11 Most Endangered Historic Places
Doo Wop Motels
Year Listed: 2006
Location: New Jersey
Threat: Development
The Lollipop Motel in Wildwood, NJ, is one of the Doo Wop Motels listed on the 11 Most Endangered List in 2006.
Credit: Adrian Scott Fine
Significance
Families have been vacationing at the Jersey Shore for more than a century and the Wildwood Doo Wop motels have been a popular beach destination since their construction from 1956 to 1970. The Doo Wop district offered families an affordable but seemingly exotic vacation spot with the motels' far-out designs and names like Tahiti, Caribbean and Starluxe. Though vacationers still flock to the Wildwoods today, more than 100 of the Doo Wop motels have fallen to the wrecking ball – two dozen in the last two years alone – as larger, generic condominium buildings replace them.
