| Additional Information: | This motel property consists of a restaurant and office with connecting motel wings, as well as a free-standing motel unit. The one-story, brick-faced and redwood-sheathed restaurant is the northernmost component of the facility and it is topped with a flat roof. Windows of this building are rectangular, single-pane openings. The one-story, front-gabled motel office is connected to the restaurant via a linear, gabled and brick-faced wing including four motel units. Each unit includes a door and a three-light window, two sections are fixed, while the other is an awning example. The office wing is comprised of mostly floor-to-ceiling windows; a flat-roofed overhang with rectangular supports and a stone-sheathed base extends from the entrance (west) elevation. Extending to the south from the office wing is another linear wing of motel units, six in all. An additional linear and unconnected, side-gabled wing of (what appears to be twelve) rooms is located further south of the previously described restaurant/office/motel structure. In addition a pair of stone-sheathed entrance gates are located along S. Pioneer Road; one of which now incorporates new signage. A circa-1955 postcard image of the motel and restaurant show the restaurant at its smaller size. The only other evident alteration to the buildings themselves is the removal of a Colonial-esque type of balustrade from the office overhang, as well as the replacement of the original metal office overhang support with what is seen today. Original signage for the restaurant and the motel have been removed as well.
The Northway Motel was originally constructed in 1955 and it included a restaurant, the office, as well as the connecting wings to the north and south. The restaurant was originally run by Albert & Regina Schreiner, who had established #28;The Grill#29; restaurant in 1938 on North Main Street in Fond du Lac. In 1940, they relocated to S. Main Street, where the name was changed to Schreiners Home Cooking. In 1953, they retired only to return to the restaurant business two years later. In 1955, the pair opened a restaurant in conjunction with the Northway Motel, which was known as Schreiner's Northway Restaurant. Originally forty seats, the facility was expanded to include 50 additional seats. Albert died in 1960, but Regina continued operations until their son Bernard took over in 1968. Five years later, the Schreiners moved once more, this time to its current location at the intersection of Johnson Street & US 41. The next known restaurant to accompany the motel as the Bear Restaurant; today the dining facility is known as Boda's Restaurant & Catering.
The original proprietors of the motel were Richard & Iva Jean Hubing; Leland Shaw is identified as the owner by no later than 1959. Although no specific date of construction was found for the free-standing wing, it was likely built in the late-1950s to early 1960s. From 1964 to 1968, the motel was run by Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Singer, who then went on to operate the Imperial Inn of Sheboygan.
The Northway Motel is a good and largely intact example of a disappearing resource--the 1950s-60s highway motel. A review of the few other Fond du Lac linear motels of that era indicate that the Northway Motel retains the greatest degree of integrity. The Northway Motel, despite the loss of its original signage, stands as a testament to the popularity of 1950s-60s-ear roadside motels. |
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