Johnson's Mo-Tel

780 Commercial Ave., St. Clair, MO
Phone:

East < GO > West

This building was constructed in 1936 as new tavern and home for Charles & Liz Johnson according a 1940 article in the local newspaper. It also became the office for the Johnson's Mo-tel which had four single unit wood frame "St. Louis Style" cabins behind the office. The main building was used as living space for the Johnsons and dining for the motel guests. The one story addition on the right in this photo was built in 1975. For many years years there were gas pumps out front selling Shell gasoline and oil.

The Johnson's sold the property to Mr. & Mrs. Herschel Porter in March of 1946. The Porters renamed it the Porter's Motel The Porter's didn't stay long selling the place to Art Foraker in January of 1947. The Foraker's changed the name to Art's Motel Cabins and hung around for a couple of years before selling out to Vic Gaasch in September of 1948, after which it became Vic's Motel with plans to continue selling Shell Gas, Oil, and other Shell products.

Gaasch sold it to Clyde West early 1950, and of course that led to it becoming West's Motel. Under the West's ownership, and with the realignment of Route 66, in 1952 the motel converted to Apartments, thus ending its time as a place for weary travelers to get a nights rest.

But the Johnson's weren't done with the motel business and in 1951 Charles and his son, Robert built the Skylark Motel a couple of miles west of town on the new 4 lane Route 66.

Photo(s): 2017