Postcard ca. 1950s: Kummerlowe Archive
 
Kansas City, Missouri -- 5000 East Linwood
 
Among the earliest Motor Lodge and Restaurant complexes, the original Kansas City site was opened in about 1955. While its Restaurant was fully standardized and fully recognizable, the small 39 guest room Motor Lodge was not representative of what the chain would become (perhaps only Wheeling resembled it). Nonetheless the Motor Lodge was a step in the right direction as the roadside hospitality industry led by Howard Johnson's and Holiday Inn progressed and evolved. Note: The facility never featured a Gate Lodge.
 
 
 
Postcards ca. 1950s: Scott Sargent
 
 
 
 
 
 
Postcard ca. 1960s: Kummerlowe Archive
 

The Kansas City Motor Lodge had the dubious distinction of being the first member of the chain to leave the Orange fold. At some point during 1963 it abandoned the Howard Johnson name and joined the then growing Congress Inns chain. An entry for the location in the 1966 Mobile Travel Guide pointed out that it was formerly a Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge and featured "lovely rooms."

Above: The aerial perspective in the postcard shows the former Howard Johnson's while it operated as a Congress Inn--unchanged from its HoJo's days.

Below: An entry in the 1968 AAA TourBook indicated that the site had become a 100 guest room Ramada Inn--perhaps as a Ramada it incorporated the original Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge building?
 
1968 AAA TourBook, pg. 196: Kummerlowe Archive
 
 
 
 
Photo November 1987: Scott Sargent
 
Above & Below: Still standing in the late 1980s, the Restaurant had been recycled into an auto parts store. However by the middle 2000s nothing remained at the site--not even any evidence of what had been the 100 room Ramada Inn.
 
Photos October 2005: Phil Edwards
 
 
 
 
 
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