Holiday Motor Court Business Card c1950s Wilmington NY AAA Superior Courts For Sale

This is a vintage business card for the Holiday Motor Court, a roadside lodging establishment located in Wilmington, New York, at the junction of Routes 86 and 431. The card is printed on a light yellow-tan stock with rounded corners, a common design feature for mid-twentieth-century business cards, with text in dark green and black inks. The front side prominently displays the business name in large green lettering, flanked by accreditations including “AAA APPROVED” and “MEMBER OF SUPERIOR COURTS UNITED,” marks of quality and reliability for the automobile tourist. A list of amenities—Beautiful Rooms, Central Heat, Tile Showers, Restaurant Opposite, Playground, and Quiet—is presented in two columns. The card is owned by Dwight and Isabel Feek, and the contact information is limited to “Phone 51,” a two-digit number indicative of a very small, rural telephone exchange common before the widespread adoption of area codes. The reverse side of the card functions as a promotional map of distances, encouraging guests to “MAKE THIS YOUR HEADQUARTERS FOR—” travel to Lake Placid (11 miles), Montreal (93 miles), Ausable Chasm, and the streamline ferry to Burlington, Vermont, and New England. Distances from principal cities including Albany, Syracuse, New York City, and Buffalo are also listed. The reference to the “North Pole” on the front side is almost certainly Santa’s Workshop, an amusement park that opened in North Pole, New York, in 1949, providing a firm earliest possible date. The use of the term “Motor Court” rather than “motel” suggests a period from the 1920s through the 1950s, and combined with the two-digit phone number and the post-1949 North Pole reference, this card most likely dates from the early 1950s to the early 1960s. The card is in very good vintage condition with clear, legible text, minor edge wear, and a faint circular impression on the reverse, consistent with light handling and storage. This artifact documents the rise of automobile tourism in the Adirondack region, capturing the era of family road trips to natural wonders and themed attractions, and the role of small, independent motor courts in serving that growing market.