Although the Gate Lodge had been squared off in the middle 1990s, it had miraculously managed to keep its Orange Roof.

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Below: The view inside the Gate Lodge was looking south. Although impossible to discern in the low resolution image, just behind the plant on the right was the Restaurant's parking lot, and on the left through the window below the lamp is a portion of the Landmark Motor Lodge's sign and Ranch Gate Lodge copycat.

Alas nothing stays the same...
In February of 2004 the Vero Beach Motor Lodge changed hands. Having been owned by Janis Barnhill and her parents and aunt and uncle before her for forty years, immigrants from India came to own one of the last original Howard Johnson's in all of Florida. Even as the Gate Lodge continued to be clad in its Orange Porcelain Enamel Roof Tiles, every last natural brick on its exterior was stuccoed over. Worse, damage caused by a hurricane was the impetus to utterly alter the character of the guest buildings. Again no natural brick was left showing, and a monstrously out-of-proportion "roof" was added to both buildings (at least the one on the exterior entry building behind the Gate Lodge is tolerable).