Totem Pole Motor Lodge (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact spot where the motel once stood. Today, no visible remains exist.


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Here follows an excerpt from Chris Barbuschak's presentation, "The History of Motels on Route 1 in Fairfax County" on behalf of the Mount Vernon Regional Historical Society:

When the MVRHS first asked me to talk about motels, I thought there's probably 20 tops on Route 1. Boy was I wrong, there are 62! So, a little context about hotels and motels on Richmond Highway. Route 1 is over 2,400 miles long. It's known as America's first main street and it stretches from Maine to Florida and its chock full of mom and pop shacks and businesses, diners, fortune tellers, truck stops and motels. U.S. Route 1 between Washington and Fredericksburg more or less followed the Potomac Path, which was a Native American route along the Potomac River. And when the Europeans came and settled it, they chose the shortest route along the bank of the Potomac as well.

In 1918, the state designated State Route One, which is part of the old Jefferson Davis Highway, and it was called SR1 in 1923. It became State Route 30 in 1926. In less than a year by 1927, the entire stretch of roadway was paved and motels practically popped up overnight. From the 1920s and 1930s, there were tourist ports which were individual cabins that you could stay in. They were arranged in a horseshoe fashion, usually around an office or a picnic area or a restaurant. Then in the 1940s and 1950s, you get into the low slung ranch style motels. And then in the 1960s and 1970s we get a couple of chain motels that come in.

So, Route 1 was the main north and south artery for many years, almost 50 years until Interstate Highway 95 opened up. That connected to Fredericksburg in 1964 and almost overnight all the businesses in the Richmond Highway corridor went downhill and continued to do so. Route 1 kind of had this "no tell" motel vibe to it. Ever since the 1960s, the county tried to get those motels to close and one by one they did. As of today, only nine of those original motels still exist. A couple of them are already on the chopping block.

So buckle up, and lets look at them all:

TOTEM POLE LODGE -- 7120 RICHMOND HIGHWAY
The Totem Pole Motor Lodge was built in the 1930s. It iconic totem pole still lives on. It stood until the motel was demolished in the early 1970s. It was actually still there after the motel closed, and they picked it up and put it in front of the Mount Vernon Antiques store down at 8101 Richmond Highway, just past where Buckman Road intersects. The antique store was gutted by a fire in 2017 and permanently closed, but the old totem pole is still lying on the ground in front of the store to this day, undamaged by the fire. Somebody should go rescue the totem pole before it is damaged. So, that's the remnant of the motel. Today, the Elk's Lodge sits on the same site of the old motel there.