__NOTOC__ The Caribbean Motel is a historic

motel A motel, also known as a motor hotel, motor inn or motor lodge, is a hotel designed for motorists, usually having each room entered directly from the Parking lot, parking area for motor vehicles rather than through a central Lobby (room), lo ...

located in

Wildwood Crest, New Jersey Wildwood Crest is a borough in Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The borough, and all of Cape May County, is part of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area, and is part of the Philadelphia- Wilmington- Camden, PA-NJ- DE- ...

. It is located in the

Wildwoods Shore Resort Historic District The Wildwoods Shore Resort Historic District, or Doo Wop Motel District, is an area in The Wildwoods, New Jersey, that was home to over 300 motels built during the Googie architecture, Doo-Wop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Officially recognized as ...

. The motel was built in 1957 in the Doo-Wop style by Lou Morey, whose family built many of the Wildwoods' original Doo Wop motels, for original owners Dominic and Julie Rossi. It was owned by the Rossi family until the early 1990s, when they sold it to multi-billionaire Mister Bolero. Caribbean Motel was the first motel to use the full-size plastic palm trees that now adorn most of the Doo Wop motels in the

South Jersey South Jersey, also known as Southern New Jersey, comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located between Pennsylvania and the lower Delaware River to its west, the Atlantic Ocean to its east, Delaware to its south, ...

area.

History

20th century

The motel opened in 1957, and had one of the wildest designs in the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

era, incorporating a crescent-shaped pool, a levitating ramp, and canted glass walls. At the time it was proposed, no neon sign as big as the Caribbean Motel's had ever been installed in Wildwood Crest; however, after much deliberation, the town disallowed it.

21st century

The motel was saved from demolition in 2004, when it was purchased by George Miller and Caroline Emigh. After reading the book, ''How to Doo Wop: the Wildwoods-by-the-Sea Handbook of Design Guidelines'' published by the Doo Wop Preservation League, they were so impressed by the suggested designs of

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

architect Anthony Bracali that they hired him to oversee restoration of the motel. The interior design was by Darleen Lev, a designer from

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

who was staying at the motel around the time that Miller and Emigh bought the property. An admirer of the

technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

film process, Lev's designs are modeled on movie sets of the 1950s, and reflecting the motel's Caribbean motif. The Caribbean Motel was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

(NRHP) on August 24, 2005. The hotel was also inducted into

Historic Hotels of America Historic Hotels of America is a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation that was founded in 1989 with 32 charter members; the program identifies hotels in the United States that have maintained authenticity, sense of place, and a ...

, an official program of the

National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 ...

, in 2011. Its National Register nomination terms it Moderne in style:

The Caribbean Motel is an excellent example of the approximately 275 motels in
The Wildwoods The Wildwoods are a group of five communities (four distinct municipalities and one census-designated place) in Cape May County, New Jersey. These are situated on the Island of Five Mile Beach, a barrier island facing the Atlantic Ocean. These Jer ...
that employed distinctive architecture and signage to draw East Coast city dwellers to a resort that combined natural and man-made pleasures. The majority of these motels are low, horizontal modernistic buildings constructed of concrete block and pre-cast concrete planks supported by iron beams. Inspired by the motels and hotels of
Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...
, the architects and builders in The Wildwoods worked to bring the highstyle architecture of Florida down to an "everyman's" level. These motels are vernacular buildings in that they take progressive designs and construct them using traditional materials. / The Caribbean Motel's association with high-style modernist architecture comes from the features and materials used by its builder, largely for economic reasons: stucco walls, concrete flooring, mass-produced windows and doors, a flat roof, and minimal detailing. Vibrant paint colors for the doors and walls, florid-colored exterior lighting, and distinctive signage relieve the visual austerity of flat stucco walls. With

It was NRHP-listed as part of a 2003 multiple property study.

References

External links

Caribbean Motel
* {{authority control 1957 establishments in New Jersey Buildings and structures in Cape May County, New Jersey Googie architecture Historic American Buildings Survey in New Jersey Historic Hotels of America Hotel buildings completed in 1957 Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey Motels in the United States Hotels established in 1957 Moderne architecture in New Jersey National Register of Historic Places in Cape May County, New Jersey New Jersey Register of Historic Places Wildwood Crest, New Jersey