Guide to the Elm Grove Tourist Camp, Clinton, Tennessee, Card MSS.2704
Elm Grove Tourist Camp, Clinton, Tennessee
- Author:
Finding aid prepared by Lydia Wommack
- Publication:
W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, The University of Alabama
Mary Harmon Bryant Hall
March 2010
500 Hackberry Lane
Box 870266
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 35487-0266
205.348.0500
archives@ua.edu
- Creation:
This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2010-10-06T11:44-0500
- Language Usage:
English
- Description Rules:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Elm Grove Tourist Camp, Clinton, Tennessee, Card
- Unit ID:
MSS.2704
- Repository:
W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, The University of Alabama
- Quantity:
0.1 Linear feet
- Dates:
unknown
- Abstract:
A card from Elm Grove Tourist Camp of Clinton, Tennessee featuring a poem and the amenities of the camp.
- Processing Information:
Processed by
Lydia Wommack, 2010.
- Acquisition Information:
Provenance
Gift of Wade Hall, 2006.
- Preferred Citation:
Preferred Citation note
Elm Grove Tourist Camp, Clinton, Tennessee, Card, W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, The University of Alabama.
Biographical/Historical note
Elm Grove Tourist Camp was 2 miles north of Clinton, Tennessee on United States Highway 25-West. The proprietor, Henry Erb, advertises the camp as a "Home Away From Home" with "modern rest rooms and shower baths" and with "lunches and drinks of all kinds."
Motels developed in the 1920s to fill the need for functional, accessible, and economical sleeping accommodations catering to the burgeoning number of automobile travelers primarily in the United States. Variously known as "tourist cabins," "motor courts," or "cabin camps," individually operated cabin complexes sprang up along highways, especially in the South and West. The term "motel," a contraction of "motor" and "hotel," was coined in the mid-1920s and referred initially to a type of hotel consisting of a single building of connected rooms whose doors faced a parking lot and, in some circumstances, a common area; or a series of small cabins with common parking.
Unlike motels, auto camps and tourist courts typically provided bed and breakfast or hotel style service, usually with stand-alone cabins. After the invention of the motel, auto camps continued in popularity through the Depression years and finally, after World War II, their popularity began to diminish with the construction of freeways and changes in consumer demands.
Scope and Contents note
The collection consists of a card from the Elm Grove Tourist Camp two miles north of Clinton, Tennessee on United States Highway 25-West. Henry Erb, the proprietor, describes Elm Grove as "A Home Away From Home" with "modern rest rooms and shower baths" and "lunches and drinks of all kinds." The card also features a short poem about modern conveniences.
Card Box SC0030 Folder 2704.1