Wigwam Motel
Holbrook, AZ Photo courtesy Dave & Debra van Hulsteyn
Check out a couple of shots of the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, close
cousin to the one in Rialto. Here's a vintage look at the teepees, complete
with a look see at some old cars.
As you pull into Holbrook along old Route 66 and it is hard to beat the sight of the Wigwam Motel. Fifteen giant concrete teepees form a semicircle around the old office, while vintage cars sit outside the rooms as though their owners stopped for the night sometime around 1957 and never left.
Wigwam Motel
Holbrook, AZ Photo courtesy Seth Curtis
Officially known as Wigwam Village No. 6, the motel opened in May 1950. Developer Chester Evert Lewis built it using the patented plans of Frank Redford, who had opened his first Wigwam Village back in the 1930s. The buildings are called wigwams, but their tall, pointed shape is actually patterned after teepees.
The office
Holbrook, AZ Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
Each room measures about 21 feet across and rises nearly 30 feet into the Arizona sky. The units are numbered 1 through 16, but there is no Room 13. Apparently, sleeping inside a giant concrete teepee was adventurous enough without tempting any bad luck.
Here's another shot of the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook. Again, vintage car
treasures grace the motel lot.
The collection of old automobiles adds quite a bit to the vintage scene. One of them, a Studebaker, once belonged to Chester Lewis himself. The office building began life as a Texaco station, making the whole place a nearly complete snapshot of the automobile age.
The sign and teepees
Holbrook, AZ Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
Interstate 40 bypassed Holbrook in the late 1970s, and the motel closed in 1982. After Lewis died, his children restored the property and reopened it in 1988. Their work helped save one of only three surviving Wigwam Villages in the country. The Holbrook motel and its close cousin near Rialto also helped inspire the Cozy Cone Motel in Pixar’s Cars.
UPDATE: Here are more photos of the Wigwam Motel. 09-21
UPDATE: The Wigwam Motel remains open and family-operated along Route 66. Its restored neon sign still glows, the vintage cars remain parked outside, and travelers can still spend the night inside one of the famous teepee-shaped rooms. 09-26
Historic Route 66 Motel
Seligman, AZ Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
At one end of Seligman’s main drag, the neon-covered Historic Route 66 Motel sign provides a bright welcome or a colorful farewell, depending on which way the road trip is headed. Either way, it is difficult to pass without slowing down for a look.
Historic Route 66 Motel
Seligman, AZ Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
The motel opened in 1950 as the Navajo Motel, built by the Layman family for travelers following the Mother Road across northern Arizona. One family spending the night there in 1963 was the Pope family, then making its way from the East Coast to California. Twenty years later, the Popes returned to Seligman and bought the same motel where they had once stayed. Now that is coming full circle.
The office
Seligman, AZ Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
After Route 66 was officially decommissioned in 1985, Jim Pope and his daughter Dee designed an entirely new sign for the property. Installed in 1987, the huge marquee was filled with red, blue, yellow, and white neon and carried the motel’s new name, Historic Route 66 Motel. Rather than quietly accepting the highway’s disappearance, the sign practically shouted that Route 66 was still here.
The motel shares its property and family ownership with the Roadkill Cafe and O.K. Saloon next door. The combination of glowing neon, roadside rooms, and a restaurant promising “You Kill It, We Grill It” makes this a hard stop to pass up. It fits Seligman, a town that refused to let the old highway fade away after Interstate 40 bypassed it.
A more recent shot taken in 2020
Seligman, AZ Photo by RoadsidePeek.com
Best of all, the neon is still regularly maintained and switched on. Too many surviving motel signs have been stripped of their tubing, replaced by LEDs, or left permanently dark. This one can still be counted on to glow across the pavement after sunset, looking much as a Route 66 sign ought to look.
UPDATE: The Route 66 Motel continues to light the way along Route 66 in Seligman, AZ. 09-21
UPDATE: The Historic Route 66 Motel remains open and family-owned beside the Roadkill Cafe. Its large 1987 marquee survives with its neon intact and continues to light the night in Seligman. 09-26
Check out a couple of shots of the 
The office
A more recent shot taken in 2020
