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Photographs May 20, 2001
 
Buffalo-Thruway, New York -- 6700 Transit Rd
 
The Thruway Motor Lodge and Restaurant was the second Howard Johnson's to have been located near Buffalo's airport. Sited immediately along I-90, the Thruway Howard Johnson's complemented an older Motor Lodge/Restaurant complex that was directly across from the airport. The Thruway 80 room two-story classically configured Motor Lodge opened in 1970 and remained a HoJo's until about 1993.
 
 
 
 
 
Aerial images © Microsoft Corp
 
 
 

Above: Converted after 1993 into a Holiday Inn Express, the site's signature A-Frame Gate Lodge was demolished and replaced with an indoor swimming pool and exercise area. After the Gate Lodge was razed, the Restaurant was converted into the property's lobby.

Below: By the middle 2000s, the former Motor Lodge was converted yet again. Hoisting the Clarion flag, the Restaurant turned lobby's roof was painted white and the blue Holiday Inn Express color was largely banished from the site.
 
 
 
 
 
Photographs December 2006: Courtesy of Steven LJ Russo
 
 
 
 

Completely remade into a lobby/reception area, the former Restaurant's exterior was disguised with a facade in an attempt to conceal its HoJo heritage.

Note that the original orange roof tiles that had been painted first blue then white, were "bleeding" through the multiple layers of paint.
 
 
 
 
Left: Steven LJ Russo discovered that the freezer hatch was still in place on the back side of the disguised former Restaurant.
 
 
 
 
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