Flamingo Terrace Motel

The Flamingo Terrace, to the best of my knowledge, was one of the earliest Motels built on the island, supposedly circa 1950.  It wasn’t constructed all at once, as it had two distinct buildings containing the units, and a house.  The older, original building’s style suggests that this date is correct, as it’s a bit of a precursor to the more fully developed Mid Century Modern design that was to flourish in a few years.  Like other Motels, it had open corridors/balcony and parking close to the rooms, it had a relatively plainer and less streamlined look.  It used less glass than would soon by typical. The 2nd level balcony and roof supports were external posts mounted in line with the railings.  That breaks up the building’s lines, especially in comparison to the cleaner looking “hidden” supports that were to come on Modern buildings.  It was two floor an L-shaped building, with (I’m estimating) about 18 units across both levels.  A staircase was located in the shorter section of the L, near the corner.  Later on, shutters were added to the windows, though they may have been fixed/decorative only.  A mural faced out from the end of the longer part of the L, with plants at ground level, surrounded by Flagcrete.

The house may have been built at the same time as the original Motel building, as it seems to have housed the office on its ground level, and what looks like an apartment, possibly the owner’s quarters.  Two levels above this contained apartments, with a balcony on the 2nd floor.  There may have been an attic at the top, above the 3rd level of living space.  Exterior stairs along its side go up to the 2nd level only, so it seems the 3rd level was accessible from the inside.

The newer building at the Flamingo was a very nice example of Mid Century Modern/Doo Wop Motel architecture.  It was a two level T-shaped building that seems to have had about the same amount of units as the older building.  The portion housing the units was rectangular, with center section that jutted out for the sundeck on the 2nd floor.  It was accessible from the balcony, or from stairs connecting it to the pool area, which was off to the right side of the T.  Additional stairs were on the side of the building to reach the 2nd level units.  Curved railings that bowed out were used throughout – across the 2nd floor balcony and the surrounding the pool area.

A beautiful neon sign sat roadside between the two main buildings.  The sign seems to have predated the newer Motel building, as it’s seen in images of the Flamingo where the new building is nowhere to be found.  Its style also seems to be from a bit older time.  Flamingo was written in shrimp color in all lowercase, curvy, slanted style letters, and had the F larger than the other letters without actually being in uppercase style.  Terrace was written in blue in relatively plainer print, all uppercase style letters, but the T was larger than the rest.  A flamingo was off to the side of the name in pink, with a painted palm in its shadow.  MOTEL EFF UNITS was below, all uppercase, plain print, in pink, and a (NO) VACANCY indicator was at the bottom of all this.  At the top, all in pink, was AIR CONDITIONED printed, and (slanted somewhat) TV POOL just below.  I don’t know whether or not the pool was rebuilt to fit the grounds better once the newer section of the Motel was constructed.  At the sign’s base was a pentagon shaped, Flagcrete planter.

The newer Motel building seems to have maintained its basic color scheme throughout its life – white base, pink doors and trim, and blue backing on the drapes visible through the ample floor to ceiling glass.  The original Motel building in its earlier days had its masonry painted white, with trim and doors in light green.  Eventually the green was replaced by pink, to match the paint on the newer building, with the white walls remaining as is.  The pink complimented the name/theme, and the blue backing on the newer building’s drapes matched the white/pink well, and also picked up on the blue used on part of the sign.

The property was located between Atlantic and Pacific Avenues on Pine Ave., closer to the Pacific border.  It was somewhat secluded, considering the locations of most Motels on the island.  The original building had units facing south and west.  The newer building’s units all faced south, as did the house.

The Flamingo’s last season seems to have been in 2003, after which it was demolished.  Wildwood proper suffered relatively few demolitions of Motels, compared to North Wildwood and Wildwood Crest.  That shouldn’t diminish the loss of the Flamingo, or its worth.


For past discussion of The Flamingo Terrace online, and if you wish to contribute further to it, please visit the thread linked below from the Doo Wop Preservation League's Message Board.:

http://www.doowopusa.org/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1271003423