Requiem for the Gobbler Motel

Gobbler Gala Set for June 6th, in Johnson Creek WI!

2008-05-23T09:21:00.001-07:00

Gobbler Motel and Restaurant Fans have an exciting date to mark on the calendar - the Gobbler Gala is coming to the one-of-a-kind former restaurant on June 6th! Wisconsin State Journal's Doug Moe give us the details:...On June 6, The Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin Tourism Program will host "The Gobbler Gala," a dinner and discussion at the building in Johnson Creek, just off Interstate 94, that was

The Gobbler Motel and Restaurant: The Television Commercial

2006-12-19T20:03:00.000-08:00

From what I've been able to determine, this catchy commercial aired in the Milwaukee/Madison area broadcast market in the early to mid 1980's. Look closely, and you can see the restaurant's padded vinyl seating, the rotating bar, even the dance loft rendered in loving hand-painted detail! There's even a brief glimpse of the motel entrance in a pan shot.I don't know the exact airdates, or which

Once Upon A Time, in Wisconsin...

2003-10-30T11:07:00.000-08:00

There was a place called The Gobbler.The motel's design was a unique spoked "Prairie" style semicircle; luxurious purple, red, blue and pink shag carpeting graced many of the Gobbler's surfaces in its early-1970's heyday, a period when grooviness meant a bedroom covered floor-to-ceiling in the stuff. Every detail - from lavender vinyl dining room upholstery to built-in 8-track stereos [in the "

Down, But Not Exactly Out

2003-10-30T11:02:00.000-08:00

We beging our story in October 2001, when the circular Gobbler Motel looked down, but not exactly out. The siding was cracking, yellow-brown weeds shot up in unlikely places (like windowsills), and the blue landscaping gravel surrounding the entries was peppered with beer bottles and cigarette butts: the Gobbler had sunk to a nighttime make-out hangout for the locals. Tellingly, a black

Purple Windows and Shag, Shag, Shag.

2003-10-30T10:56:00.000-08:00

In fact, the Gobbler had been renamed King Arthur's Inn several years ago. Walking around the low-slung, swoopy perimeter gave one a view of the exterior-situated rooms, some visible through parted curtains (with the exterior glass shielded by purple-tinted Lucite™) - most of the legendary shag carpeting was long since replaced by more serviceable (and hygienic) indoor-outdoor pile, but the

Abandoned!

2003-10-30T10:53:00.000-08:00

We spotted the fabled "eyeball" railings as we peered through the smudged glass doors of the lobby (see the photo at the top of this page). As you can see, the interior was done in a hunter-green duotone motif, a la Wal-Mart, circa 1990. You can see a triangular brass colored lighting fixture on the faux stone (well, maybe it was Z-Brick™ - I didn't get a chance to touch it for myself)

Stone Faux Fireplace

2003-10-30T10:49:00.000-08:00

Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder, but ultimately what made the Gobbler so perversely appealing isn't just its extreme appearance. It was the motel's air of mystery. After all, what on earth could have made people up and leave in such a hurry that even the tourist-trap brochures remain stacked on the lobby desk?

UFO? Or Restaurant??

2003-10-30T10:34:00.000-08:00

The Gobbler Restaurant had been reopened early 2002 under the name "Round Stone Restaurant": the cuisine is best described as classic American Diner, but the interior was restored to a good measure of its former glory. We stopped by for coffee and dessert one evening on the way back from Madison. Fortuitously, when we expressed our archival curiosity to the maitre-d', we were given a brief

Eye Of The Gobbler

2003-10-30T10:30:00.000-08:00

How groovy! How positively shagadelic! Some of the overstuffed white vinyl seats at the bar were - gasp - loveseats! Imagine - two swinging lovebirds could cozy up to the bar ("belly up" isn't quite the right image) and sip Long Island Iced Teas while spinning around the room. You wouldn't be able to tell if your vertigo was induced by the booze or the orbiting bar. The "Royal Roost" loft

Sign Of The Times

2003-10-30T10:27:00.000-08:00

[Memorial Day 2002] View from the I-94 exit 267 eastbound offramp, showing the "exit now for the NEW Gobbler!" sign which was painted over or removed sometime in June 2002. Photo courtesy David Mierzwinski (be sure to check out his Retro Milwaukee" site on our Links page)

