Bygone Business: Rochester Motor Lodge

From the mid-19th century through the early decades of the 20th century, Rochester had two lodging houses - the Lambertson House/St. James Hotel at Fifth and Main, and the Sidney House/Detroit Hotel at Third and Main.  Both of these hotels had faded away by the time of the Great Depression, and for a couple of decades there were no hotels available in Rochester. That changed in the late 1950s, when two new establishments opened: the Spartan Motel on North Hill, and the Rochester Motor Lodge, south of the village.

Rochester Motor Lodge opened in February 1959 in a brand-new building on the west side of South Rochester Road, near the corner of Hamlin. Harold H. Brown was the proprietor, and designed the 12-unit building with the assistance of Mount Clemens architect Elmer Parke.  The Rochester Motor Lodge stood at this location until about 1998, when Walgreens purchased the property as a site for one of their stores.

This advertisement ran in the Rochester Clarion on February 12, 1959, to announce the grand opening of the motel.