TavCam Inn seeing improvements

There’s better days ahead for the TavCam Inn.

The downtown motel has been under new ownership since Jan. 18 and is seeing some significant aesthetic improvements this month.

Paul Jariwala, the TavCam’s new manager, said enhancements include new carpet, beds and other furnishings in all of its 66 rooms. The new owner, Main Street Lodging L.L.C., is also working toward improving the inn’s curb appeal, updating landscaping and the motel’s facade with a fresh coat of paint.  

Jariwala said the motel will be open in a few weeks or within a month.

The new owner, he said, purchased the inn for a number of reasons.

“It’s the downtown area, it’s on Main Street,” he said, adding that it’s evident many other buildings in the area are being remodeled in anticipation of the new South County Justice Center. “I don’t know how much of an impact that will have, but once we do open, we’ll have a better idea of that.”

The TavCam Inn, originally called the Porterville Motel, was built after WWII by Jack Anglin, the same man who built the Paul Bunyan Lodge on the northeast corner of Morton Avenue and Porter Street, said local historian Jeff Edwards.

“In the 50s it was very popular. Jack was a very good operator with everything he did,” Edwards said. “It was full at the time, and then he built the Paul Bunyan because he was getting more business all the time.”

Anglin sold the motel, and that’s when “it began to change its deal,” Edwards said.

Jariwala said the community’s perception of the motel has not been the best.

“It doesn’t have a great history. We just want to change that perception people have,” he said.

Part of that involves changing the building’s name.

What that name will be is yet to be determined.

Contact Denise Madrid at 784-5000, Ext. 1047. Follow her on Twitter @DeniseMadrid_.