Their Midcentury Motel Adventure
When Tim and Lisa Hamor began thinking about retirement, slowing down apparently wasn’t part of the plan.
The Los Angeles couple had spent decades working and raising a family in Westchester. Lisa owned a dance studio, where she taught three-year-olds how to tap dance, while Tim spent 45 years working for a family-run sourdough bread company.
Their unlikely path to motel ownership began in 2012, when they listed their guest house on Airbnb.
“We were very successful and loved it so much,” Lisa recalls. “Then we started to really think about our retirement adventure in hospitality.”
By the time Covid had passed and work and family commitments had eased, they were ready to start looking. Their wish list was fairly specific: somewhere in the western United States, not too large, not too small – and preferably without snow.
Then they found 25 midcentury A-frames for sale near the tiny Oregon town of Oakland.
Lisa had actually noticed The Ranch Motel from the highway in 2020 while driving to Eugene. It was at the height of the pandemic and, as she remembers it, “everything was shut down and weird,” but the unusual roadside motel stuck in her mind. When she discovered the property was for sale the following year, she and Tim went to see it.
The A-frames immediately won them over. The neighboring adult store nearly had the opposite effect. “I almost turned around, “ Lisa says. “But here we are!”
Built in 1962 and originally owned and operated by Marlin and Eunice Emmerson, The Ranch Motel is a classic piece of roadside Americana, its 25 cedar A-frame units arranged around a sprawling property just off Interstate 5. Tim and Lisa are only its third owners.
Fortunately, the 60+ year-old structures themselves were solid and the old shingle roofs had recently been replaced. What they couldn’t see proved more daunting.
As renovations began, they discovered decades of makeshift electrical and plumbing work that hadn’t been apparent during inspections. Before the fun cosmetic work could begin, money and energy went into infrastructure, cleaning, gardening and removing years of accumulated debris.
“When we first started, I really thought we could do it all,” Lisa says. “Ha, ha – not even close!”
Plans to expose original cedar walls and completely renovate the rooms gave way to the realities of operating a 25-room motel. One project they did complete was the lobby, something Lisa remains particularly proud of. “No more carpet!”
The motel’s clientele has changed as well. After dealing with some troublesome local activity during their early days, the Hamors began attracting the travelers they’d envisioned: retro road-trippers, architecture enthusiasts and people specifically seeking vintage accommodations.
Some guests remember staying at The Ranch as children. Others regularly stop on trips between the Bay Area and Seattle. People pull over simply to photograph the A-frames, and the property has even reportedly appeared in a couple of low-budget films.
Five years in, however, their retirement adventure has proven more consuming than expected.
“We thought we would be able to explore more and see the Pacific Northwest,” Lisa says, “but it’s harder to get away than we thought.”
The Ranch is now for sale. That was never entirely unexpected as the Hamors originally envisioned reassessing things after five years. Finding the right buyer matters to them, though. They’ve received offers based largely on the motel’s numbers, but Lisa hopes the next owner sees the unique property as something more than just an investment.
“We hope to find someone that wants the lifestyle and the opportunity to live, work and build something really cool.”
For Tim and Lisa, that’s what The Ranch was always about. It wasn’t an investment so much as an adventure – one that introduced them to a new state, lifelong friends, a different way of life, and a new found appreciation for midcentury architecture.
And after five years of plumbing, electrical work, motel guests, A-frames and considerably less free time than anticipated, would they do it again?
“Yes, Yes and Yes!”
Visit The Ranch Motel online, here.
Written and [mostly] photographed by Ken MacIntyre, © Modtraveler.net, photo by, photo by, Ranch sign photo by Rob Hobbs
