1018 E. Orangethorpe Ave.Anaheim, Calif. 92801
Your home away from home, located in Orange Country near Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm. One block north of Riverside Freeway, near Santa Ana and Garden Grove Freeways…Large Rooms, Queen size beds, Direct Dial Phones, heated pool, Morning coffee in your room.
The Akua Motor Hotel opened in October 1961 at “the jungle’s edge” next door to the famous Palms Restaurant and Dutton’s Jungle Gardens.
The Akua would be home to countless tourists on their way to Disneyland or Knott’s Berry Farm throughout the 1960s but it would be tourists of a different sort that would occupy the motel for nearly two weeks.
After voting to strike against the NFL in July of 1968, the Los Angeles Rams established the Akua as their strike headquarters. The players were unhappy with the lack of pay they were receiving. The strike lasted only 12 days with $1.5 million added to the players pension fund.
The AKua would undergo several ownership changes but always remained the Akua
The motel is still standing and is still named the Akua but the fabulous sign is gone.
Photo Courtesy: Roadway Architecture.
Thins don’t seem too rosy at the motel right now. Last November a man was shot at 11:15a.m. in the lobby of the motel and, according to the OC Register:
Police have been called to the Akua Motor Inn several times in the past for reports of thefts, narcotics violations and domestic disturbances, Wyatt said. In June, 33-year-old Daniel Richardson of Irvine was shot to death at the motel.
On the last part, the Akua isn’t in a horrible neighborhood. It’s in a light industrial area north of the 91 (Riverside Freeway) well away from Disneyland. It likely attracts more than its share of unsavory characters due to being relatively cheap for the area and away from all the tourists. I wouldn’t tell anybody to stay here but, to be honest, it’s probably still safer than any Motel 6 in California. :^D