Title
Moon Winx Court, 3410 University Boulevard East, circa 1960
Subject
Motels
Description
The Moon Winx Court, later called the Moon Winx Lodge, is located on University Boulevard East in Tuscaloosa on what was, before the interstate, the main route from New Orleans to Birmingham. During the1940s and 1950s, it was a thriving establishment with football fans finding it the perfect place to stay on their way into Tuscaloosa.
Alabama's Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant had his 1961 championship football team stay there before home games. Hollywood stars occasionally stayed there as well.
Victor Rogers bought the 10-room motel from Meade Johnson in 1945 and added more rooms in stages. He eventually built a restaurant at the top of the hill for his mother, Mattie Rogers Palmer, to run. Rogers sold the motel in 1956. Three years later the new owner wanted a new sign.
It is the sign of the Moon Winx that became the Tuscaloosa icon. It was designed by Glenn House, who owned an art gallery in Gordo, along with his wife, artist Kathleen Fetters. When he was a starving artist with a wife and child to feed he worked for Dan Kilgo; when a request came in to design a sign for the Moon Winx, House was given the assignment.
House told Ben Windham in a column on the Moon Winx sign published in the Tuscaloosa News on March 9, 2003, that he figures that at 50 cents an hour, he was probably paid about $1.50 for his design; that design has had longevity. It has graced the side of U.S. Highway 11 for about 55 years.
Read Windham's column about the Moon Winx at http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20030309/NEWS/303090355?p=4&tc=pg
Alabama's Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant had his 1961 championship football team stay there before home games. Hollywood stars occasionally stayed there as well.
Victor Rogers bought the 10-room motel from Meade Johnson in 1945 and added more rooms in stages. He eventually built a restaurant at the top of the hill for his mother, Mattie Rogers Palmer, to run. Rogers sold the motel in 1956. Three years later the new owner wanted a new sign.
It is the sign of the Moon Winx that became the Tuscaloosa icon. It was designed by Glenn House, who owned an art gallery in Gordo, along with his wife, artist Kathleen Fetters. When he was a starving artist with a wife and child to feed he worked for Dan Kilgo; when a request came in to design a sign for the Moon Winx, House was given the assignment.
House told Ben Windham in a column on the Moon Winx sign published in the Tuscaloosa News on March 9, 2003, that he figures that at 50 cents an hour, he was probably paid about $1.50 for his design; that design has had longevity. It has graced the side of U.S. Highway 11 for about 55 years.
Read Windham's column about the Moon Winx at http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20030309/NEWS/303090355?p=4&tc=pg
Source
Tuscaloosa News Archive
Date
1960s
Contributor
Betty Slowe (Description)
Type
Postcard
Identifier
962
Coverage
Tuscaloosa (AL)