There were no vacant posts under the old motel panel of the neon farm last Saturday – no rooms at all, in fact. But the Riverside property of the 1950s, now known as the collective farm house, was more busy than it has been for decades.
At 10 a.m., when a stroke of the ribbon marked the rebirth of the farm as a mini commercial center, catering room and place of music, the parking lot was full.
The old Motel car shelters next to the rooms have been closed and have become interior retail spaces.
(David Fouts / for time)
At noon, Steve Elliott from Smokey Steve's Barbecue had sold about 160 pounds of meat from its pop-up stand and there was a long line for $ 6 tacos at bar or modo.
At sunset, an audience of several hundred had gathered to see the independent rock group Allah-las Take The Outdoor Stage.
Until this overhaul, the Farm House Motel “was a homeless camp for a long time,” said James Elliott, 29, standing near the pop-up market during the major opening event. “As long as you have the vision, you can change everything.”
The collective farm has not yet reached full force; About half of its tenants have not yet opened.
(David Fouts / for time)
The renovation project – which included more than $ 4 million in design and construction work – was preserved on the rural theme of the old motel, the red buildings cut to evoke barns, a vintage Ford F -100 truck stationed next to the bridge. Next to the panel of the repainted and recashed farmhouse are a fiberglass horse and a buggy, contributed by the Camou family, owners of the motel for decades.
While the Motels in the middle of the century disappear in history, some move high -end and become shop hotels, some are leveled or acquired by government agencies as a transitional housing. And a few rare in Southern California – including the Farm House, Roy's Motel in Amboy and the Pink Motel in Sun Valley – have taken new commercial posts that do not imply pajamas but evoke the past. At each place, a vintage sign sparkling, inviting guests to enter an American scene back or capture it with a camera.
The most dramatic non -profit example of the Motel Renaissance can be Lorraine Motel in Memphis, tenn., Which was the 1968 assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and reopened in 1991 as the National Museum of Civil Rights. Recent commercial examples include Fergusons in the city center In Las Vegas, a motel from the 1940s was reborn as a retail catering and sales center in 2019. A shopping center project in the old Motel La Hacienda in Albuquerque is expected to open this year.
“There are many of these buildings in the middle of the century that still have possibilities if people want to enter and save them,” said Beverly Bailey, co -founder and director of development of Farm House Project. “These are jewelry, and it gives life to a city.”
Roy's of Amboy, an icon of the desert
In the outpost of the Amboy desert, along Route 66, around 210 miles east of Los Angeles, a small team of workers supports the most emblematic housing in California: the Motel and the Café de Roy. Its 1959 panel can be misleading (neither the motel nor the coffee has been open for at least 30 years), but the crew sells gas, memories and snacks and sometimes hosts filming and special events.
Every day, the director of Amboy, Ken Big, said the desert rats, lovers of Route 66 and many travelers on the Las Vegas path to Joshua Tree converge under the red, blue, black and yellow sign, which increases 50 feet and is lit every evening. About 80% of those who stop, said Big, came from Europe.
“It is shocking in the number of tattoos that I have seen from this sign,” said wide. “I bet I saw a thousand.”
The owner of Roy's (and all Amboy) is Kyle Okura, whose late father, entrepreneur and philanthropist Albert Okura, bought it in 2003. He released the sign in 2019, ending more than 30 years of darkness. The young Okura and the company improved the infrastructure regularly and would like to reopen the motel – perhaps even open the six chalets in time for the centenary route 66 in 2026.
But as big recognizes, that “could be a section”. Amboy's groundwater is approximately 10 times more salty than the sea, said Big, and for years, all the drinking water has been a truck. To grow considerably, Grand, Roy and Amboy said, need easier access to drinking water, probably through an underground water purification process.
For the moment, the chalets are slowing down by the desk of the Motel with glass walls and its tilting roof. The office includes an old Zenith television, a typewriter, a tail piano and the switches that light up the sign – all the programs of a scene take place for a piece in the spirit of Sam Shepard or Samuel Beckett.
If there are travelers at hand in Sunset, the assistant director of Roy, Nicole Rachel, said: “We will invite them to come and light the sign themselves. I had people in tears.”
“I am fascinated by this part of the country,” said Chris Birdsall, a 51 -year -old trucker from Omaha who dwell when the sunset approached a recent night. “I want to see the illuminated panel. This big arrow. … It has almost an extraterrestrial connection.”
