After attending a race the other day, I had some extra time so I took the back roads home and made a couple of stops. My first stop was a long-abandoned motel off of Route 30. The motel was located on the Lincoln Highway, America's first cross-country highway. When the new Route 30 was built about half a mile south, the old road in a very rural part of Ohio lost most of its traffic. The entire time I was there, I only heard one car drive past. I don't know when the motel was built but I'm guessing it was in the 50s. By the time the 80s came around, everyone was using the interstates, so the motel fell on hard times and probably closed soon after.

1. The motel is laid out in an L shape. Also on the property are some large trees, a semi trailer and a smaller trailer. Looking at older pictures, there used to be a huge dead tree where in my picture, there is a huge burned stump.


2. Dead vines hang down from the roof of the motel near the office entrance.


3. There was a drive-thru window that was probably the late check-in.


4. Behind the office was a room that looked like it was once a kitchen. There were also shelves on the walls.


5. The motel has been heavily vandalized. Many of the walls have been knocked out and the bathroom fixtures have been destroyed.


6. Most of the motel rooms were bare except for graffiti.


7. It looked like someone may have been living in this room at one point. There was a plate, forks and rusted cans of Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs.


8. One room had these odd stencils on the wall.


9. My second stop was an old farmhouse located in the middle of a field. It started storming a couple minutes after I took this picture.


10. There were no interior walls in the house. Anywhere I stood, I could see through the entire first floor. I think it's also notable that almost every window still had a full pane of glass. None were either broken or fully removed.


11. There wasn't much in the house except a stool and a couple of metal carts.


12. The one big piece of furniture was this cabinet next to the stairs. On the cabinet was a book on the history of baseball, a painter's mask and protective eyewear.


13. This newspaper is dated August 17, 2011.


14. Upstairs were a couple of small rooms.


15. Half of the second floor was taken up a crawlspace attic area.

Nice! Whereabouts was the motel located? You can PM me if you don't fell comfortable posting it publicly.

The motel is on the Lincoln Highway west of Williamstown in Hancock County. It's already been fairly well destroyed, it's in an extremely rural location and it's been featured on Forgotten Ohio so I don't think posting that publicly should be an issue.

Very well documented. Nice job. I like this spot. I've been dyin to find a motel like this near me. I knew of one but it was torn down by the time I went to look. And I just went to check on another last weekend. It turns out that an elderly couple closed the motel when the highway exits were cleared for an overpass. They have made it their home for the last 55 years.

Posted by KD20 The motel is on the Lincoln Highway west of Williamstown in Hancock County. It's already been fairly well destroyed, it's in an extremely rural location and it's been featured on Forgotten Ohio so I don't think posting that publicly should be an issue.

Thanks! It's kind of a haul for me, so I don't expect I'll be heading that way any time soon.