Wagon Wheel, Oxnard, California

The Wagon Wheel Motel and Restaurant was a famous office, motel and restaurant complex located in Oxnard, California, at the intersection of U.S. Route 101 and Pacific Coast Highway. Its convenient roadside location near the historic community of El Rio, California made it a popular stop for travelers between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, particularly during its heyday in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. It was demolished in 2011 due to the pending development of 1500 residential units.

It was considered to be an authentic extant example of American roadside architecture from the mid-century. The ranch-style office, motel and restaurant were originally built on the side of Highway 101 and Highway 101A (Alternate) in 1947. The office/restaurant complex incorporates a variety of roof lines, primarily low to medium pitched gables covered with wood shingles and punctuated by several decorative cupolas with weather vanes, and neon lighting. A free-standing 12-unit, two-story motel addition was completed in 1953. One of the most recognizable features of the motel was the giant neon sign that included an animated stagecoach driver and galloping horses. Today millions of motorists drive by the Wagon Wheel each year on the Ventura Freeway. The Wagon Wheel sits alongside the 101 freeway at the northern edge of a 64-acre (26 ha) site between the Santa Clara River and the Home Depot shopping center (formerly the Esplanade Shopping Center). The site is also home to industrial buildings, a trailer park an ice skating rink, a former roller skating rink, a bowling alley and empty shopping center, all of which are scheduled for demolition and redevelopment as a European Village themed development with retail, for sale residential, condos and two high-rise towers totaling 1500 residential units.

The Wagon Wheel Bowling Alley, 2801 Wagon Wheel Road is a 32-lane bowling alley built in the Wagon Wheel Junction across the street from the Wagon Wheel Motel in 1953. Designed by the Beverly Hills architect, Arthur Froehlich, known for his mid-century supermarkets and racetracks including the Hollywood Park Racetrack, and the Hanna Barbera Studio in Los Angeles 1962. The building has planer wall surfaces, an over-scaled wing wall and plate glass windows; the bowling alley included a restaurant and banquet room and is an example of the type of reductive Modernism that enjoyed great popularity in the mid-century. The bowling alley was known as Hoberg’s after its proprietor, Ed Hoberg. The building was in continuous operation as a bowling alley from 1953 until May 2015 when it was finally closed. Demolition of the building began in October, 2015 as part of the Wagon Wheel area redevelopment.

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