Omaha Exploration

It wasn’t until after L Street was widened to four lanes that space on the northwest corner of 60th became available to build an octogonal hotel. Prior to that, the site had been the home to a service station and garage owned by Fred Tex who owned a lot of farmland in the area north of L Street.

After Floyd Kidder married Fred’s daughter, Ida, they had a son Floyd Kidder Jr who commonly went by Junior. Junior and his brother Gene were well known in the drag race community as they would often race on the strip at highway 133 north of Irvington. Junior was referred to as a pioneer in drag racing in the midwest. That interest in automobiles led them to take ownership of Fred’s old garage and service station.

With the garage standing in the way of the street widening project, Junior acquired additional land from Fred so that he could demolish the old garage and replace it with a new one on adjacent property to the north. After the garage was built in 1963, there was a leftover parcel of land on the northwest corner of 60th and L Streets. That gave Junior the idea of building a small motel. He settled on the design as it would stand out while offering him a place to live. To minimize the amount of maintenance required, he had the motel constructed using concrete walls and steel doors.

At the time the motel opened in 1966, people were fascinated with the possibility of a moon landing and the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union. That likely served as inspiration for both the shape and the name – Satellite Motel. If that weren’t enough to grab the attention of passersby, Junior added a Sputnik-style sign that used to have blinking lights at the ends of the antennae. The lights were later damaged in a hailstorm. The motto of the space-themed motel was “Designed for Tomorrow, Available Today.”

In the center of the motel was a core that served as Junior’s living quarters. The first floor included the dining room and kitchen while the second floor which was only accessible by elevator contained the bedrooms and bathrooms. The third floor which has been referred to as the penthouse was the living area with bar. Meanwhile, 15 keystone shaped hotel rooms surrounded the core on the first and second floors. The first floor rooms were accessible from the outside while the second floor rooms offered access to a patio that stretched around the entire building.

Just 11 years after he moved into the Satellite Motel, Junior passed away in 1977 at the age of 55. Ownership of the hotel was turned over to his sister Margaret and her husband Joe Kosalka. They would continue to operate the hotel which remained popular with the Aksarben crowd as well as tourists and those drawn to its unique design until 1986.

At that point the couple sold the hotel to independent hotel owner Mahesh Patel in 1986. He expanded the hotel from 15 to 45 rooms at a time when many small hotels were closing due to competition from large hotel chains. Despite the increased competition, the Satellite remained a popular choice and maintained an occupancy of 70% due to its low rates, personal service and unusual design.

2016 interior shots of the Satellite Motel are courtesy of Lisa LaViolette in the Forgotten Omaha Facebook group.

The exterior looks largely the same as it did when it opened though its likely the interior has changed quite a bit since the expansion as the living quarters were removed. I’ve read conflicting reports that the third floor serves as a storage area or an apartment. It doesn’t appear to be available for rent but how cool would it be to have this area opened up as a suite?

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