Photograph circa 1930s
 
Dedham, Massachusetts -- Rts. 1 & 128
 

 
 
 
Matchbook circa 1940s

Very early in the Company's history a Howard Johnson's was operating in the Dedham area. The first photograph on this page is identified as "Dedham" and dates from the 1930s, but it might have been a different structure than the one that is shown on the later matchbook cover which dates from the early 1940s.

According to a Howard Johnson's Scoop, Dedham received minor renovations in 1949, but no exterior images were published in the newsletter.

Theatre historian Fred MacLennan worked at the Dedham Howard Johnson's in the early 1960s. He noted that "it was always a strange low cut building." MacLennan said that the restaurant was located on four parcels of land and that it had been owned by a colorful local man named Don Marco. By the 2000s, Joe's American Bar occupied Dedham's site. Note that a Joe's American Bar also came to occupy the site of Connecticut's first HoJo's in Fairfield.
 
 
 
 
 
Postcards circa 1960s
 

Mary Hartigan's Restaurant in Dedham, although it shared certain architectural elements with Howard Johnson's Restaurant buildings, was never a Howard Johnson's. Hartigan's featured a cocktail lounge, music bar, with organ music, and the Fairbanks, Turquoise, and Crystal Rooms.

Fred MacLennan wrote that the building, though much remodeled, still exists on Rt 1-A at I-95 as a Piccadilly Pub Restaurant. He also added that the site originally served as a Dutchland farms location, which helps to explain its resemblance to an early Howard Johnson Restaurant building!