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| Brochure
circa 1980s: Courtesy of Dan Donahue |
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Deerfield
Beach, Florida --
2096 N E Second St |
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While
it featured as many as 180 standardized guest rooms, Deerfield Beach
was less a Motor Lodge and more like a full-service resort hotel.
The high-rise facility opened in the fall of 1971, and was one of
several hotel-like HoJo's that were opened along Florida's east
coast during the time period.
The
Deerfield Beach location was required to, and did offer traditional
Howard Johnson's food. However it did not have a separate Orange
Roof Restaurant, rather it featured a themed dining concept called
The Elizabethan, and a limited service
HoJo's Ice Cream Parlor. It was in the parlor where patrons could
order standard HoJo's fare. Its Ice Cream Parlor was the LAST
original such facility in existence -- it was located in the building
seen below in the section that was fronted with the White Porcelain
Enamel Roof Tile Mansard. Incredibly the Ice Cream Parlor was still
intact as recently as 2001. |
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| Rendering
circa 2004 |
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Among
only a few of the remaining original Howard Johnson's to retain
its identity in the Sunshine State, Deerfield
Beach received a stuccofication in the middle 2000s. Furthermore,
battling city officials, its owners wanted to build an outdoor
restaurant at the hotel and to add parking on a plot of ground
that was slated to be used for road improvements. As of March
2004, the Howard Johnson's had not gotten its way. |
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| DeerfieldBeach |
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| Howard
Johnson's Landmark: March 1972, page 1 |
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Good
day, M'Lords, M'Ladies . . .
Hostess Judy Jenks, serving wench Andrea Osness and vassal
Hank Hodde take their guests back to 16th century England
for a memorable and distinctive dining experience. |
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Uniforms
are period costumes . . .
The hostess wears a ruffed blouse with Elizabethan sleeves
and a deep red skirt of heavy brocade. Our volumptuous serving
wenches appear in white bonnets and green laced weskits
over homespun blouses and full skirts. The vassals are costumed
in Tom Jones laced shirts, long leather vests and knickers. |
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The
Elizabethan, New Dining Concept, Debuts in Florida
Opened December 18, 1971, the concept was described as a specialty
dining room and as an innovation for the Howard Johnson Company.
Perhaps taking a cue from Disney and other fantasies de jour,
Howard Johnson's determined that its guests should have "total
experience dining." That is to say that the guest was immersed
or "transported by decor, music, menu, food, language, and
service to England, the late 1500s and the Tudor period."
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The
decor . . .
The atmosphere of the Elizabethan in one of massiveness
with heavy, dark furniture, deep walnut paneled walls and
period pictures in large wooden frames. Enormous iron chandeliers
dominate the room. The heavy pewterware, pottery-like casseroles,
reddish-purple crystal and large pieces of silverware were
specially selected to create the Elizabethan feeling for
HJ's guests. |
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An
elaborate and very expensive affair, the concept was planned for
Miami-North and Lake Buena Vista Motor Lodges. However the idea
utterly failed and the only one opened, Deerfield Beach, was converted
into a Red Coach Grill by 1973. It is too bad that Howard Johnson
Company leadership never caught on to the folly of the various
concept schemes that were concocted over the years. If only they
had focused resources on core concepts, Howard Johnson's Restaurants
and Motor Lodges, the Company might still be around today. |
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