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Howard
Johnson's Landmark: May/June 1972, page 2 |
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Wayland,
Massachusetts -- 55
Boston Post Rd (Rt 20) |
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Howard
D. Johnson acquired the Wayland Red Coach Grill Restaurant in the
middle 1930s and created a chain of upscale luxury dining facilities
based on its pre-Revolutionary American post house theme. Similar
to an English tavern, the circa 1934 restaurant featured a red-shingled
roof and log siding exterior. Inside, patrons were treated to two
massive fieldstone fireplaces and accurate reproduction Colonial
fixtures and furnishings. Select cuts of meat, lobster, seafoods,
and other choice entrees as well as fine wines were offered on the
menu.
Nearly
completely destroyed by fire in January of 1976, the Howard Johnson
Company rebuilt Wayland to rave reviews when it reopened on April
4, 1972. A fixture in Wayland, the Red Coach had become The
Coach Grill by 2005. |
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Above:
Hostess
Ester Folks, waitresses Georgiana Sullivan and Lorraine Bassette
go back to work in the rebuilt Red Coach. |
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Postcard
circa 1960s: Courtesy of Dan Donahue |
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American
Restaurant Magazine: September, 1957, page 98 |
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Boston,
Massachusetts --
43 Stanhope
St |
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Believed
to be the Red Coach on Stanhope Street in Boston or perhaps the
Coach in Framingham, the photograph above shows Red Coach management
and WBZ radio employees posing in front of a horse drawn coach
which was the logo for the chain. The station ran programs which
were sponsored by Red Coach Grills, and featured "an audio
identity of a special horse-and-carriage and trumpet sound effect
introducing all spot announcements and a weekly program..."
The advertising was said to have increased business volume for
the chain. |
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Saugus,
Massachusetts -- Newburyport
Tpke |
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Howard
Johnson's Annual Report: 1961, page 10 |
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Middleboro,
Massachusetts -- Rts
44 & 18 (Rotary Circle) |
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Built
near a busy traffic circle or rotary as they are fondly called
in Massachusetts, the Middleboro Coach was near the Middleboro
Howard Johnson's Restaurant. Rebuilt and reopened in 1961, the
original building suffered a fire. Initially the Restaurant featured
a Talley Ho Lounge, but later the Company converted it into the
Lightfoot's Discotheque concept which had been successfully tested
at the Braintree
Red Coach.
After
Imperial Group Ltd. (then the Howard Johnson Company's parent)
pulled the plug on the Red Coach Grill chain in the early 1980s,
many of the locations like Middleboro became El Torito's. After
a decade serving Mexican fare, the former Red Coach was converted
into the Fireside
Grille.
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Photograph
February 2007: Courtesy of Gary Keith |
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Hyannis,
Massachusetts -- 545
Iyannough Rd (Airport Rotary) |
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One
of the older locations, Hyannis may have originally been the site,
or at least near the site of an early Howard Johnson's stand. By
the 2000s the building's exterior remained remarkably intact even
as it had been radically remodeled to house a Chili's. |
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Photographs
circa 1970s & 2000s: Courtesy of Dan Donahue |
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