A few minutes later, Rachel invited Birdsall to throw the switch, and the sign blocked on the desert swept by the wind.
In Sun Valley, films and grain from the middle of the century
Sun Valley's rose motel no longer takes the guests at night, but it is a frequent location for filming of movies and videos.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
At Pink Motel on San Fernando Road in Sun Valley, the last night guest consulted about 10 years ago. But the filming teams continue to come.
The family property of 3.5 acres, which includes a 20 -room motel and closed to advertising Cadillac Jacks Cafeentered a very life in Los Angeles as a place of filming and special events. Instead of silver travelers and dangerous connections, the motel welcomes clips, dog salons, wedding photos, car meetings, social media gatherings and skateboarding events in its empty swimming pool.
Admittedly, this is not what Maximillian Joseph Thomulka and his wife, Gladys Thomulka, imagined when they built and opened the place following the Second World War.
“”It was built in 1946. But the atmosphere is like 1955, '56, “said co-owner Tonya Thomulka, a granddaughter of the founders, at the beginning of 2025. (The following messages were not returned.)
The coffee was built in 1949, the swimming pool in 1959, when San Fernando Road was part of Highway 99, bubbling with drivers heading towards and from the San Joaquin valley. Then came the Interstate 5. The district went south.
At the end of the 1970s, the son of the founders, Monty Thomulka, led the Motel, restored old cars and began to rent on the occasion of the location. In 1986, the restaurant closed its doors. Then in 2015, the year of the death of Monty Thomulka, the family stopped renting rooms overnight.
But the production teams, attracted by the style of the middle of the century and the grainy atmosphere, kept coming. Among the motel television credits: Episodes of “Law & Order”, “The Incredible Hulk”, “”Dexter,“” The Oc “and” Glow “(2017-19). Among its film credits:” Drive “,” Grease 2 “,”Rose motel“And” The Search for Animal Chin “by Stacy Peralta, a 1987 skateboard film which presents a Tony Hawk teenager.
Nowadays, the property (not open to the public, but partially visible from the street) is full of back visuals, including its panel, the restaurant and seven rooms equipped with styles from the 1950s and 60s. The Los Angeles Conservancy calls it “a wonderful example of commercial resources on the road in the middle of the century which disappear from the landscape”.
New life on the Riverside farm farm
On the Calendar of Farm House Events Collective: Pop-Up Markets, Coachella Watch Parties and a gospel brunch.
(David Fouts / for time)
Before 1969, University Avenue in Riverside was a very busy highway, part of US 395, making Farm House Motel a first -rate stop for travelers. But as this traffic moved to state roads 60 and 91, trade has faded along this extent of Avenue University, despite the growth of the riverside UC nearby. The district is more, according to the inhabitants, after the 1989 closure of Riverside International Raceway nearby (now the Moreno Valley Mall). Farm House Motel closed in 2007, and a year later, the property went to the property of the city.
The Baileys, including the family business based in Perris, Stronghold Engineering, has been carrying out electricity, design and construction work for over 30 years, bought the old motel from the city in 2018. Under this agreement, the family paid the city $ 210,000 for the property of the 1 acre farm, which “thought at the time was an excellent purchase” Bailey.
The Farm House Collective during its opening day on Saturday March 29, 2025.
(David Fouts / for time)
The family hired the County County Consulting Company Lab Holding, which worked on retail projects, including the Anti-Mall laboratory, the camp and the Anaheim packaging district (hosted in a historic construction complex). The old shelters next to the rooms have been locked up and have become room -in -room retail spaces – a restaurant in Bowl Acai, a plant shop, a craft shop and other places have opened, with more to come.
An outdoor scene, which stands where the Motel swimming pool was located, is flanked by 10 elms and matching games for children. Baileys plan one or two musical performances per month, perhaps later, and the scene will also offer film screenings, a vision of television sports and other events.
Not all motels are a solid candidate for a life after death Developers elsewhere learned the hard way. But with a university at hand, local leaders in support and an encouraging start, several residents said that the firm seemed to be suitable for the challenge.
“It is a super cool place that you can relax,” said Amy Martinez, who grew up in Riverside, moved to Upland and returned to see the opening with his family. The neighborhood has traveled a long way, she said, and “to see the rest of the stores open, it will be good.”
The opening of the collective farm house on March 29 marked the end of a long idling spell after the closure of the Riverside Farm House Motel.
(David Fouts / for time)
