Drivers on the newly completed Interstate 35 through Dallas were welcomed with a novel sight in 1960: a sign for a Marriott Motor Hotel, then only the third in the world. The roadside lodging advertised multiple swimming pools, an on-site restaurant, and 500 “luxury” rooms. Founder J. Willard Marriott, originally an entrepreneur in the root beer and drive-in restaurant businesses, took advantage of the burgeoning interstate highway system to create stops for long-distance drivers. He opened two motels in Virginia before expanding to the Lone Star State. On the opening day of the Dallas location, Marriott described the new motor hotel in his journal as a “beautiful place—nothing like it—in fabulous Texas or the U.S.” Soon, there would be plenty more Marriotts, though this location was torn down in 1989 and replaced with a Marriott Suites, which then converted to a Sheraton hotel that still stands today.
