A recent Multiple Property Document highlights a unique era and collection of Mid-Century Modern architecture in Virginia Beach.

By Austin Walker | DHR National Register Program Manager

In 1958, the Virginia Chapter of the American Institute of Architects held its spring meeting in Virginia Beach, where Tidewater-area architects exhibited some of their recent work. The August issue of the AIA’s monthly magazine, Virginia Record, described the exhibited works as “splendid examples of progressive, contemporary design,” noting in particular that “one of the most exciting building fields in which the Tidewater area architects are working is that of beach motels and hotels.”

Beginning in the mid-1950s, new motels in the Virginia Beach resort area began to reflect national hospitality industry trends, catering to a flourishing middle-class that had leisure time, owned automobiles, and could afford to vacation annually. Business in the resort area boomed in the postwar era, further aided by major transportation initiatives that made Virginia Beach increasingly accessible to tourists from across the Atlantic seaboard.

By 1963, eleven new motels and hotels had been added to the Virginia Beach resort area. By 1971, similar resort motels and hotels lined the beach, with the local Chamber of Commerce noting at least 70 such facilities. Many of these new accommodations were quintessential “Mom and Pop” operations, owned and personally managed by married couples and other small entrepreneurs.

Added to the Virginia Landmarks Register and National Register of Historic Places in 2021, the Virginia Beach Oceanfront Resort Motels and Hotels (1955-1970) Multiple Property Document (MPD) highlights this significant period in the development of the city’s beach frontage, capturing the fleeting transition between the early family cottages and luxury hotels of the late 19th and early 20th century and the emergence of national chain hotels in the 1970s.

Collectively, the Resort Motels and Hotels reflect the change in function and aesthetics that was ushered in during the early years of the “automobile culture” and the influence of commercial construction, which utilized modern materials and was overwhelmingly Modernist in style during the 1950s and ‘60s.

Architecturally, these new motels were streamlined, open, accessible, and above all “modern.” Designers and builders utilized materials and architectural features associated with the high-style Modernist movement, including pre-stressed and pre-cast concrete elements, steel framing, expansive plate glass windows, and decorative breeze blocks lining open-air breezeways and ample parking lots. During this period, many of Virginia Beach’s new motels were highlighted in the pages of Virginia Record.

To date, the Oceanfront Resort Motels and Hotels MPD has facilitated the nomination of four motels to the Virginia Landmarks Register and National Register of Historic Places. Three of these motels—the Crest Kitchenette Motel (1963) on Atlantic Avenue and the Jefferson Manor Apartments (1963) and Blue Marlin Lodge (1965) on Pacific Avenue—were designed by prolific Virginia Beach architect William Burton Alderman and exhibit highly expressive Modernist designs characterized by concrete masonry construction, breeze block walls, metal grilles, articulated wall elevations, and vaulted arched roofs. The most recently listed of the four, the ca. 1967-68 Beach Carousel Motel on Pacific Avenue, was built and owned by contractor Chriss Yoder and designed by his son, Robert, when he was just 16 years old.

The MPD includes an inventory of 20 surviving hotels and motels in the resort area, with many—including the four individual listings above—recommended eligible for the Registers based on the criteria outlined. Surviving examples illustrate the optimism, entrepreneurial spirit, booming economy, rise of the middle class, and automotive craze that were hallmarks of post-World War II commerce. Architecturally, these resources embraced Modern-inspired designs and materials that would, over the course of 15 years, fundamentally change the look and feel of the Virginia Beach oceanfront.

The Virginia Beach Oceanfront Resort Motels and Hotels (1955-1970) MPD was written by architectural historians Debra McClane and Kristin Kirchen, both of whom also authored (collaboratively and individually) the nominations for the four listed resources. The MPD and subsequent nominations were made possible by the support of the Virginia Beach Historic Preservation Commission.