Tourist Home Sign, 1930
notes: label: Description
content: Before motels were common, homeowners earned extra income by renting rooms by the night to motorists who were passing through town. Tourist homes offered a more comfortable alternative to autocamps and roadside cabins. They had a homelike atmosphere and domestic comforts that equaled travelers’ home furnishings. Some even served meals. In the evening, hosts and guests often engaged in conversation in the living room. The most successful tourist homes grew into roadside inns, but most stopped serving travelers when chain motels spread across the United States. This hand-painted wooden sign welcomed motorists at a tourist home in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, a rural community 25 miles from New York City.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Transportation, Road
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
label: See more items in
content: Road Transportation
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: House of Stuart
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1984.0936.01
label: accession number
content: 1984.0936
label: catalog number
content: 1984.0936.01
label: catalog number
content: 84.0936.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: sign
label: Other Terms
content: sign; Road
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 29 in x 26 1/2 in x 1 1/2 in; 73.66 cm x 67.31 cm x 3.81 cm