(Former) DelSue Motor Inn - Williams, AZ - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

The buildings were originally constructed in 1936 of brick and concrete block on a foundation of concrete block. Most of the motel is one-story, but has a two-story unit constructed in 1963 The buildings are oriented to largely enclose three sides of a courtyard with the fourth side open to the street to allow access to automobiles. The room units forming the courtyard contain verandas, each serving two rooms. The verandas are four feet wide with a low wall made from brick and stuccoed to look like adobe. Each veranda has a curved opening facing the courtyard with square posts and arched ceilings. It retains three of the four original carports built right into the building. The roof is covered with metal tiles which were made to mimic Spanish ceramic tile. The roofs are hipped with an slope of approximately 30°. They are painted terracotta in color, again in imitation of ceramic tiles.

Each unit has double bedrooms (which was considered a luxury at the time of construction). The current office was built in 1939 is adjacent to the road and features a curved wall with glass block and a large picture window. The owner's residence unit has a three-room, full course block basement which contained the mechanics for the original heat which was a hot water radiator system.

Two neon Grand Motel signs, one facing Route 66, were built onto the second story facade. In 1978, one old Grand Motel sign was removed from the front courtyard facing side room #1, and a free standing crown (circa Best Western 1960s) was installed in the middle of the sixty foot driveway. The sign is internally lit, as are the white plastic globes on the three highest points of the crown.


The hotel is a good local example of the auto court type of hotel/motel/inn which provided travelers with a place to stay overnight. It construction reflects the growing importance of automobile traffic, which replaced the railroad as the primary means of transportation in the 1920s and 1930s. It was part of a larger reorientation of Williams away from the railroad and towards the main highway, Route 66, which was the primary transportation route from Chicago to Los Angeles.

In 1936, Mr. H.J. Delaney built a combination full service Standard Gas Station and tourist court, in the Spanish Colonial Style. He named his new business the DelSue after the first three letters of his last name and his wile's first name. There were already two hotels and several cabin camps in the town of Williams. Prior to 1936, Hull's Motel, Thurston's Cottages, and Loma Vista Court were built and doing a booming business in through traffic heading west. The land was vacant and two blocks from the center of downtown Williams. As described in the MPDF, this placement reflected the desire of business owners to be the first business travelers reached and contributed to the spread of the town. By 1945, the motel was surrounded by other motels, gas stations, and cafes. Williams extended another mile further and had a population of 2,622. The motel was sold after Delaney died and as a condition of the sale, to Mr. Mosier, the name was changed to Grand Motel. This change of ownership led to a period of alterations to the property. The motel was relatively upscale and its visitors included radio personality Walter Winchell and television actor Telly Savalas.

Street address: 234 E US 66 Williams, AZ County / Borough / Parish: Coconino Year listed: 1998 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event Periods of significance: 1925-1949 Historic function: Domestic Current function: Domestic Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 1: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   04/16/2024 The A-Team visited it 11/02/2019 wildernessmama visited it

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