Built at what might be called the eastern gateway to St Louis where I-70, I-55, U.S. 40, and the famed Route 66 meet, the Collinsville Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge and Restaurant complex was opened in the winter of 1964. Moreover the area where it had been sited became a mini-mecca of hospitality offerings.

According to local sources Colinsville's Howard Johnson's Restaurant was the last operating Orange Roofed eatery in the Land O' Lincoln. Incredibly it maintained its form until 2003 when it last functioned as a nightclub called Snifers. Note the decorative "Arizona Cactus" stone treatment and the "Collinsville, Illinois" name banner to the right of the primary entryway!

In its final days the former Host of the Highways Orange Roofed Howard Johnson's Restaurant was mired in controversy after the property was purchased by Jerry Brink owner of BZ Enterprises, for he determined to convert the long-time most wholesome of wholesome family oriented establishments into an adult XXX emporium called Rodao Drive. Having purchased the site in 2001, Brink endeavored to recycle the property rendering it unrecognizable. Meanwhile local authorities thwarted his futile efforts leading him to admit defeat by November 2003. Then a fire on January 26, 2005 which was determined to have been arson sealed the site's ultimate fate.

Perhaps as suspicious as the fire, a year earlier Collinsville's City Council decreed to grant a $19 million taxpayer funded incentive package to Missouri based Koman properties which had proposed to re-develop the already long developed 53 acre site where the Howard Johnson's had been located along with several other businesses as well as a mobile home park with dozens of residents who would be rendered homeless into a $70 million plus big box retail project called Collinsville Crossings anchored by a Walgreens, Walmart Supercenter, and an outlet of The Home Depot. After a brief delay by the developer, the Belleville News-Democrate reported that the former Howard Johnson's complex as well as all other obstacles had been completely leveled by the end of 2005 or early 2006--thus Collinsville's example of "America's Landmark" stood for more than forty years. By the end of the first decade of the 21st century no trace of it or any of its adjacent classic mid 20th century hospitality offerings remained.

Above: In recognizable form, the Collinsville former HoJo's Restaurant advertised itself with its 1960s "Collinsville name banner" even as it had ceased being a Howard Johnson's probably during the 1980s!

Below: Remodeled and unrecognizable, the former Restaurant did not win approval to be redeveloped as a XXX adult emporium and then suffered a terminal fire determined to have been arson prior to its demolition and subsequent redevelopment as part of the Collinsville Crossing's parking lot.