Signs for the Tropicana Motor Hotel, Magic Carpet Golf, the Canyon State Motor Lodge and Medina's Sporting Goods light up the night once again during a party to celebrate the renovation and installation of the four 1950's era neon signs along Drachman St. on the north edge of Pima Community College's downtown campus at The Neon Mile: Sock Hop on April 27, 2012. The re-lighting of the signs, donated to the college by the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation, was celebrated on the night with a vintage car show, a fashion show, kids' games and some 1950's style dancing and music.
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Before the interstate, tourist traffic threaded through Tucson along state highways.
From the north, you would hit Miracle Mile and North Oracle Road before heading south along Stone and Sixth avenues, then east on the Benson Highway.
Motor hotels sprouted along the route in the 1950s as postwar American families took to the road for vacations.
Miracle Mile and South Sixth Avenue, especially, hosted an array of motor courts and fancy inns, with swimming pools, air-conditioned rooms, restaurants and bars.
The Tucson Inn on West Drachman Street, designed by architect Anne Rysdale, was the largest motel in town and the first two-story one when it opened in 1953.
Many of the motels remain along the route — some are closed, some are restored and some are just limping along.
A push by historic preservationists, led by the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation, has restored and relocated some of the motel signs.
Restored neon now lines West Drachman Street on the north side of the Downtown Campus of Pima Community College.
