Then and now: Open space replaces old hotels
Highway 50 looking toward Wildwood Avenue. Photo/South Lake Tahoe
Sometimes it takes photographs to show progress.
Redevelopment in South Lake Tahoe has not always meant the construction of a building. The photo above shows hotels on Highway 50 near Wildwood Avenue before they were taken down in the 1990s.
Open space dots the landscape along Highway 50. Photo/Bill Kingman
Along with the scenic improvements, this area has new sidewalks, curbs, gutters and lighting. Next to the restaurant is the children’s memorial. On the left side of the street is Linear Park.
— Bill Kingman
Bill, Yes that stretch of 50 does look better. As a motel kid, I hated see those old places go, but the open space is better than a bunch of aging motels.
Carroll Shelby, the famous car designer and racer had a motel around there called The Carroll Shelby motel Mr. Shelby designed the much coveted AC Cobra and later the Mustang Gt 500 along with many other fast cars.
The linear park got off to abit of a rough start but it looks good now. Open space where the childrens memorial sits, it also looks good.
Thanks Bill for showing some of the progress being made around here! OLS
Another benefit was the alleviation of significant flooding that used to occur at the intersection of Highway 50 and Wildwood. Two Guys From Italy used to flood to the point you needed a boat to get in during the spring months and after a significant rainfall.
Also, people used to have to walk in the highway at one point in front of Tahoe Meadows. The linear park has made that walk so much safer.
loosing all of those motel rooms in 1989 started the vacation home problem.
it is all part of the Big Plan to change our Town.
don’t worry you will like it as long as you have an Agency Job.
Chief, the economy and the internet caused the vacation home problem. It is much easier to find a vacation home now than in the 90s, ie VRBO, airbnb, ect. these have also affected our occupancy and room rates for the worst. It always seems to be a conspiracy by the good old boys with you chief, why is that. These good old boys are getting old and dying off. And they would much rather that the motel occupancy was much higher by far than it is now.
chief is shackled to the cult of theism; the sin and salvation cycle grants for the slowroller and his ilk a transcendent insight. they are special and you aren’t.
I for one would like to see more open space in town.
Steve, You wrote you would like to see more open space in town. Me to! I read that the old Alta Mira building, purchased by the CTC, will be torn down providing more views of the lake. A small improvement but at least it’s something.
One building at a time. OLS
OLS, the Alta Mira building was torn down months ago as was the old motel purchased by the concervancy.
reloman, Thanks for setting me sraight on the Alta Mira. I hadn’t been down that way in awhile. I’ll have to go down and check it out. Thanks for the info. OLS
Carroll Shelby did not own a motel here – but he did own the Ford dealership for a short-time, ‘pal’-ing” around as he was with Bill Harrah at the time. . .that would b e the same dealer building that has housed several dealerships right up to Cardinale. . .
That relationship created the incredible AC Cobra (made from the tiny AC Bristol sports car with about an 80-inch wheelbase) that was built by Shelby for Bill Cosby as a “signing-bonus” for 5-years (3 weeks @ a time) of South Shore Room performances in July every year. . .
Gary Bowen, Thanks for that. I thought Carroll Shelby had a motel here but then again, I was pretty young, but I recall seeing the motel sign. I was riding a Schwinn Stingray bike around the area back then and that’s what I rememberd, seeing that motel sign. Either way, I know Mr. Shelby was around here for a little while here on So. Shore.
Glad to hear he was pallin’ around with Bill Harrah, who was a fine man as well. Take care, OLS
an old Tahoe Dailey tribune article stated Shelby did indeed own a motel in tahoe, “Sky Terrace Motel ” and it even had a trophy bar.
http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20050427/COMMUNITY/104270033
Carroll Shelby owned the building next door to the now Cardinal Way building, the Ford dealership was the middle building now DIY center.
To clarify:
http://www.doublequicktime.com/item/description/id/33177961/d/Carroll+Shelby%27s+Sky+Terrace+Motel+S+Tahoe+California+postcard+c.1975+unposted
and
https://www.laketahoenews.net/2013/04/then-and-now-car-dealerships-used-to-flourish/
Tahoeanhiker and Bill Kingman, Thanks for letting me know that the Carroll Shelby motel really did exist and it was’nt just some childhood aberration of a young boy riding by on a bike.
Okay, old timers. Just down the road was the Ski Run Center. Who ownned the laundromat, who stil lives here, and what was the name of the liqour store on the corner next to Ski Run blvd.??? Any takers?? OLS
I moved to SLT in 1971 – I’ve been a car racing fan all my life, and, for a few years before retirement, and about 10 years post retirement I worked as a race official for, among others, Formula 1, Trans Am and Indy Car.
So I’m embarrassed to say that I had completely forgotten about the Caroll Shelby motel. Although I do recall that his driving schools trained, not only race drivers, but also Police Officers and Police Officer driving instructors. One of whom was an SLTPD instructor; another example of the progressive history of your Police Department, posters and critics hereon notwithstanding.