Owning a Landmark: The Caribbean Motel

Who wouldn’t want to spend a summer attending theme parties from the end of April to October, enjoying fun in the sun, sleeping in rooms that jump and jive, relaxing in spaces refurbished to create the pizzazz of the motel’s mid-century modern heritage? That’s what my partners and I thought when we bought the Caribbean Motel in Wildwood Crest at the end of July, 2004.

First we needed a motel that was well located to the beach and was designed in a genuine, mid-century modern, architectural style. We found all that in the Caribbean Motel at 5600 Ocean Ave, Wildwood Crest.

The Caribbean displays the soaring designs and imaginative forms of the 1950s’ architecture. Its crescent-shaped swimming pool, levitating ramp, cantilevered overhangs, multi-colored spotlights, and futuristic angled-fascia make the Caribbean the quintessential example of the Doo Wop motels of the Wildwoods.

Second we needed an interior designer dedicated to re-creating the exuberant decorative style of the postwar leisure culture of the 1950s. New York designer Darleen Lev brought the tropical feel of the Caribbean inside the rooms. She chose lime-green (“Lime Rickey”) for the guest room walls, banana yellow for the furniture, pink for the re-created mid-century hanging and table lamps, grass-green carpet, and grass cloth wallpaper. Third, we needed to remove the unkempt, indigenous evergreen shrubbery. After restoring the original brick

Whether you lounge around the pool, take in the ocean view from the super upper sundeck or through the glass canted walls of the Cabana, or relax in your room, you sense the tropical theme and colors and the flamboyant decorative style of the 1950s.

Beyond the desire to create the kind of place where one wants to be and to be seen, whether on vacation or a get-away weekend, we wanted to preserve an architectural heritage. The Caribbean Motel is an American original and a true summer icon.

To save it from the developer’s wrecking ball and bulldozers, we petitioned the State of New Jersey and the National Park Service. In August 2005, just one year after we acquired it, the Caribbean Motel was listed on both the New Jersey and the prestigious National Register of Historic Places.

An inducement that Congress granted to properties such as the Caribbean is a twenty percent tax credit for restoration work that qualifies. To understand how lucrative a tax credit is, one must appreciate the difference between a tax credit and a deduction.

A tax credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction in taxes owed. A deduction is not. A deduction reduces one’s gross adjusted income. The tax tables show the amount of taxes due in that particular adjusted gross income category. With a tax credit, after you look up in the tax tables how much tax is due, you subtract the tax credit! It’s a dollar-for-dollar

Bear in mind that the tax credit applies to qualifying restoration expense. A fresh coat of paint and new carpets may not qualify, but to deal with deferred maintenance in a way that restores the original conditions would.

Planning for and observing the transformation from a neglected Doo Wop motel, where the interior furnishings were disconnected from the motel’s glitzy architectural heritage, has been about as much fun as the theme parties we throw!

Even during the years that the Caribbean was allowed to deteriorate, many guests remained loyal. Now we receive comments on the Comment Sheet that read:

“Keep up the good work, and bring back the Caribbean to the ‘good old days’.” “Much nicer than our 2003 experience,” and “very nice experience-—we will recommend and return whenever possible.”

Editor’s note:

The Doo Wop Preservation League thanks Carolyn Emigh and George Miller for their stewardship, and appreciates their efforts to preserve our notable mid-century heritage for future generations. Over 200 properties in The Wildwoods are listed on the ‘Motels of the Wildwoods’ multiple property historic documentation form, which makes owning a landmark even easier! If you want to join the fun please call the Doo Wop Preservation League, 609-729-4000.