11. Needles, California

Before heading to Arizona the following morning, I stopped to shoot the Needles Welcome Wagon, the 66 Motel, the Palms Apartments, and the Old Trails Inn.

The 66 Motel was built in the mid-1940s and now rents its units as apartments:

The situation is similar with the Palms Apartments, which were part of the Palms Motel. The building with the faded “Old Trails Inn” lettering apparently had been part of the Palms Motel but changed its name to the Old Trails Inn when it became a bed and breakfast. The bed and breakfast is no longer, and the cabins now constitute the Palms Apartments.

The cabins, built in the 1930s, originally formed a cabin court, a precursor–in the evolutionary scheme of roadside lodging–to the auto or motor courts described earlier.

Needles itself was founded in 1883 with the arrival of the railroad. The main road was part of the National Old Trails Road before becoming a part of Route 66.

On to Arizona!

(to be continued) SUBSCRIBE to my blog at the very bottom of the page!