Grandview Courts - Siesta Motel

Alpine, Texas

The Grandview Courts-Siesta Motel was originally constructed in 1927 as an automobile tourist camp known as “Camp Grandview.” Though two rustic tourist camps pre-dated it, Camp Grandview was the first tourist camp in Alpine to offer lodging in permanent structures with modern amenities such as electricity. The Grandview Courts-Siesta Motel is also the oldest extant example of a tourist camp/tourist court in Alpine. Established in response to the rising popularity of automobile tourism in Alpine following the paving of major highways through town, Camp Grandview retained a steady business for several decades. It was renamed “Grandview Courts” during the 1930s, reflecting a national trend away from rustic tourist camps toward “tourist courts” with more amenities. Under new ownership in 1956-1957, Grandview Courts was remodeled and rebranded as the “Siesta Motel.” Motels were at the height of their popularity in the United States during the mid-twentieth century, while older, smaller tourist courts largely dropped out of favor. The shift from tourist court to motel was intended to modernize the thirty-year-old property in order to contend with the growing number of motels competing for tourist traffic in Alpine.

The Grandview Courts-Siesta Motel is significant at the local level under Criterion A for Commerce as a remarkable example of a 1920s tourist camp that was regularly updated over the course of a century to meet rapidly evolving tourist preferences for lodging. Established in response to growing automobile tourism in Alpine, the Grandview Courts-Siesta Motel has remained in continuous operation from 1927 until the present day and is the oldest known extant tourist camp/tourist court in Alpine. The period of significance for the Grandview Courts-Siesta Motel is 1927, the construction date of Camp Grandview, through 1974 in accordance with National Register guidelines for buildings that retain their significant historic use continuously.