Joan & John Solu at The Q Inn, Main Street, Morro Bay. Photo provided by Joan Solu
This year November 11 is Veteran’s Day during America’s 250th. It is also the 85th anniversary since Morro Bay’s Amphibious Training Base dedication. Veteran’s Day is also known as Remembrance Day and certainly the appropriate time for Morro Bay to reflect on our local beginnings. Did you know before World War II Morro Bay had 400 residents? After WWII we grew to over 2,800 and over time our community has held steady at 10,000 except when our hotels, inns and B&Bs inflate our numbers attracting guests for the betterment of Morro Bay’s local businesses.
Last April 2026, hoteliers Joan and John Solu were surprised when 400 Estero Bay community members helped them celebrate the grand opening of The Q Inn, a boutique hotel at 1141 Main Street. Did you know Main Street used to be Highway 1 before realigned for today’s coastal travel? One of the reasons the Solus are back in the hotel ownership business is The Q Inn will now be a forever remembrance of Morro Bay’s military heritage. During this November’s Day of Remembrance, I tip my hat to appreciate the ownership team, Joan, John and their son, Orion Solu, who manages The Q, for their forethought and diligence to reimagine and preserve one of the five remaining WWII Quonset Huts.
On a personnel note, my husband and I missed the opening celebration. We were on vacation in Savanna, GA viewing another treasured remembrance of days-gone-past. The JW Marriott Savanna Plant Riverside District was once an active powerplant much like our Morro Bay power plant. And just as The Q Inn was built to remember Morro Bay’s historic WWII past, the Savanna powerplant was repurposed in 2020 as a visitor-serving luxury hotel and museum on its popular waterfront.
If you ever receive an invitation to a special event or open house at The Q Inn, trust me, drop everything to attend. It is well worth your time. Like most Morro Bay residents and frequent visitors, we drove by for two years wondering how in the world Team-Solu could possibly recreate modern-day comfort for Estero Bay visitors inside this repurposed 4,000-sf WWII Quonset Hut. Since the 1930-40s it had survived various uses, including the antique furniture store where we bought our dining room set when we first moved to Morro Bay twenty-five years ago.
Allow me to share comments by a 30-40-something guest Joan helped while she was touring me through The Q Inn recently. I asked how he had heard about The Q Inn. “Online,” he said. “I liked the pictures, but it is even better than I could have imagined. I love learning its history.”
Bingo! That was exactly Joan’s purpose for talking her husband into repurposing this WWII-era Quonset Hut. For over twenty-five years Joan said she had envisioned a ‘top brass’ décor inside this battered building. “My goal was to maintain the integrity of the building while going beyond our visitors’ expectations. I also wanted to share Morro Bay’s WWII story in order to preserve our community’s historic past.”
Morro Bay was once a training base where 45,000 troops came to live, play and train for combat before their overseas deployment. Several of those trainees have already visited The Q Inn. We might even be just learning what was really happening in Morro Bay during that time – in our downtown, waterfront or on the sandspit – even lurking in the Pacific barely beyond our shores.
“The Q is part of Morro Bay’s unique culture,” Joan said. “We wanted to preserve one of the last remnants of this era and share it with future generations, residents and visitors. I always knew the promise this Quonset Hut held for visiting guests. I wanted it to preserve and reveal more about Morro Bay’s historic roots for those who lived here and those visiting.”
John was not always so sure. Joan recalled standing with him in what is now the parking area behind The Q Inn. She explained her vision to him. “I’m not getting it,” he said. So, they called in John’s building partner, Brian Harvey. Joan explained her vision to both of them again. Brian was silent for a time – often pensive before he would comment. “I get it!” he said. At that moment the challenges of repurposing a Quonset Hut that was once the Recreation Building for the WWII Amphibious Training Base in Morro Bay began to take shape to become The Q Inn.
Joan shared a few of the structural challenges John and Brian faced that my non-contractor brain might understand. They solved how to maintain the exterior curved steel arch beams; tear open and then right-size the walls to install insulation to code; core down and into an 8-foot slab to cut channels to plumb the ten rooms; manipulate the exterior corrugated metal skin; and in order to keep the original flooring, they had to figure out how to create a wow-factor visitors would instantly see when entering the lone hallway connecting the rooms sporting keyless entries.
Today’s high-gloss flooring was once an over-used cement slab that demands one to pause at the entrance lobby to eye its colorful reflections. Then as one looks upwards, they see the beauty and function of its domed ceiling with exposed rafters accented by large, dropped ceiling fans which control the Inn’s interior atmospheric changes.
According to John, Joan’s task was two-fold: driving her family crew to perfect and produce her 25-year vision while she discovered and implemented the upscale décor. Joan discovered the Q’s original lighting fixtures sourced from the creator of the original Quonset Huts. It is still in business in New England. Joan’s color pallet modernized military greens with rich burgundy. Each room and bathroom has amenities expected by today’s savvy traveler. Each of the ten rooms has an outdoor private patio with a firepit. World War II training photographs provide historical enrichment gallery-style. Guests receive a copy of former Morro Bay resident and author Joe Dunlap’s book, “When Morro Bay Went to War” to take home or share.
Joan offered kudos to John O’Brian for creating their unique logo and Ian Gaffney for doing the Q’s landscaping. Joan smiled while showing me the front entry décor, “The White Roses are so 1940s.”
Each room has a guest diary to share comments and document where they live. We read a few sharing similar comments as the guest I mentioned earlier in this column. They offer kudos for its interesting history and beautifully appointed and repurposed use. Joan remarked guests have traveled from all over Europe, Mexico City plus many Americans, including WWII Veterans.
I can’t help but offer my kudos to Team-Solu for saving this building and offer additional thanks for their many years of service in Morro Bay organizations like the Historical Society, Rotary Club, and Chamber of Commerce. It was while leading the former Morro Bay Harbor Festival that John and Joan recognized the value of supporting a future Morro Bay Maritime Museum. After one of its last year’s, the proceeds were donated for MBMM’s future operations. They also helped create and develop what is now known as Visit Morro Bay, which has been a boon to tourism outreach by funding many nonprofits that produce events annually.
Note: The Q Inn isn’t the Solus first rodeo fine tuning and operating Morro Bay visitor serving properties. The properties they have owned, operated and sold to new investors in Morro Bay’s tourism marketplace are The Villager renamed Coastal Breeze, Days Inn renamed Harbor House Inn, The Sandpiper renamed Beach Bungalows, Pleasant Inn, and The Embarcadero Inn renamed 456 Embarcadero.
