Richardson | October 2023

News

BY KEVIN CUMMINGS

Residents seek preservation of Como Motel

A group of Richardson residents with support from across North Texas are looking to preserve what’s left of an iconic piece of the city’s history. In June, when rumors were circulating that the Como Motel could become a parking lot, resident Lindsey Sherritt began the Save the Como preser- vation campaign, which has garnered more than 5,200 signatures in support. “You have to think about what it stands for, what it used to be and what it can be in the future,” Sherritt said. Now the group is waiting to hear the fate of the formerly longest-running motel in the city from its new owners, Pappas Restaurants. Pappas Restaurants ocials did not respond to requests for comment prior to publication. How we got here Built in 1956, the formerly 35-room Como Motel once sponsored Little League baseball teams and broke racial barriers at the time by allowing Black kids to swim in the pool during summer, according to a since-deleted post on the Richardson Chamber of Commerce’s website shared by Sherritt. The motel closed in July, according to the Save the Como campaign’s petition. “It’s really kind of the last of the great, old road- side motels that are actually still standing in Dallas County,” said Reid Robinson, owner of Beyond the Bar and supporter of the campaign.

As of June, The Como Motel was still open. The next month, the property was sold to Pappas Restaurants.

COURTESY LINDSEY SHERRITT

What’s next? Sherritt and Robinson said that when the Save the Como campaign started, they hoped the prop- erty would be restored into a boutique-style hotel. Since Pappas Restaurants bought the property in July, ocials with the company have signaled a willingness to engage with Sherritt, she said. “We thought about dierent adaptive reuse ideas for the property, [so] it can possibly be part motel, part community space,” Robinson said. Options presented to the company include keeping part of the property as a hotel and using other parts as a restaurant and communal space. Sherritt said she has not heard back from Pappas Restaurants ocials on her proposals and does not know when that might happen.

B E L T L I N E R D .

W. SPRING VALLEY RD.

Richardson City Manager Don Magner said a number of uses for the property would be allowed due to its commercial zoning. “[The Como] is part of the history of the ber of Richardson,” Sherritt said. “I think that’s why we should care. It speaks to a time that is gone. ... It is still useful; it still has a purpose.”

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