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Palm Beach,
Florida
2870 S County Rd-A1A |
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One of the original Motor
Lodges, Palm Beach was the first to have been opened in Florida.
Usually listed as 006 in directories, the Lodge began serving
guests with its 37 rooms in about 1956. Since it was so early,
it was opened before the Howard Johnson Company had settled on
a standardized design for the Motor Lodges. Nonetheless, Palm
Beach's owners added Orange porcelain enamel Roof tiles and a
weather vane to make the property recognizable to motorists as
being a HoJo's!
Since there were no "motel"
chains to speak of in 1956 (no, not even Holiday Inn can count
yet), Howard Johnson's allowed its operators to list their properties
in Superior Motel directories allowing potential patrons to book
rooms through its reservations system. The affiliation provided
needed additional exposure to the fledgling lodging chain. However
within a couple of years the relationship with Superior was ended
and the Motor Lodges easily stood on their own.
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Note the use of
the Simple Simon and the Pieman weather vane on the cupola above
the office. Since Plam Beach was among the first to open, the
Lamplighter logo had not yet been devised! |
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If you go back and look
at the first view on this page notice that the Restaurant was
across A1A from the Motor Lodge. The small 37 room property lasted
until about 1972 when it was replaced with a very modern standardized
"resort" Motor Lodge that was built next to the Restaurant.
Thus the Lodge was "moved" across the street to its
new address, 2875 S County Rd-AIA |
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Photograph February,
2004 |
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