The Stratford Inn recently suffered a fire that was probably caused by squatters. It had been abandoned for years, after a long run as an extended stay hotel. I think many Americans don’t realize that there is a huge demand for accommodations for people who can’t afford or don’t have the credit to rent traditional apartments, so they are relegated to renting hotel rooms by the week, often in run-down and non-competitive motels such as the Stratford. Often it ends up being more expensive than a regular lease.

There was a restaurant attached, that at one point had quite the following, but closed sometime around the same time as the attached hotel.

The Stratford Inn represents a certain time and place in America, when motels were popping up along Route 66, which has now been subsumed by the right-of-way of Interstate 44.

It’s the classic, “too old to be new, too new to be old,” and it now will probably be demolished at some time in the future. I can’t imagine that once the economy goes back to being a little more normal, that this piece of property wouldn’t be valuable for commercial or light industrial. We will see what happens.