Miller and Caroline Emigh. After reading the book, How to Doo Wop: the Wildwoods-by-the-Sea Handbook of Design Guidelines published by the Doo Wop Preservation League, they were so impressed by the suggested designs of Philadelphia architect Anthony Bracali that they hired him to oversee restoration of the motel. The interior design was by Darleen Lev, a designer from New York City who was staying at the motel around the time that Miller and Emigh bought the property. An admirer of the Technicolor
film process, Lev's designs are modeled on movie sets of the 1950s, as well as reflecting the motel's Caribbean motif. The Caribbean Motel was added to the National Register of Historic Places
on August 24, 2005.
Motel
A motor hotel, or motel for short, is a hotel designed for motorists, and usually has a parking area for motor vehicles...
located in Wildwood Crest
Wildwood Crest, New Jersey
Wildwood Crest is a borough in Cape May County, New Jersey, United States. It is part of the Ocean City Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 United States Census, the borough population was 3,980....
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, in an area now known as the Wildwoods Shore Resort Historic District
Wildwoods Shore Resort Historic District
The Wildwoods Shore Resort Historic District, or Doo Wop Motel District, is an area in The Wildwoods, New Jersey, that was home to over 200 motels built during the Doo-Wop era of the 1950s and 1960s...
. The motel was built in 1957 in the Doo-Wop style
Googie architecture
Googie architecture is a form of modern architecture, a subdivision of futurist architecture influenced by car culture and the Space and Atomic Ages....
by Lou Morey, whose family built many of the Wildwoods' original Doo Wop motels, for original owners Dominic and Julie Rossi. It was owned by the Rossi family for more than 30 years, until the early 1990s, and was the first motel to use the full-size plastic palm trees that now adorn most of the Doo Wop motels in the area.
The motel was saved from demolition in 2004, when it was purchased by George Miller and Caroline Emigh. After reading the book, How to Doo Wop: the Wildwoods-by-the-Sea Handbook of Design Guidelines published by the Doo Wop Preservation League, they were so impressed by the suggested designs of Philadelphia architect Anthony Bracali that they hired him to oversee restoration of the motel. The interior design was by Darleen Lev, a designer from New York City who was staying at the motel around the time that Miller and Emigh bought the property. An admirer of the Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
film process, Lev's designs are modeled on movie sets of the 1950s, as well as reflecting the motel's Caribbean motif. The Caribbean Motel was added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
on August 24, 2005.
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Cape May County, New Jersey
- Cape May Historic DistrictCape May Historic DistrictThe Cape May Historic District is an area of with over 600 buildings in the resort town of Cape May, New Jersey. The city claims to be America's first seaside resort and has numerous buildings in the Late Victorian style, including the Eclectic, Stick, and Shingle styles, as well as the later...
- Chateau Bleu MotelChateau Bleu MotelChateau Bleu Motel is located in North Wildwood, New Jersey, in an area now known as the Wildwoods Shore Resort Historic District. The building was built in 1962 in the distinctive "Googie" or "Doo Wop" architectural style. Googie details include the heart shaped swimming pool and the spikes at...
External links
- Caribbean Motel
- Architectural drawings by the Historic American Building Surveys at the Library of Congress
- Photos