Dunes Motel

Located at 9401 S Stony Island this little baby on paper took a month to get here. Apparently, the person I got the card from on Ebay promptly sent it in the mail after receiving my payment. Problem was that most likely the USPS didn't give a damn about whether that forty-one cents is worth delivering things in a timely manner. The motel itself was built in 1956. May as well have traveled all the way from 1956 for as long as it took to actually get here.

This was one of three motels at the time designed by architect Frank J. Lapasso. The other two were Sands Motel near Edgewater Beach Hotel and The Breakers at 49th and Chicago Beach. A quick search reveals that Lapasso also did a grand modernist job building a church for the St. Mary Immaculate Parish in Plainfield, IL. If you scroll down towards the middle of the page linked here you will see the beautiful colored photos of Lapasso's religious work.

The Dunes Motel doesn't have much of a seedy, interesting newspaper history until about the 80s. Although one drug bust in 1966 netted the feds $100,000 in cocaine. In 1966! In 1986 a principle was caught red handed bringing some of the students from his school to the motel to sexually assault and molest them which is pretty disgusting and probably should have caused the place to burn down. Then two years later, the owner of the motel, a savvy businessman by the name of David Ray McCoy, was shot and killed. McCoy despite the fact that he was bound to a wheelchair was a smart investor who loaned money to people who wanted to start their own businesses. You may think that perhaps he was offed by a bad business associate or a poor druggie staying in one of his many rent a dump for a night motels (according to the Trib he owned many dives). Nope. He was offed by his live-in girlfriend and her brother. Hmm, guess she wasn't getting ANY of that inheritance. Last story about this god forsaken place appears just before the hosting of the World Cup in June 1994. A young German lad, sightseeing Chicago and no doubt visiting all the tied houses was found dead in his motel room. He died from natural causes related to chronic guzzling the bottle. (Craig, I hope you're taking notes.)

Present day reflection you would never be able to tell that from the back of the postcard this may have very well been an attractive space to stay in back in the day before the coke bust that is. "Located in Chicago at US Highways 12-20 and alternate 30. 180 beautiful rooms with individually controlled heating and air conditioning. Phones in every room with 24 hour switchboard service. Free 21' TV and parking. Olympic swimming pool. Restaurant and cocktail lounge. Telephone REgent 1-2400." If someone had actually sent the postcard my money is on the fact that the message would read something like this "Dear Pip and Genie, damn Scout broke down and we had to stay at this place for the night while Triple AAA took their sweet time. good for nothing sign! Love, Gregory and Henririetta." Place is now an extension for extra storage space at the Devon Self Storage located at 1000 E 95th Street.