FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 16, 2007
Contact: Molly Dannenmaier
Director of Marketing and Public Relations
409-765-7834
PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST
molly.dannenmaier@galvestonhistory.org

Dwayne Jones to Speak on Roadside Architecture: From the Panhandle Plains to the Galveston Seawall

Saturday, May 19, 2007, 10 a.m. at GHF's Salvage Warehouse, 908 23rd St.

$10 at the door ($8 for GHF members)

Galveston Historical Foundation executive director Dwayne Jones will give a talk on "Roadside Architecture: From the Panhandle Plains to the Galveston Seawall" this Saturday, as part of the foundation's Demonstration Class series. The talk will take place at 10 a.m. at the GHF Salvage Warehouse, 908 23rd Street. Admission is $10 ($8 for GHF members).

Dwayne Jones prepares for his talk this Saturday.

Jones has always had an appreciation for the architecture of the road trip: "My grandfather had one of the first tourist courts between

Dallas and Houston," he says, "and another grandfather had a gas station. I sort of grew up in the business."

The talk will be illustrated with selections from Jones' extensive collection of postcards, photos and ephemera, reflecting a lifelong fascination for the kinds of built environments that resulted from the rise of auto travel and tourism in the 20th century. Tourist courts, motels, gas stations, fast food stands and drive-ins were services that had never existed before the automobile, and their buildings, without a long tradition to define how they should look, could look like anything. As roadside services competed for auto travelers' business with new levels of convenience and speed, they sought their attention with often outlandish themes and forms.

An adventurous couple stops at one of the first tourist courts, near El Paso, about 1920. Auto club emblems adorn the radiator of their car, and camping gear (made unnecessary by a stay at one of the "bungalettes" of the tourist court) can be seen behind the cab.

Photo courtesy the El Paso Public Library.

Jones is particularly interested in "programmatic" or "mimetic" buildings, meaning buildings built to look like something else: a hot dog stand in the shape of a hot dog; a diner that looks like a railroad car; a cottage court with cottages shaped like teepees. "In this kind of design, the building itself became the sign," says Jones, "and the result has been a fascinating element of our cultural history that is rapidly disappearing."

The S. S. Galveston Hotel Courts, designed by architect Ben Milam in 1941, are called "the Gulf's finest" in this postcard view. From the collection of Dwayne Jones.

Galveston's most famous, and at the time of its demolition this year its only example of a mimetic structure, was the SS Galveston, last known as the Mayflower Hotel. Seen from the Seawall, the hotel on its triangular lot looked like a "three-island" steamship, complete with bridge and smokestack. Its loss seemed inevitable even to most preservationists in the face of a condo and hotel building boom in an area unprotected by any historic zoning restrictions. It was the terminus of Jones' "Panhandle Plains to the Galveston Seawall" route of roadside architecture. Auto tourism and the buildings provided to serve it continue to evolve. Dwayne Jones will remind an audience this Saturday of some of its history.

"Insulated Indian wigwams, each with complete bath, hot and cold water, inner spring mattresses, and solid hickory furniture" are advertised on this postcard. Gas and oil were available, and the camp was "always open." The swastikas, originally a Native American design, clearly date the view before World War II. From the collection of Dwayne Jones.