Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts

The Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts brand was the first motel chain in the United States,[1][2] founded by Edgar Lee Torrance in Waco, Texas, in 1929.

By 1955, there were more than twenty Alamo Plazas across the southeastern U.S., most controlled by a loosely knit group of a half-dozen investors and operating using common branding or architecture.

With Simmons furniture and Beautyrest mattresses on every bed, the Alamo Plaza rooms were marketed as "tourist apartments" under a slogan of “Catering to those who care.” They were typically located on the U.S. Highway system in major cities in the southeastern United States.

"If the place across the road adds something new," explains W. H. Farmer, owner of a southern chain of Alamo Plaza courts, "you've got to go him one better or lose some customers."

The signage, used at both owned and franchised locations, had a star atop an 'A' and an arrow pointing to "Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts".

The franchise attempt was abandoned in 1960, after about a year of use with 50 locations listed in a "Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts — Spend the night where the price is right — free pocket travel guide".

One franchised "Alamo Motel" at 19803 N US Highway 441, High Springs, Florida, is still extant with signage (minus the top star) largely intact.

The last Alamo was built in 1965 along I-20 in Shreveport, Louisiana, as a fully modern motel with a version of the updated metal-plastic façade; it is now a Travelodge.

"Mac" McGrady, a nephew of E. Lee Torrance, operated a group of "St. Francis Hotel Courts" in Alabama cities which used the original architecture and were Alamo in all but name.

A lumber merchant by trade, he entered the chain by purchasing the Memphis Alamo Plaza not long after Torrance had started it.

Initially serving Fort Benning during World War II, the location was renamed Alamo Plaza Hotel Court with Torrance's blessing.

The St. Louis location, opened 1948 as the fifth in the Park Plaza series, had an adjacent Golden Drumstick restaurant operated by the same owners.

Most of these are now gone; the original West Tulsa location was sold by the Stroud family to Dorothy Harrison, but by the 1980s was serving as refuge for the homeless.