SOCIETY for
COMMERCIAL
ARCHEOLOGY
Advocates for America’s
Roadside Heritage
SOCIETY for
COMMERCIAL
ARCHEOLOGY
Advocates for America’s
Roadside Heritage
On the Road Since 1977
Celebrating the signs, structures and experiences of the 20th-century American roadscape.
The SCA is a member-supported organization. Join now and gain exclusive access to a full calendar of in-person and online events, recordings, subscriptions to the SCA Journal and Road Notes, full-text access to our website, free downloads and more!
Join Now
Enjoy a handcrafted one-day roadside adventure. Curated by members of the SCA.
NEW: CHICAGO’S NORTH SIDE
On the Road Since 1977
Celebrating the signs, structures and experiences of the 20th-century American roadscape.
Join now and gain exclusive access to live and virtual events, the SCA Journal and Road Notes, and lots more.
Join Now
Enjoy a handcrafted one-day roadside adventure. Curated by members of the SCA.
NEW: CHICAGO’S NORTH SIDE
Upcoming Events
AN SCA+DOCOMOMO IN-PERSON EVENT: Revisit the Whitehall Mall, a “Shopping Gem of the Golden Era”
Saturday, October 8 from 11:00am to 1:00pm EDT, we invite you to Join Michael Hirsch, President of the Board, Society for Commercial Archeology, for an in-person tour of Whitehall Mall in Fullerton, PA, a “shopping gem of the golden era.” Plus, with optional diner stop after the tour!
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AN SCA ZOOM EVENT: One-of-a-Kind: How John Margolies Preserved a Fading America
Wednesday, October 19 at 8:00pm EDT. Photographer and cultural historian John Margolies called himself an “architectural undertaker,” traversing the country to make pristine photographic record of our gas stations, motels, diners, movie houses and more. Join two of Margolie’s journalist friends, Ellen Warren and Margaret Engel, as they share some of his important finds and oddities and describe his painstaking methods of collecting what defines our culture.
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SAVE THE DATE: Amused in Allegheny: 46th SCA Annual Conference and Tours
Join us in Western, Pennsylvania, May 31 - June 4, 2023, for Amused in Allegheny: 46th Annual SCA Conference and Tours, with our local hosts and guides, ex officio board members Brian Butko and Kevin J. Patrick, PhD.
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Event Recordings
News
NEW! THE JIM SEELEN MOTEL IMAGES COLLECTION
14,000 MOTELS
SCA member Jim “Motel King” Seelen’s motel images collection is now part of our library. This database contains more than 23,000 images with details on more than 14,000 motels that once operated in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
NEW! THE JIM SEELEN MOTEL IMAGES COLLECTION
14,000 MOTELS
SCA member Jim “Motel King” Seelen’s motel images collection is part of our library. This database contains more than 23,000 images with details on more than 14,000 motels that once operated in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Articles
Found Photos of the American Roadside
FULL ARTICLE by Edward Engel: I started collecting other people’s family photographs in 2013. It’s a strange avocation. Picking through piles of paper at flea markets, antique stores, and estate sales in search of once-treasured memories that are not my own.
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The Road to Ruin
By Eric Schaefer: More than any other form of motion picture, exploitation movies developed a symbiotic relationship with American road culture over some five decades in the mid-20th century.
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Landrum’s – The Biggest Little Diner
FULL ARTICLE by Mella Rothwell Harmon – Landrum’s Diner in Reno, NV, is small, just 240 square feet, yet it plays an unusually large role in local history.
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Route 66: Another Perspective on “Mother” Road
A new public history project, The Women on the Mother Road: Route 66, sheds light on women’s experiences along the historic highway.
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Miss Alma Makes a Bee Line: A Story of One Woman and Two Auto Trails
By John and Kris Murphey – As the first female transcontinental highway booster, Alma Rittenberry had promoted her Jackson Highway not only as a memorial to the former President nicknamed “Old Hickory,” but as a progressive path to get farmers out of the mud and a source of “financial and cultural gain” for the North and South.
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YESCO Says “Yes” to Relighting Idaho’s Panida Theater
By Doug Jones: After a period of more than 18 months, the Panida Theater comes out of the darkness, looking forward to a brighter future and its continuing promise of quality performance in north Idaho.
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DOWNLOAD/BUY
SCA Journal Back Issues | SCA Road Notes Back Issues
Dr. Patrick’s
Postcard Roadside
DR. PATRICK’S POSTCARD ROADSIDE: New York City’s West Side Piers
A circa-1960 postcard shows New York City’s Transatlantic Steamship Terminal in the Hudson River between 44th and 54th streets ...
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DR. PATRICK’S POSTCARD ROADSIDE: Cedar Tourist Court
Westward across the plains of Kansas, US 40 originally split at Manhattan with the south branch following the Victory Highway through Salina (current US 40), and the north branch following the Midland Trail through Clay Center.
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DR. PATRICK’S POSTCARD ROADSIDE: Gary’s Duck Inn
Gary Starling built his Duck Inn on the Orange Blossom Trail, marked out as the main tourist highway through central Florida in 1934.
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No ads. Which is kind of ironic, given what we’re into.
The Society for Commercial Archeology is an all-volunteer road-tripping organization fueled entirely by your support.
Standard and donation-level memberships available