Kellam's Motel
Known Name(s)
Kellam's Motel
Address
185 Atlantic Ave; Buckroe Beach Hampton, VA
Establishment Type(s)
Motel
Physical Status
Demolished
Description
Kellam's was a typical one-story, low-flung roadsite motel, with a side gable roof covering the main, central portion of the building. The ends had projecting bays with gable roofs. The gable end of each bay had horizontal shingling differentiating the gable from the wall. The primary elevation had eight doors entering onto a slightly elevated walkway. Two sets of steps provided to access to the walkway along the central portion of the building, with a set of steps leading to each end bay. There were six windows on the center block and a window on the front of each bay. Each window had shutters consisting of three vertical pieces of wood joined by two horizontals. The black and white photo to the left depicts the building in the 1950s.
Detailed History
Although listed under Hampton in The Green Book, Kellam’s Motel was actually located in Buckroe Beach. It stood near the Bayshore Amusement Park, near the end of Atlantic Avenue, adjacent to Bay Shore Beach, and had approximately ten rooms. The motel and its Magnolia Inn Restaurant were owned and operated by sisters Nannie Kellam and Susie King, who purchased it originally as a beach/farm home in the late 1930s. The motel and restaurant were last operated by Susie King's daughter, Helen G. Graves, and grandson, Jayfus Ward, Jr. Mr. Ward passed away in 2004. Kellams is gone, an apartment complex in its place.
The foregoing information is from the Hampton History Museum website.
An ad in the 1962 Green Book says "Southern style home cooking, seafood our specialty, the most desirable place on the peninsula."
