During the 1950s, tons of kitsch motels, strange looking shops, and uniquely designed restaurants started popping up at roadsides all over the United States. By the 1970s, out-of-town shopping malls and interstate highways had forced many of these businesses to close.

Thanks to American photographer John Margolies, however, these businesses will never be forgotten! He spent forty years photographing these unusual businesses, and his work eventually was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

As car ownership skyrocketed in the 1950s, business owners took the opportunity to set up shop on roadsides. Since competition was fierce, these owners tried to stand out from the crowd by making their businesses look as unique as possible. They wanted their business to look so strange that it would catch the eye of drivers as they drove by.

Margolies started taking these photos in 1969, and he continued until 2008. During that time, he drove all over the United States to capture these images.

“My parents’ generation thought it was the ugliest stuff in the world,” he said in 2015. “I liked places where everything was screaming for attention: ‘Look at me. Look at me.'”

Margolies sadly passed away in 2016 at the age of 76, and after his death, he left 11,700 quirky images to the Library of Congress.

“Traversing the country, he was drawn to the architecture that came to define travel by car — motels, diners and gas stations — but also to quintessentially American oddities,” the Library of Congress said. “Buildings in the shape of dinosaurs, the sculpted concrete and plaster obstacles of miniature golf courses and parks featuring attractions from parrots to petrified rocks.”