West Winds Motel, Mount Vernon, WA (motel)

Name:West Winds Motel
Type:motel
Street:2020 Riverside Drive
City:Mount Vernon
State:WA
Zip:98273
country:USA
Phone:(360) 424-4224
Status:operational

Description:
This place is rundown on a major street. I only posted it for the figures out front. Information from travelpost.com: "40 rooms, 1 floor, Built 56 years ago (1951), Renovated 2 years ago (2005)." Only judging from the outside I think renovated might have meant new paint on the outside. The two reviews I was able to find did nothing to change my initial impressions. http://travel.yahoo.com/p-reviews-356205-prod-hotel-action-read-ratings_and_reviews-i;_ylt=Aix.VFxs6u30ZKo9xWZYMSTiphQB

If you look at the roof you can see the address is missing a number.

[ Edited by: rwhgeek 2007-01-02 16:43 ]

DAMN! I DO NOT BELIVE THAT , thit IS a WITCO foutain painted green.

wow I live kinda close, may have to check it out next time I get to leave the island...

you gotta save it.

I'll take some rope and drag em home...

On 2007-01-02 18:39, TIKI DAVID wrote:
you gotta save it.

My mother actually drives past it daily. I have informed her if she sees any work i.e. construction/change of owner, she is to contact me immediatly. I live in VA so I can't hunt down the owner and make an offer (as well as currently suffering lack of money), so it is up to a WA tikiophile if they have the means to step up.

I have seen them for years and the hotel has not changed. I have walked buy them drunk a few times and wanted to take them to a better place but never did.

I finally got off the island today and stopped by for a few pix


I didn't notice the other tiki in the other pic posted, was in a hurry...

[ Edited by: Stiki Tiki 2007-01-16 14:32 ]

2, 7ft WITCO fountains painted green? damn!!! son of a bitch!! somebody save those! don't make me drive all the way out there. TD

They do need saving, or at the least moved away from the edge of the roof, the water just dumps right on them, the top of the left one looks like it won't last much longer...

I stopped by this property yesterday. The painted Witcos are still there just as in the above pictures. One of the fountains has a piece missing from its side and there seemed to be signs of rot. It's possible that all three Witcos all have damage beyond repair, but they are heavily painted which may mean some protection. On the other hand, that's a lot of paint to remove to bring them back to their proper state.

The person at the desk (he seemed he may be the owner) said a couple of people had told him they would like to buy the pieces if he ever gets rid of them.

In the little garden beyond the entry (can be seen in the snow pics above) there are two tikis which seem to be tree fern carvings in really good condition. (They don't show in detail in the above photos.) I took some snaps (film) of these and will pass them along to someone with a scanner whenever I get them developed.

If the motel itself was ever elaborately Poly-pop there is no trace of it now. I'd guess like a lot of mid-century motels all the fun went into the street appeal. (Portland Oregon's The Palms is a prime example of this. Stellar sign. Generic motel. Strange girls in tub.)

Good news for all of you who hated seeing the Witco fountains painted green!

They're now painted purple!

The guy above has some issues:

His buddy looks fine:

The last of two sign tikia is still green:

The sign he guards...

Thanks for the update on this place.

These owners should have had new tikis carved for replacements and put these old ones in the office before they got so weathered and painted.

The motel and the tikis are all still there - and still purple. I think they may have a new coat of paint.

Just got this postcard from ebay. Looks about 1970? Lots more Witco was there back then, makes since Mount Vernon being the home of Witco. Also Google Streets only shows the two big fountain tikis with the smaller carvings on the sign pole not there now. Did anyone mention that the two rods angling out from the sign were spears?

Have to say that the tikis on the sign with the spears reminds me of the Seattle Tropics motels sign (here being removed from the property).

aloha, tikicoma

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2015-03-19 00:38 ]

Tikicoma,

Nice score on the postcard. So if I understand this correctly, the sign started out with two Tikis flanking it, then it went down to one Tiki, and now there are none?

DC

Yea Dusty there are two on the card (guessing the 70's) one on the posts from 2007&2010 and zero now (google streets Sept 2012).

And last night after I posted the card I looked at it and realized that the original signs a sail.

aloha

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2015-03-19 23:46 ]

…whose red & white stripes are the accepted color scheme of Viking ships…

(…and my family's shipping line flag
)

…AND were also used for the TROPICS MOTEL SEATTLE at some point:

…which makes your observation about the origin for the inspiration for the sign that much more likely :)

I picked up this nice little business card from the West Winds that shows a different look to the motel exterior including the sign. Lots of Witco on the outside!

DC