Downtowner Inns

Now doesn't this just conjure up images of Men In Hats With Imprtant Business?

This is the Downtowner Motor Inn in Columbia, S. C. It does not appear to still exist, although the chain still survives in some form. (Here's the Hollywood Downtowner.)

I've no doubt the man in the foreground had a wasp-waisted wife at home caring for 2.5 precious little darlings.

And when Dad had business in Kansas City, he stayed here:

 

Both hotels have that look that just screams "modern" at you. Nothing like turquoise panels with splashes of dull colors to project that "go-getter" image that businessmen of that era loved.

I like the first post card a little better, being an artist's illustration that clearly shows the concept of the ultra-modern hotel without the reality of being plunked smack in the middle of downtown. So you think that even in that era, people walked? Boulevards that wide were not meant to hold just three cars. Why, I expect a bubble-topped jet car (with fins, of course) to land on the low roof of the restaurant at any minute!