Pictured: a postcard advertisement for the Town and Country Motel in the USA 40 West, built in 1968. submitted
GREENFIELD – Before there was a Hilton Inn or an Embassy Suites, there were hundreds and maybe thousands of motels on the curbs of the US highways. US Highway 40, also known as the Old National Road, had a couple of evening rest stops – the Shenandoah Motel, Oak Leaf Motel, Liberty Motel, and Shamrock Motel.
The Hancock County Historical Society, located in the Chapel in the Park at 28 Apple Street, is celebrating this story with its Hancock County Hotels and Motels exhibit, now open through summer.
Michael Kester, president of the Historical Society, began studying motels in Hancock County in 2019 and eventually identified more than 25 in Greenfield, but also in Gem, Philadelphia, Charlottesville, Cleveland, McCordsville, and Fortville.
“And it just kept getting bigger,” said Kester.
As a child, he and his family had often traveled west on US 40 to shop at the Eastgate Shopping Center just off I-465 East.
“There was basically nothing in between here and there but motels,” Kester said.
During his research, Kester considered a project that would involve the community. While planning the exhibition, he noticed a photo from the dining room of the old Columbia Hotel.
The Columbia Hotel, also located on US 40, was an integral part of the green field from 1895 until it was destroyed by fire in 1960.
Kester remembers walking past it almost every day as a kid.
“I was a paper boy once,” said Kester. “The newspaper office was on Main Street. When I was a kid, I used to go there to go to the cigar shop and get candy. “
In the photo, Kester noticed a wide border of wallpaper along one wall and thought a replica of it might make a suitable background for the exhibition.
Kester turned to Greenfield Central High School and got in touch with art teacher Lisa Sears.
Sears, the National Art Honor Society’s sponsor for the high school, thought it would be a nice project for her students. To receive an Art Honor Society tassel to wear upon graduation, students must participate in four art-related projects during the year. Reconstructing an antique wallpaper border was just the thing.
“I like history a lot and I was fascinated by that,” said Sears. “We looked up color schemes from that time and tried to recreate them.”
Finally, using stencils, paint, and a roll of paper, Sears and her students made two six-foot-long borders that they glued onto cardboard. The border is now part of the exhibition in the Museum of the Historical Society.
The museum opens for the April 3rd season, and Kester has been preparing intensely for the big spring reopening with dusting and dewanting. A short tour of the facility shows repairs to ceiling plaster and new colors, new colors and a newly installed automatic projection screen for films or presentations.
A collection of shells that was originally on display in the old Carnegie Library (now Carnegie’s Restaurant) is housed in a glass and wood case that once housed Bibles. In another case, the Bibles find a new haven.
“The ongoing curation is what I call it,” said Kester.
“Hancock County Hotels and Motels” features the wallpaper line, photos of hotels and motels in the past, menus, and a variety of postcards promoting motels, many of which are long gone. Most travelers stayed in motels right by the motorway exit.
“It was a fight between US 40 and I-70,” Kester mused. “I-70 was the death knell for US highways.”
At a glance
Did you know – The word “motel”, a mixture of car driver and hotel, usually meant a place for a stopover for one night on the way to the destination travelers.
