179.1007.3-5

An advertising postcard shows the interior of the Conoco Motel, owned and operated by Leslie and Elsie Bourne, at 527 East Lincoln Way (Highway 30) in Ames. The motel first was listed in the Ames telephone directory in 1938 and was last seen under that name in 1951. In the 1940-41 Polk's Directory, it was called "Motel Auto Camp." The motel was later called the Colonial Motel and was operated at one time by Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Smith. When the Bournes first opened their motel it was next to their Conoco service station. Motels were then known as tourist courts or auto or motor courts and the term motel only became widely used in the early 1950s. The appearance of motels, in place of hotels, heralded the growing importance of the automobile and the new interstate highway system in American life.