Coral Court Motel opened in 1942 at 7755 Watson Road in St. Louis County. The twenty-room motor court was developed by John Carr and designed by architects Adolph L. Struebig and Harold Tyrer in the Streamline Moderne style. The motel's placement on Route 66 during the heyday of automobile tourism contributed to its success, and it eventually expanded to seventy-seven rooms. The ability to rent rooms for short periods of time and an enclosed garage for each unit also resulted in the development of an unsavory reputation. It was a popular venue for adultery and other illicit affairs, and it was particularly notorious for a 1953 visit by Carl Austin Hall, one of the kidnappers and murderers of Bobby Greenlease.

When Route 66 was bypassed by Interstate 44 in 1972, business at the motel started to decline and in 1993 it closed. In 1995 Coral Court was demolished in favor of a housing development called The Villages at General Grant despite having been placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. One of the units was dismantled by volunteers and was donated to the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis County. As of 2018, it is on display as part of an exhibit on historic automobiles.