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Cellpic Sunday – The White Sands Motel

The White Sands Motel.

September 2023

Alamogordo, New Mexico.

White Sands National Park will soon be the subject of a Travel Tuesday post. We stayed at Alamogordo for the night, but unfortunately, not at this mid-20th-century motel. As we drove by on our way to the much more mundane Holiday Inn Express, I was attracted to the big electric sign. We stopped so I could take a photo.

Many motels in the region, including the White Sands Motel, show mid-century architectural influences. This reflects the increased travel and roadside tourism period in the mid-20th century. My research also indicated something about the sign on this motel. It’s an example of a “Googie” sign (not Google.) This finding started me down a rabbit hole of learning about Googie architecture and signage.

Googie architecture, a style that flourished in mid-20th century America, is characterized by its exuberant and futuristic design elements. Driven by the optimism of the Space Age and the burgeoning car culture, Googie buildings and signs feature bold, geometric shapes such as boomerangs, parabolas, and starbursts, often rendered in vibrant colors and illuminated by dazzling neon.

“Googie” architecture, including its distinctive signs, is named after Googie’s Coffee Shop in Hollywood, California. Designed by John Lautner in 1949, the name “Googie” came from a family nickname of the restaurant owner’s wife. For more information, see the Wikipedia article on Googie architecture here.

About the photo: I captured the motel entrance with its Googie sign with my Samsung S23U. In Adobe Lightroom Classic, I cropped the image to 16×10 and used the Guided Upright tool in the Transform module to correct the perceived lean of the sign and building. From there, I sent it off to Luminar Neo to increase sharpness and reduce noise from the ISO 1250 image. I then increased contrast and altered the Blacks and Whites controls to darken the sky and reduce the glare from the bright lights at the front of the motel. The image is best viewed on a black background, so if you want to take a closer look, click on the photo to view it in 2K HD on a black background.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s also acceptable. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

49 comments

  8. I love this style of classic American motel signs etc., but I hadn’t previously heard the term ‘Googie’ architecture to describe it, so thank you for the little ‘lesson’ 😀

    Reply

    • For me, that was a fun trip down a rabbit hole. I hadn’t heard of the term either until an AI request for details about the motel brought up the sign’s genre.

      Reply

  10. Dear John
    Oh dear, we find that Googie style totally unstylish. Of course, Bauhaus in Europe preferred primary colours and geometric forms, but not with such a shouty, intrusive gesture.
    Thank you very much for telling us about this Googie style.
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

    Reply

    • There aren’t many examples of the style left in current businesses like this motel. Mostly they are found in museum signage or historical architecture. The style was certainly popular for a couple of decades here in the United States, so there are still plenty of historical examples.

      Reply

  13. Googie architecture–how interesting , John! But now I see it–that midcentury “Look” recalling the space age and “go big or go home” attitude. Great shot! We can blame TV shows like The Jetsons, Star Trek and Twilight Zone for this style and lifestyle. And who didn’t stay at those backwater motels with the garish lighted signs? So many along Hwy 395 from So-Cal to Tioga Pass (Hwy120). Here is mine this week:

    https://secondwindleisure.com/2025/06/22/sunday-stills-capturing-the-sun-in-public-parklands-in-the-great-outdoors/

    Reply

  19. The White Sands Motel seems pretty famous even though I’ve never seen it. I agree with Elke. I think there’s a movie reference or something familiar here. I’m too lazy tonight to look it up. Googie was a new term for me, too. 🙂 xxx Mine will come out on Wednesday.

    Reply

    • I got curious and asked AI. No specific motels are referenced, nor was that motel used as a movie or TV location. However, I did find this: “The White Sands Hotel in Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel and Road to Avonlea: The hotel portrayed as “The White Sands Hotel” in the Anne of Green Gables movies and the TV series Road to Avonlea is actually Dalvay By-The-Sea in Prince Edward Island, Canada. It became a significant and recurring location in these productions.”

      Reply

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