The Grand Carport

2003-10-30T10:02:00.000-08:00

The Gobbler Restaurant's grand carport, where diners and swingers could pull up under the glittering icicle-light trimmed canopy, and marvel at the red-carpet luxury of genuine sandstone, amethyst chunks set into the facade, and volcanic tufa for a coarse, rugged touch. It was almost like parking at the entry of a spaceship, all swooping lines and Jetsons curves. As you walked in, you were

Pile Of Rubble

2003-10-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

The End: alas, the noose was tightened, and there was to be no stay of execution. We didn't even see the gallows floor drop out. When we returned on an icy day on February 10th, 2002 en route to Madison, it was already over. I knew something was wrong when we approached the Johnson Creek interchange off I-94, and this time, no familiar spiked dome stood atop Hartwig Hill. The Gobbler was

Swimming Pool Pit

2003-10-30T09:56:00.000-08:00

What awaited us in the gusting, frigid wind was a blackened hole surrounded by slushy snow, partially filled with architectural wreckage. They burned it down! The air still had a smell of charred plastic, burnt wood and insulation. There was something heartbreakingly sad about looking into a pit that was the Gobbler's swimming pool, once filled with laughing children in inflatable beach rings

"No Water For You!"

2003-10-30T09:49:00.000-08:00

5/30/02 - On our recent Memorial Day weekend trip to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Indiana we stopped by Johnson Creek hoping to take some additional interior photos of the Gobbler restaurant (a.k.a. The "Round Stone"); unfortunately, it appears that the establishment has "bitten the dust" once more. Driving eastbound on I-94, a large sign next to the restaurant reads, "Exit here for the NEW

"Sargon and His Wife": Beheaded!

2003-10-30T09:45:00.000-08:00

Johnson Creek was practically deserted that Memorial Day Sunday (2002) - that, and the mild sunny weather emboldened us to do some spelunking in the Gobbler Motel ruins. The concrete foundation clearly shows the outlines of the round "Passion Pit" beds, with the nearby sunken hot tubs now filled with ash and debris. At the motel entry, a square slab of concrete marks the spot where the faux

The Blue Door

2003-10-30T09:42:00.000-08:00

Here, the swimming pool pit is still filled with the burnt jetsam of hostelry, like old chunks of bathtubs, toilets and shower stalls, and one lone pile of (seemingly inflammable) refuse sits atop the circular concrete slab - frankly, I'm surprised that no one has lit a bonfire atop Hartwig Hill yet! [Note (10/31/03): Has anyone burned the remains yet? - LR] Several entry points to the

View Underground

2003-10-30T09:37:00.000-08:00

Something we didn't notice on our last trip in March was a small (now wrecked) miniature golf course on the northwest side of Hartwig hill next to a toppled "King Arthur's Inn" sign. All that was left was a few very faded greenish plywood structures with muddy pieces of Astroturf™, a scaled-down railroad crossing sign and a little crushed chapel with plastic "stained glass" inserts. The toppled

A Revelation

2003-10-30T09:31:00.000-08:00

6/12/02 - We received some new background information today on the Gobbler from Carol O'Neil, a member of the Johnson Creek, WI village board. As a resident of the town, she had some interesting revelations on the property's history:The restaurant has been opened and closed many times in the years since the original restaurant closed. (I think 6 times.) As of today, no one has applied to

Where's The Eyeball Railing?

2003-10-30T09:27:00.000-08:00

But the real mystery is - what happened to that "eyeball" railing? We should all be watching Ebay to see if some poor sucker tries to sell it.

Passion Pit

2003-10-30T09:14:00.000-08:00

Before and after: (At top image from a 1960's Gobbler Motel promotional booklet) This, sadly, is all that remained of the Motel back in May 2002. While the distinctive turtle-shaped roof of the restaurant is still visible down the hill in the distance, all that's left on the hill are shadows and hollows on the concrete foundation. Although the picture at top is an artist's rendering of one

Last Look Up The Hill

2003-10-30T09:07:00.000-08:00

A last view of the motel, taken in October 2001 during construction season in Johnson Creek. Note the two white satellite dishes at center left, and the Century 21™ office visible next to the telephone pole. We hope you enjoyed the tour...and we hope you'll share your Gobbler thoughts or memoirs with our readers. Just click on the Guestbook link!

Gobbler Links

2003-10-27T16:43:00.000-08:00

"My mom and my dad just both liked the color pink. Some people like green, some like blue, they liked pink."Clarence Hartwig, Jr. from Linda Godfrey's "The Gobbler Lives" take my poll at:The Gobbler Poll:htmlGEAR.comAlthough the motel is gone, the Gobbler Restaurant has opened and closed rather frequently; so if