Moonglo Memories

During my twenty-two year tenure here at the Curt Teich Postcard Archives I’ve looked at hundreds of thousands of postcards. Images of Weeki-Wachi mermaids, diners, alligator farms, the San Francisco earthquake, or Yellowstone National Park are like visual threads in the tapestry of the American story and they weave together a rich, diverse, and unabashed portrait of our country in the twentieth century. The Archives supplies images to researchers to illustrate stories and serve as time pegged markers for certain locations or historical moments or to create the style or mood for past event, real or fictional. Each postcard has a story behind it that may go untold even though the image will live forever in the Teich Archives. It’s a rare, but welcome occasion when an individual comes to the Teich Archives to tell his or her story behind a postcard in the collection. Such is the case of Stuart Sarjeant and the Moonglo Motel.

I’m not sure when I first got acquainted with the Moonglo Motel, but it was one of those unforgettable images that struck a chord with me. My mother and I, my aunt and cousin drove to Florida in the late 1950s in our two-tone Dodge station wagon with push button controls and stayed at a pink stucco motel with white trim that looked like a birthday cake sitting in the middle of a jungle. The Moonglo looks like a bakery sheet cake to me so that might have been the hook that drew me in. Over the years I went back to the Moonglo a number of times for different research requests and made a copy of it for my “great image” binder so I could find it easily. I was truly delighted when Stuart contacted me for a copy of the image because it was once his home and he was more than happy to share a little of the Moonglo’s history with me.

Stuart’s father, Alex Sarjeant was born in Barbados in 1903. After a twenty-five year career with Young & Rubicam in New York City he was ready for retirement. In 1953 Stuart’s mother and father ventured to Florida, originally intending to settle in the southern part of the state. Car troubles forced them to stop in Daytona Beach and they knew immediately that they need travel no further.

Their intent was to purchase and operate a small motel. When a real estate agent took them to the Moonglo it was love at first sight. They purchased the motel in June of 1953 from David Hanna for $40,000. Stuart’s mother thought that everything in Florida should be pink or turquoise so she was responsible for the color scheme.

Mr. and Mrs. Sarjeant ran the motel themselves and the family lived behind the office. They had only one employee, Stuart, and his responsibilities were limited to ice and towel deliveries. The couple did everything necessary to make the Moonglo a success from mowing the grass to making the beds. The Atlantic Ocean was only two hundred yards away and Stuart had fond memories of growing up with the beach as his backyard.

Stuart recalled his parents commenting about how many of their New York relatives wanted to renew their acquaintance after the Sarjeant family became Florida motel owners. One of the photos Stuart provided shows an aunt and uncle posing with Stuart and his puppy in front of the classic Art Deco Moonglo sign.

In 1959 the Sarjeants sold the Moonglo to the Pleasure Isle Motel across the street and it was absorbed into the much larger motel complex. By the time Stuart and I talked all of the surrounding properties had been purchased and he believed that it was only a matter of time until everything was razed to make way for a parking lot or strip mall. He was probably right. I attempted to call the Pleasure Isle hotel and it was no longer in business. When I first spoke to Stuart he was still in contact with Mr. Hanna, the Moonglo’s builder and original owner who was in his 80s at the time. The last time I spoke with Stuart he told me that Mr. Hanna had passed away.

The Moonglo Motel is no longer just another Florida beach motel. I now know that it was once part of a family’s American dream and their place in the sun. It was also a place that fostered a fifty year relationship, and a place where a little boy played with his dog on the beach and filled ice buckets for weary travelers. Stuart Sarjeant’s story gave this tiny image a history and a cast of characters. In much the same way postcards are often used by our researchers to give a story or a cast of characters a sense of time and place.