Ramsey's Nevada Motel sold; becomes Nevada Inn

Nevada Inn managers Todd and Crystal Blankenship show the new sign replacing the Ramsey's Nevada Motel sign on East Austin Boulevard. The 68-year-old motel has been sold to a Clinton company.

A city landmark for more than a half-century, the Ramsey's Nevada Motel sign at 1514 E. Austin Blvd., has come down.

Manager Todd Blankenship said the previous owner, Edie Ramsey-Mason, sold the 27-room motel May 17 to the ASquareB company of Clinton, which also owns motels at Clinton and Mt. Vernon.

Blankenship said he had helped design the new red and white Nevada Inn sign being installed Friday by Missouri Neon Co. workmen from Springfield. "That old neon tubing was so expensive to replace that the new sign only cost half as much as it would have to maintain the old one," he said.

"I was a carpenter and there've only been a few times in my life I have seen a building so well constructed. They kind of overdid the roofing and overhead bracing.

"You don't see that kind of thing anymore. It has cross-bracing and the old rivet-style joints that were used before the claw braces and plywood you see now."

During the next two months, Blankenship said, he and his wife Crystal will have new tiles laid and all the beds, carpeting and TV's replaced. The couple is from El Dorado Springs, where Blankenship's family owned Woody's Mobile Homes and operated a trailer park for many years, he said.

Efforts to contact Ramsey-Mason were unsuccessful. The motel's Web site said it had been owned by her family since 1943.

"We have huge bathrooms," said Blankenship. "I call it a woman's paradise. I have never seen such big bathrooms except in Las Vegas."