The 1950s Windsor Village Motel in Pulaski, Tennessee was designed to look like an English village
We discovered this abandoned motel in Pulaski as we traveled through town on the way to someplace else. This was the Windsor Village Motel, seen below in its heyday on a vintage 1950s – 60s era postcard, and what’s pretty cool is that it was styled to look like an English village — each little unit had a unique façade.
The motel sits on the boundary of the South Pulaski Historic District, but doesn’t appear to have been listed as part of it in the National Register.
Abandoned sometime prior to 2008, the motel hosted travelers at the junction of U.S. Highways 31 and 64 in Pulaski in the 1950s and 1960s, and maybe longer.
Real vintage postcards from this same motel
I was fortunate to locate and acquire two vintage midcentury postcards of this very same motel, produced in the motel’s heyday.
A ‘natural color’ postcard by E.C. Kropp, of Milwaukee, published by R.C. Shaul in Chicago
Although text on the stamp area calls it “a natural color post card,” the color actually looks quite artificial. I wasn’t able to definitely date this postcard, but similar E.C. Kropp postcards online were postmarked in the 1940s.
This postcard shows a portion of the motel that can be seen in my first black and white photograph below.
Text from the back of the postcard:
“Just across street from U.S. Post Office intersection U.S. Highway 31 and U.S. Highway 64. 190 miles to Memphis, 130 miles to Chattanooga, 72 miles to Nashville, 140 miles to Birmingham. 30 Rooms, Tubs and Showers, Tile Baths, Hot Water Heat, Carpets, Simmons Furniture and Beauty Rest Mattresses. Office and Lobby.
Blow and Coffman, Owners
Phone 130.”
A Curt Teich Color Postcard of the Windsor Village Motel
Below is another postcard of the Windsor Village Motel printed with the
Curteichcolor process.
Named after Curt Otto Teich, a German immigrant who founded the Chicago-based printing company that became the leading producer of color postcards. Curteichcolor was a pioneering offset printing process using separate color plates, often laminated after printing to give the image a vivid, glossy, polished look.
Curt Teich & Company created the iconic “Greetings from…” postcards.
According to this helpful resource, the small number inside the postage stamp block dates this printing to the year 1961.
Black and white photographs from our visit to the Windsor Village Motel
Here are some of the photographs captured on this impromptu stop. Museum-quality fine art prints are available in a variety of sizes.
Though it’s fallen into ruins, this old motel is a tangible reminder of the era when Americans traveled by small state highways, rather than massive high-speed interstate highways. It would have been a respite for people who had been in the car all day, passing through countless small towns, stopping at countless stoplights along the way. This was the era of the heyday of Route 66, and the peak of America’s obsession with car culture.
Epson Exhibition Fiber Photo Paper
In the video, I ended with a few sample prints on a paper I’ve never used before, Epson’s Exhibition Fiber Photo Paper.
Exhibition Fiber paper is part of Epson’s Signature Worthy line with:
- Soft gloss baryta surface paper designed to resemble an F-type darkroom paper
- 13 mil
- 325 gsm
- Bright white with exceptional Dmax
I quite liked the look and finish of it, although I expressed concerns about the use of Optical Brightening Agents (OBAs) to achieve the brilliant whiteness of the paper. In my opinion, the prints looked really great on this paper.
Try Epson Exhibition Fiber Photo Paper
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