Demolition Underway at Tuscaloosa’s Once Iconic, 100-Year-Old Moon Winx Lodge

The cottages of Tuscaloosa's almost 100-year-old Moon Winx Lodge are being demolished after the motel was closed for health code violations earlier this year.

As the Thread reported in March, city officials ordered the Moon Winx to close over a large number of alleged code violations including infestations of roaches and rats, criminal activity and more.

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The future of the motel has been in question ever since and its iconic sign was sold to a private owner a couple weeks after the closure. 

Now, with buildings on the property being torn down and a For Sale sign hanging from a fence next to where the neon-lit crescent moon once stood, those questions appear to have been answered.

Barry Newman, a local history buff and an administrator for a Facebook group dedicated to remembering Tuscaloosa's past, shared details about the motel's glory days there on Friday.

Newman said the facility opened as the 20-room Moon Winx Motor Court sometime in the late 1920s. Owner Meade Johnston sold the motel to Victor Rogers, who added 10 more rooms in 1950 before a complete modernization effort in 1954. That famous neon sign was installed in 1957.

For more updates on the future of the property, which sits on University Boulevard in Alberta City, and for more exclusive stories about restaurant and retail development in West Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.