Postcard circa 1960s: Kummerlowe Archive
 
Photos May 2006: Phil Edwards
Rockford, Illinois
 -- 3909 Eleventh Street
 
Built with an included but detached Restaurant, the Rockford complex was opened in 1963. The facility was built in Howard Johnson's most classic design, and originally featured an outdoor swimming pool.

 
Left: Note the Howard Johnson Hotel sign included parts of signs from different eras. The "indoor pool" and reader board dates from the 1970s, while the "Rounded Edge" part was added in about 1986--and the current logo was installed after 1996.
 
 
 
Photographs July 2005: Bob Venditti
 
While the more than forty-year-old Motor Lodge amazingly retained its famous Howard Johnson name and the underpinnings of what made a HoJo's superior to other hospitality concerns, the location had been remade into an edifice of garishness by 2005! Bob Venditti commented that its lobby looked like the "Gate Lodge From Another Planet." He also noted that the Motor Lodge's exterior had been painted in an unfortunate combination of colors--"Circus Peanut Orange and Cendant Blue."
 
 
 
Photographs May 2006: Phil Edwards
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Restaurant lost its dairy counter in the late 1970s or early '80s when the Company removed it to increase dining room space. Generally, sit-down dining resulted in higher profits so many locations were remodeled without the Counters and received a bay window across the front. At some point Rockford's Restaurant became attached to the Motor Lodge after convention rooms were added.
 
 
 
Photographs July 2005: Bob Venditti
 
 
 
 
Photographs May 2006: Phil Edwards
 
Below & Higher: A hint of the original "Arizona Cactus Stone" facade remained on one side of the Restaurant.
 
 
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