Space Age Lodge

Standing out like a space-age sore thumb among the modern fast food restaurants and variety store retailers along interstate 85 in Gila Bend Arizona, the Space Age Lodge seems plucked from another time. Perhaps placing you smack dab in the 1960s when JFK was president and Space was the new frontier, and new obsession of the USA. Thankfully for us, businessman and hotelier Al Stovall solidified that we would remember this time for years to come.

The swinging 60’s were a curious time. People were becoming more adventurous and rebellious. Adults had visions of escaping into outer space and every child wanted to be an Astronaut, Stovall acted on his sense of adventure and bought a space station down to Earth and turned it into a string of hotels. Inspired by the design and style normally produced by NASA, he became the original owner of five unique motels that he designed and built in the mid 1960’s. One of these motels has this amazing sign and has seemingly stood the test of time, light years ahead of its competition. 

Stovall also owned a copper mine and a plastic factory, which was convenient for building the rooms at the lodge, as he personally designed everything from the groovy lamps to the space bubble room dividers. The other four Anaheim hotels also have space age names, but as the public started to lose interest in a world outside our atmosphere, so did the hotel’s decor. Luckily the Space Age Lodge stuck to its guns and kept its cosmic personality. So much so that when a faulty neon sign caught fire and destroyed the lobby and restaurant during the 1980s, staff erected a sign reading “attacked by aliens!” They even went to the effort of adding a UFO shaped roof to the lobby afterwards. 

With its quirky character and moon landing nostalgia, this motel gives all those who dreamed of being an Astronaut or anyone in need of a trip back in time, a reason to drive into the depths of Arizona and escape to a galaxy far, far away.