Black-and-white roadside motel postcard showing the Clear Lake Motel, located two miles east of Rhinelander, Wisconsin, on U.S. Highways 8 and 47, according to the information printed on the reverse.

The image shows the single-story motel building with individual guest-room entrances and a prominent roadside “Clear Lake Motel” sign. A second sign in front identifies “Sharpe’s Housekeeping Cottages” and advertises accommodations “by day or week.” The combination of motel rooms and housekeeping cottages reflects the variety of accommodations offered to automobile travelers during the mid-20th-century roadside tourism era.

The reverse advertises the Clear Lake Motel as “Modern” and specifically mentions ceramic tile showers. Features such as modern bathrooms were commonly emphasized by roadside lodging establishments as motels and tourist courts competed for the growing number of Americans traveling by automobile.

The card was mailed in 1957, a period when independent roadside motels, tourist courts, and housekeeping cottages were an important part of American highway travel. Before interstate highways and national hotel chains came to dominate long-distance automobile travel, establishments such as the Clear Lake Motel provided convenient lodging directly along established U.S. highways.

The reverse identifies the publisher as Motel Contract Supply Corp., St. Louis 5, Missouri. The front image has a visible halftone pattern and is a mechanically reproduced black-and-white photographic view rather than a Real Photo Postcard (RPPC).

Postcard Details:

The postcard is especially appealing as a record of mid-century American roadside travel. Motel and tourist-court postcards document a period when independently operated properties lined major highways and relied heavily on roadside signs and postcards to advertise their accommodations to motorists.

The U.S. Highway 8 and 47 identification, named motel, housekeeping-cottage signage, 1957 postal use, and original two-cent stamp give the card crossover appeal for collectors of Rhinelander and Wisconsin history, roadside Americana, motels and tourist courts, U.S. highway history, mid-century travel, lodging advertising, and postal history.

Condition:
Postally used postcard with age-related wear consistent with mailing, handling, and storage. Handwritten correspondence and addressing are present on the reverse along with the original two-cent postage stamp and 1957 postal cancellation. Light edge and corner wear, age toning, surface marks, and other signs of handling are visible.

Please review both front and back photographs carefully and use eBay’s magnifier/zoom feature to inspect the postcard for edge wear, corner wear, creases or bends, surface issues, writing, stains or discoloration, paper loss, album residue, postal ink, and any other imperfections that may be important to you before purchasing.

The photographs are part of the description and show the actual postcard being offered.