Top of page

“Exclamation Points”—John Margolies Photographs of Roadside America Ready for Touring

Share this post:

The following is guest post by Micah Messenheimer, Assistant Curator of Photography, Prints and Photographs Division.

Over the span of nearly forty years, John Margolies took more than eleven thousand color slide photographs of vernacular structures across America’s highways, byways, and main streets. Traversing the country, he was drawn to the architecture that came to define travel by car, like motels, diners, and gas stations, but also to quintessentially American oddities: buildings in the shape of dinosaurs, the sculpted concrete and plaster obstacles of miniature golf courses, and parks featuring attractions from parrots to petrified rocks.

It'll Do Motel office. Jonesborough, Tennessee. Photograph by John Margolies. 1987. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.00181
It’ll Do Motel office. Jonesborough, Tennessee. Photograph by John Margolies. 1987. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.00181

Sinclair diesel gas pump, Route 37. New Lexington, Ohio. Photograph by John Margolies. 1977. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.01695
Sinclair diesel gas pump, Route 37. New Lexington, Ohio. Photograph by John Margolies. 1977. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.01695

Brontosaurus, Prehistoric Museum. Cabazon, California. Photograph by John Margolies. 1978. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.03562
Brontosaurus, Prehistoric Museum. Cabazon, California. Photograph by John Margolies. 1978. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.03562

Rainbow Falls mini golf, shark. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Photograph by John Margolies. 1988. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.06179
Rainbow Falls mini golf, shark. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Photograph by John Margolies. 1988. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.06179

Vernacular roadside and commercial structures spread with the boom of suburbanization and the expansion of paved roads across the United States in the prosperous decades after World War II. Yet, in many instances, the only remaining record of these buildings is on Margolies’s film, as tourist architecture was endangered by the expansion of the interstate system and changing travel desires. Small town main streets were bypassed for the speedier travel of the freeway.

For Margolies, the shift to freeway travel took the joy out of the road trip and the architecture it dreamt up. Rather than stopping to enjoy sights passed along the drive, the point became to travel as far and as fast as possible. Yet even he came to recognize the amusement of architecture associated with chain and franchise businesses when their once homogeneous designs evolved and iconic examples began to fade away.

McDonald's. Photograph by John Margolies. Azusa, California. 1977. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.06979
McDonald’s. Azusa, California. Photograph by John Margolies. 1977. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.06979
Holiday Inn sign. Photograph by John Margolies. 1984. Gatlinburg, Tennessee. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.08490
Holiday Inn sign. Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Photograph by John Margolies. 1984. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.08490

The architecture that drew Margolies’s eye was often derided by critics as aesthetically unstudied, tacky, or even ugly. Margolies, in turn, faulted architectural historians for idealizing canonical works that did little to reflect everyday, lived experience through their forms. In his view, ephemeral and vernacular architecture better told the story of 20th century America, and just as frequently, expressed the eccentricity and ingenuity of its makers. New building materials and techniques allowed for whimsical design elements that served no structural purpose. Decoration was prominent, but usually coarsely constructed as it was meant to be comprehensible from a distance. Exaggerated formally, these buildings acted as what New York Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger termed “exclamation points of the landscape.”

Wall Drug billboard, I-90. South Dakota. Photograph by John Margolies. 1980. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.01970
Wall Drug billboard, I-90. South Dakota. Photograph by John Margolies. 1980. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.01970

Built to grab the attention of a motorist traveling down the road, roadside architecture was rarely constructed with longevity in mind, and Margolies sought out buildings that showed evidence of change, even decay, over their lifetimes.

Yankton National Bank, Keley's Bar, Third Street. Yankton, South Dakota. Photograph by John Margolies. 1987. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.04075
Yankton National Bank, Keley’s Bar, Third Street. Yankton, South Dakota. Photograph by John Margolies. 1987. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.04075

Other photos in the archive show the common practice of adapting existing structures to new uses (like banks re-purposed as bars or restaurants), but also the reinterpretation of other things (like train cars or airplanes) into buildings.

DC-7 Steak House with airplane next to swimming pool. Byron, Georgia. Photograph by John Margolies. 1982. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.07360
DC-7 Steak House with airplane next to swimming pool. Byron, Georgia. Photograph by John Margolies. 1982. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.07360

Margolies’s work also offers reminders of migration into and out of America’s towns, as in this example of a former Townley Milk building in Oklahoma City that by 1993 housed a Vietnamese sandwich shop.

Townley milk bottle, 24th and Classen Streets. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Photograph by John Margolies. 1993. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.04175
Townley milk bottle, 24th and Classen Streets. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Photograph by John Margolies. 1993. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/mrg.04175

Although much of the architecture Margolies documented was well past its heyday by the time he photographed it, he rebuked the word “nostalgia” in describing his work, stating “I don’t want to be ahead of my time. I want to be in sync with it.” With his thousands of photographs now online, viewers can roam in his footsteps (or tire tracks) to enjoy roadside America.

Learn More

  • Read more about John Margolies and his archive in our collection overview, and start your tour through the photos!
  • Watch a video where John Margolies describes his work and working methods.
  • A favorite feature of the Margolies roadside architecture photos are the variety of examples of “mimetic architecture” that he captured, where the shape of the building is often the clue to what is sold inside. Explore other examples of mimetic architecture in Prints & Photographs Division collections in our earlier blog post, “Caught Our Eyes: Coffee and Donuts, Anyone?

Comments (7)

  1. Wonderful pictures, but I’m very disappointed that most are not accompanied by location info (city or country & state, or highway route #). Information is not a resource to be hoarded. I hope you’ll expand this posting to share what you know about these locations.

    • Thanks for your comment. Your point about the location information is well taken. In the catalog, the descriptions for each Margolies image includes whatever location information was available under the label “Subjects.” To save some clicking for the photos featured in this blog post, I’ve added the locations in the captions. Enjoy!

  2. I saw enjoyed viewing these pictures-Thank you!

  3. I just love looking at these – what a wonderful collection. It made me think of several here in Canada and I recognized one right away. Link below – slight correction for location, it was Lakeshore Blvd and Windermere.

    http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017702119/

    • Thanks for the comment and the information. We’ll pass it along for an adjustment to the description.

  4. Thank you for making these digitized images available! I believe the images identified as being in Columbia, Mississippi are actually of buildings in Columbus, Mississippi.

  5. Thank you for catching that these buildings are listed in the incorrect town. We’ll ask our catalogers to update the records to Columbus.

Add a Comment

This blog is governed by the general rules of respectful civil discourse. You are fully responsible for everything that you post. The content of all comments is released into the public domain unless clearly stated otherwise. The Library of Congress does not control the content posted. Nevertheless, the Library of Congress may monitor any user-generated content as it chooses and reserves the right to remove content for any reason whatever, without consent. Gratuitous links to sites are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user's privilege to post content on the Library site. Read our Comment and Posting Policy.


Required fields are indicated with an * asterisk.