Few in number and often serving a new purpose, tourist cabins remain easy to spot alongside highways due to their identifiable building form and site layout. Always on the lookout, I was happy to find a new (to me) tourist cabin grouping off US Route 5 in Ryegate, VT. These cabins appear to serve as storage now.
Ryegate, VT
Double and single cabins.
Matching details on all cabins: siding, windows, doors, awnings.
Closer view. I imagine they are original on the inside.
Searching on UVM Landscape Change‘s website, I found that this tourist cabin group was part of the Colonial Tea Room & Tourist Home. Tourist homes were popular before tourist cabins, as places for travelers to rent a room (think of a B&B). They gave way to more private dwellings such as tourist cabins (or tourist cottages). Often the tourist homes added cabins as a way to keep the business going, or to provide additional lodging.
Colonial Tea Room & Tourist Home. Source: UVM Landscape Change Program.
And this image (below) shows the “Belle-vue Tourist Cabins” in Ryegate, VT. Is this the same as the Colonial Tea Room & Tourist Cabins, but across the road? Or is it another location? That requires additional research. There could be more than one set of tourist cabins in one town on the same road in the heyday of tourist cabins.
Belle-vue Cabins. Source: UVM Landscape Change Program.
Find anything interesting on your travels recently? If you know anything about these cabins, I’d love to hear more. Happy traveling!
Previous Vermont tourist cabins posts:
Thank you! I’ve found so little about these cabins in the literature. Apparently there hasn’t been much in the way of survey and analysis. Great collections of these in Ohio at the east edge of Lake Erie near Geneva-on-the-Lake. Still very much in use as summer rentals.
Glad to help, Larry! I’ve been to Geneva on the Lake, but don’t think I had my “tourist cabin” eyes out for them. If you read the “Motel in America” that’s a pretty good for roadside lodging. I highly recommend it. 🙂
Have never heard of tourist cabins! Always happy to learn about something new. Love the ones with the matching green doors and trim.