The Motels Time Forgot

Long before the city stacked itself into the sky, Las Vegas met its visitors at the curb. Mid-century motels lined the approaches into town, each with a bold sign, a sparkling pool, and a name that promised a little glamour at a roadside price.

These places had a style all their own: angled rooflines, terrazzo floors, pastel doors, and palm trees planted just so. They were affordable, optimistic, and unmistakably of their era. For a couple of decades they were the face of arrival in Las Vegas.

Most of them are gone now, replaced by parking structures and chain hotels, or simply left to crumble. We seek them out while a few still stand, and we hunt for old photographs of the ones that don't. They tell a humbler, warmer story of Las Vegas, the one that happened before the lights got quite so bright.