Photographs August 2002: Courtesy of Bob Venditti
 
 
Terraserver image 1999
Miami-Airport, Florida
-- 1980 LeJeune Rd
 

An airport location, but in Motor Lodge configuration, Miami-Airport opened in 1966 convenient to the main highway entrance to Miami International Airport. Nestled in an area that offered several lodging options for travelers, the Howard Johnson's only featured 64 guest rooms.

The Motor Lodge operated as a Howard Johnson's for almost thirty years. In the middle 1990s it lost the HJ designation and became the unbranded Paramount Motel. Subsequently its Restaurant was converted into some sort of car rental facility.
 
 
 
 
 
 

By Bob's brief 2002 stop at Miami-Airport, the countdown to final demolition had already begun. A 2004 satellite view (not shown) indicated that the area along LeJuene Road where the Howard Johnson's and several other lodging facilities had been sited had become just so much scarred earth.

Note the unusual guest building elevation in the photo seen below. Faced with a "Flinstone" looking facade, the side of the guest building faced LeJeune between the Gate Lodge and Restaurant. Perhaps sited on a slight slope it presented the illusion of a story-and-a-half, rather than its full two-stories!