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.ArchitectureIt 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 64acre 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.
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