Va. Beach’s Jefferson Manor up for national historical register
VIRGINIA BEACH — Before national hotel chains dominated the Virginia Beach resort area, mom-and-pop motels reigned.
It was the mid-1950s and middle-class families, thriving in the post-World War II economy, hopped in their new automobiles to go on vacation.
At the Oceanfront, the hospitality industry was changing. Motels, catering to tourists traveling by car, were built to let guests park close to their room.
Paved parking spaces dominated the lots. Barrel-vaulted roofs on local motels such as the Seahawk, Jefferson Manor, and the Royal Clipper drew attention.
One of those i conic lodges is heading for national recognition.
On Thursday morning, a state review board added the Jefferson Manor Motel Apartments on 33rd Street to the Virginia Landmarks Register. It will now be considered for the National Register of Historic Places.
Little has changed since the motel opened in 1963. The floor plan remains the same, and even the bathrooms all have the same flooring with small, square tiles in a mixture of white, pink, blue and green.
The Virginia Beach Historic Preservation Commission submitted the nomination.
As part of Jefferson Manor’s approval, the state board classified a group of other Virginia Beach hotels and motels from that era in a way that allows them to be nominated for the national register in the future.
A study by the Virginia Beach commission revealed that 11 new motels and hotels were added to the Virginia Beach resort area within the first three years of the 1960s, and that number grew to at least 70 by 1971.
When Jefferson Manor was built 58 years ago, it was a short-term vacation rental. Motels along Pacific Avenue that lacked an ocean view marketed to vacationers on a budget, and many rooms included kitchenettes as an enticement, the study said. The two-story Jefferson Manor, made of brick and concrete and situated two blocks from the Boardwalk, was one of them.
Pete Bosher built Jefferson Manor, and it’s still operated by his daughter, Christina “Kitty” Bosher.
When reached by phone Thursday, Bosher said she started working at the motel the year she graduated from high school and remembered that her father wanted it to be “eye-catching.”
“He was building something to catch the tourist traffic on Pacific Avenue,” she said.
Jefferson Manor now serves as long-term apartments, with 10 units, and has maintained its original floor plan and facade, including a curved roof and patterned concrete block walls. It also still features the original signage, which reads “Jefferson Manor” in gold script.
“Jefferson Manor is associated with an important period in the growth and development of the motel industry in Virginia Beach,” says the nomination form. “Its physical integrity allows it to convey this association along with a feeling of mid-century vacation luxury, family road-trip-style.”
The National Register of Historic Places will be announced in a couple of months. The designation does not place restrictions on the owner unless the property is involved in a project that receives federal assistance, according to the National Park Service.
“It does make federal and state tax credits for rehabilitation available to listed properties, and it provides recognition and an increased sense of pride in ownership,” said Mark Reed, historic preservation planner for the city.