Throwback Thursday: Starfire Motel

A longtime staple on the Ocean Avenue strip near Wildwood proper's southern border with the Crest, the vibrant Starfire Motel is a quintessential "Doo Wop" property.

As is the case with many of the island's classic motels, the closer you get to the two-story Starfire, the more architectural / design elements you may notice.

Of particular note here is the light-colored brick veneer present not only in the dividing walls between each room, but also worked into the stanchions within the second floor balcony railings.

Bright red room doors, a "flying V"-shaped motif that decorates each window, and the only octagon-shaped, diagonally set pool in Wildwood help complete this unique visual package.

The photo above was taken last summer from the second floor of the Rus-Mar Motel, located directly across Leaming Avenue to the north.

Now, lets throw it back to an earlier era, with this vintage postcard that looks to be from the late 50s / very early 60s...

The most striking difference, obviously, is the yellow color scheme the Starfire sported in its early days, along with the original sign being positioned on the roof (you would have to imagine it was visible for many blocks in either direction, especially at night).

The railing supports appeared to be comprised of horizontal brown beams of some sort, with a keystone-shaped centerpiece. And check out those wild period room curtains!

The motel was clearly designed to be a visual attention-getter, a strategy that was surely aided by its then-comparatively undeveloped surroundings.

Note the wide open area to the southwest; Ocean Towers and the Adventurer were still years away from being built. The LuFran Motel, the Starfire's next door neighbor to the south, was built in the mid-50s, but no portion of it is visible from this angle (both were and remain roughly the same size).