Manufacturer: Mayer China
User: Frontier Town, also known interchangeably as Frontier Town Inn
Date of china: 1960 and 1965
Notes: What was intended to be the El Sol Garden Motel with a September 1959 opening and having reclaimed – and moved – buildings from the former Santa Lucia Inn from across the street, instead – and for reasons unknown – Frontier Town (also known as Frontier Town Inn), opened instead at 425 North Main Street in Salinas, California. It was the joint project of William Emerson and Paul Lanning.
It partially opened in July 1960, in time for the California Rodeo. As noted in an article in the Salinas Californian, dated July 11, 1960: "Frontier Town Inn will dispense real Western hospitality during the California Rodeo Golden Jubilee days. Opening of at least part of its facilities will coincide with the show July 21 – 24. The completely remodeled building is rich in Old West legend and decor, from its sparkling chandeliers and Western murals to its surrey-with-the-fringe-on-top sign." The restaurant and lounge portion of Frontier Town opened on July 19, 1960, during the California Rodeo: however, the inn's 63 rooms did not open until July 27, 1960.
An article (shown above) in the Salinas Californian dated July 27, 1960, describes features of the Frontier Town Inn and states: "Massive hardwood doors separate two spacious banquet rooms having seating capacity for 300 persons. Here a huge serving table is banked with foods, from which is served the chuck wagon dinner specialty. Manager Carmen Boscoe, for six years manager of Chuck Wagons in Palo Alto and San Francisco, has incorporated 20th century devices, stoves, broilers and rotisseries, coupled with stainless steel, for modern efficiency and sanitation.
"Evidence of 19th century grandeur is throughout the building. Cut glass hanging chandeliers, preserved since '06 earthquake days in San Francisco, hang here and there."
In January 1964, Smorgas-Table, a well-known eatery in the area, opened a Smorgas-Table at Frontier Town that was open seven days a week from noon to eight p.m. By 1965, their ads began referring to it as a smorgasbord.
In November 1964, Frontier Inn began advertising in the local paper that it had a "limited number of nice rooms available at attractive weekly rates."
By September 1966, an ad in the Salinas Californian stated that there was a new (or possibly additional) owner of Frontier Town: Jan Worthy. Subsequent ads stressed that it was a "Family Managed Inn."
In April 1967, the Internal Revenue Service closed the inn for failing to pay $6,000 in withholding collections. However, by April 21, 1967, there was an ad (shown above) in The Californian stating that they were "open again."
By the end of 1967, Frontier Town Inn was closed and there was an article in the Jan 6, 1968, Californian stating that Larry Cheek, president of Cheek and Associates and officer of the newly created Frontier Industries, a non-profit corporation, planned "to convert the vacant inn and motel units into a rock and roll dance hall with art galleries, bookstore and other oriented small shops to the rear. The goal, says Cheek, is youthful, psychedelic, off-beat, but wholesome."
However, in February 1968, Cheek and his wife, who had proposed making the Frontier Town Inn into a "psychedelic dance hall" for young people, were arrested in a countywide roundup of suspected narcotic dealers and those posessing drugs and marijuana.
In May 1968, a story in the Californian stated that James Miller and Winnie Seaton purchased the old Frontier Inn from Paul Lanning for $425,000. Miller told the paper that big changes would be made at the motel, recent site of the aforementioned "psychedelic pleasure palace" fiasco. He went on to say that the "name of the motel will be changed, and its appearance also will be greatly changed. This has a reputation as a loser, so we have to change its image and its reputation."
In May 1970, a Mexican food restaurant named Ramon's opened in the Frontier Town building and there continued to be ads for rooms and apartments at the Frontier Town Inn as late as 1988. In 1990, the building was leased to the U.S. Census Bureau for use as a district office for the 1990 census.
In 1999, the four-acre parcel became a self-storage facility that today (2026) is called Frontier Storage.
White body plate with the inn's logo in the well. The logo is a very dark brown and white drawing of a cowboy on a bucking horse with the words "Frontier Town" in a script font in red overlapping the drawing.
Sources:
The Californian, July 27,1960 – grand opening ad
The Californian, Aug. 05, 1960 – early ad
The Californian, Sep. 12, 1966 – ad saying there was a new owner
The Californian, April 15, 1967 – story about closure by IRS
The Californian, April 21,1967 – open again ad
The Californian, Jan. 06, 1968 – article about plan for a psychedelic dance parlor
The Californian, Feb. 08, 1968 – article about dance promoters' arrest
The Californian, May 2, 1968 – article about the opening of Ramon's Mexican restaurant
The Californian, May 18, 1968 – story about sale of Frontier Town
Facebook group: Salinas, I was a teenager there in the 70's and 80's – photo posted in 2011 by Carol Gattis Murnighan
Contributors:
Roland Burritt: ID and research
Susan Phillips: plate photos
Ed Phillips: research and author