The Smith-Eslick Cottage Court is believed to be the oldest original-condition motel in the United States. Built at about the same time as the 1915 opening of Rocky Mountain National Park and the development of more and better roads in the area, it was the first Grand Lake structure designed to accommodate both visitors and their cars. It has four living units for overnight accommodations, each with a covered three-sided parking space adjacent to the unit, all integrated under a single roof line. Designed from the start with attached accommodation units and adjacent carports, it is a very early example of what would later be called a motor court and still later a motel. Its exterior patterned, bark-on, half-round lodgepole siding reflects the Rocky Mountain Rustic architectural style common throughout Grand Lake, and the entire structure is made of lodgepole pine, the area's native, customary, and most available building material at the time. Located along the old road, then the main road into town, it was placed for easy access by automobile tourists. At a time when hotels and stand-alone cabins were the only accommodations offered to Grand Lake visitors, it was unusual and became a precursor of similar structures throughout the United States. The building retains original features including bark-on lodgepole pine siding known locally as barkie, original window glass and screens, and four units with living spaces 14 feet wide and adjacent carports 6 feet wide. The roof is covered with several layers of rolled roofing material on wood, the back wall of each unit has one inward-opening hinged window, and one front window in each unit slides sideways to allow summer breezes to ventilate the room. It is believed that all the wood used in the Cottage Court came from P.H. Smith's Grand Lake sawmill. The two south-end units nearest Lake Avenue retain remnants of rolled and patterned cardboard that served as the only insulation and wall covering, and they have no ceilings, only exposed rafters. The two north-end units have upgrades installed by Clyde Eslick in the 1930s and 1940s, possibly including wiring and simple bulb lights added when electricity came late to Grand Lake. Each unit was equipped with a small cast-iron miner's stove vented through a hole in the back side of the roof, a fold-down table hinged to the wall, and a bed. Plumbing was never installed inside, and visitors used a nearby washhouse and outhouse. Recently, the entire structure was relocated 150 feet across the street from its original site, and it is preserved as a rare symbol of early automobile tourism.