Post #331032 by Okolehao on Fri, Sep 7, 2007 3:28 PM

There’s a plain 1960s motel, previously called Tagus Ranch (now Togas Inn), here in California along highway 99 that’s all alone, off from any of the nearest major turn offs. It used to be a hopping place back when I was a kid and we used to stop there for the night when we’d go up to Lodi to visit grandma and grandpa. It’s a large two story, U shaped complex with a swimming pool in the center of the courtyard and a large lawn area, with a few mature palms, all around it. It’s seen better days and now it’s mostly a trucker motel.

Every time I go past the place I think to myself that it’d make a great Tiki motel. Its basic design is appropriate and all it needs is new mansards that look Polynesian, some sort of fountain, and a few Tikis scattered around the grounds. It wouldn’t be a great example of Polypop, but it’d be enough to make me interested in staying there. I’ve always thought that the novelty would be a draw and could help their business. There is nothing roadside from Los Angels to Sacramento that’s remotely Tiki and the fact that it’s in the middle of nowhere seems even more enticing to me. Like rooting for an underdog.

Anybody ever had the same thoughts? We all decry the slow destruction of what was, but why not take something from that era and make it into what it could have been? The appeal of an old style motel going Tiki is so much more appealing to me than building a new hotel. Anything built new nowadays, if it got built, would probably be more ‘Jimmy Buffet’ than true Tiki anyways.

Grand Courtyard
http://www.togasinn.com/Yard.htm

Aerial of it’s remoteness
http://www.togasinn.com/Directions.htm