During the 1950s and 1960s, oceanfront tourism in Virginia Beach and elsewhere in the nation boomed, and the family road-trip vacation achieved iconic status. The resort motel/hotel, a new building form arising largely in Florida and California, came of age during these decades, attracting middle-class vacationers seeking short-term accommodations. Jefferson Manor Motel Apartments, completed in 1963, recalls this pivotal era in Virginia Beach, when resort accommodations moved away from oceanside shingled frame cottages to concrete-and-steel constructions. Jefferson Manor was one of the architect-designed, Modernist style, family-owned resort motels of concrete construction built along the city’s Pacific Avenue during the early post-World War II period. The two-story motel, locally built and designed by real estate investor Ralph G. “Pete” Bosher and architect William Burton Alderman, offered guests units with private balconies and kitchenettes where families could prepare their own meals and dine informally. Motel-style parking further facilitated the casual vacation experience by allowing guests (after checking in) to access their cars and rooms without having to pass through a lobby. The short-lived era for these locally operated hotels and motels faded after the arrival to the city, beginning around 1970, of corporate chain hotels.

The Jefferson Manor Motel Apartments were listed under the Virginia Beach Oceanfront Resort Motels and Hotels (1955-1970) MPD.