PAN AMERICAN HOTEL

79-00 Queens Boulevard
1962
Brodsky, Hopf & Adler

In 1962, Adelson Industries announced the purchase of a plot of land in Elmhurst to build an
ambitious $2 million project: the Pan American Motor Inn. Upon opening, the seven- story luxury hotel had 216 rooms, an outdoor swimming pool, a health club and, a dining facility for 250 people. Its location was strategic, as it was the nearest major hotel facility to the planned 1964 New York World’s Fair and Shea Stadium, which alos openned in 1964. Designed by New York City architectural firm Brodsky, Hopf and Adler, it received critical praise, including an award from the Queens Chamber of Commerce in 1963.

Adelson Industries’s initial plan for the Pan American Motor Inn was for it to be the first of a chain along the Eastern Seaboard, but the motel never achieved superstar status in Queens as they had hoped. After a succession of buyers, it never made a profit. In 2014, the city turned it into a homeless shelter, just like its former competitor down the block, once called the Mets Motel and later the Metro Motel.

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