Post #602339 by meega on Sat, Aug 13, 2011 7:30 PM

I found this postcard going through some things. I never posted it because it was one already posted.....but the back of the card says "The NEW Leilani Motel", totes 31 air-conditioned rooms, and makes no mention of the Leilani Supper Club. The area where the Supper Club should be is wooded. This card bares a strong likeness to the Alan Wiederman illustration, but that shows the Supper Club along with added motel rooms on the other side of the restaurant. More like a rough draft of a future expansion.

The long "Village" card says "Milwaukee's Famous Suburban Motel" as if it had developed a reputation, includes the Supper Club, and says 60 air-conditioned rooms. More of a finalized design and closer to the actual layout, sans the heliport.

FYI: After re-reading the original article on page one......Alan Wiederman was the architect for the motel & supper club along with the motel's expansion. It seems likely that all three of these illustrations were, if not his, someone in that firm - medium, artists, and speed in fleshing out ideas could all account for the variations. As to the heliport east of the restaurant....after looking at the aerials I posted on page 3, it probably did exist in a less exotic "big parking lot" kind of way. It was in the plan to expand the surrounding land, but I'm not sure that was all Paul Fechner's plans, or to rely on others to invest in the "Village" concept.

[ Edited by: meega 2011-08-14 07:34 ]