In 1946, my parents traveled to Florida for the express purpose of buying a travel cabin business. I use that term because the term “motel” (motor hotel) had not yet come into use. The kind of travel lodging we are familiar with, namely, a multi-story building with rooms off of a central corridor or off of an outside walkway, was not yet the norm. It wasn’t until 1952 that Mr. Kemmons Wilson, envisioning predictable, quality accommodations for travelers, opened the first Holiday Inn in Memphis, Tennessee. Even as late as 1958 there were only 50 motels, although the number expanded rapidly with the construction of the interstate highway system.
Cabins for travelers were just that: small buildings that contained one bedroom and bath. They generally were separate buildings although some were built as row houses similar to the residential row houses we have in Philadelphia. However, they always were single story.
This is a picture of typical cabins of the period.
During the war years of 1941 to 1945 my father came to believe that travel cabins would be a good business after the war. Our family had visited Florida in 1941 to visit my mother’s sister, Aunt Helen and her husband, Uncle Stanley who lived in Jacksonville. He saw that Florida was already a popular travel destination and it was likely to expand after the war. Another factor was that my sister Natalie had been discharged from the Women’s Army Corp and had not yet found a job in Buffalo. She would help manage the cabin business.
I don’t recall all the various places in Florida that we visited, examining cabin businesses that were for sale. I do recall a place in Daytona Beach that was being considered and another in Kissimmee, Florida.
But the point of this story was a place in Orlando, Florida. Apparently there must have been a place there that was being seriously considered. I remember that we were parked under a southern oak tree on the city square with the court house in the center. It was terribly hot. (Recall that cars in 1946 were not air conditioned.) There was a discussion in the car about whether to proceed with the purchase. I don’t recall all the issues under consideration but I do know that one of them was about me. I had just enrolled to start at Canisius High School in Buffalo in the fall. There was the question about whether I would find a similar school in Orlando. There also was concern about leaving Buffalo and all the relatives. The final, bottom-line point was made by my mother: She asked why anyone would come to Orlando in central Florida. It was not near the Atlantic or Gulf beaches, and was surrounded only by orange groves. That seemed to clinch the argument against buying the property.
We returned home to Buffalo, and dad continued his job. I started at Canisius High School. Natalie, not finding a job in Buffalo, decided to go to California where some of our cousins had settled. They had reported that Los Angeles was booming. This was the beginning of the migration of the family to California; later my sister Arline and family moved there, and eventually my parents retired there.
I never heard one word of regret from my father about not getting into the lodging business in Orlando.
Epilogue: The population of Orlando was over 52,000 in 1950 but climbed to over 235,000 in 2009. Metro Orlando has a population of over 2 million. The Disney Company announced its intention to build an amusement park in Orlando in 1965. Today Orlando is the third most visited city in the United States. Even if we had established ourselves in Orlando in 1946, it still would have been a 19-year wait for the rapid growth to start.
Edited by eki.
