Dunn, North Carolina

The entrepreneur and visionary Thomas Pearsall referred to the route of Interstate 95 through North Carolina as "a real pipeline of gold." He correctly foresaw that the highway would become the primary conduit of north-south traffic through his Tar Heel State, and recognized the potential it represented for businessman in the hospitality industry. Pearsall's vision had earlier led him to become an oil distributor and an early Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge operator. In fact, his Rocky Mount HoJo's Motor Lodge was among the first in the chain to have been opened. Thus in the early 1960s as I-95 was being built, fellow oil distributors, the Fitchetts, endeavored to enter the hospitality industry in order to capture some of the highway gold that Pearsall spoke of--and the Fitchett family naturally turned to him for guidance.

The wedge of property where Dunn's HoJo's was built was initially purchased by the Fitchetts in 1956 with the intention of having it serve as a truck stop. However that plan never came to fruition, and Carl E. Fitchett, Jr. whose wife's uncle had interest in both the Greensboro and Danville Howard Johnson's Restaurants teamed up with Mr. Pearsall to develop the site into a showpiece Howard Johnson's complex! Initially an all ground level 36 room Motor Lodge, its opening was the talk of the town. No fewer than 500 invited guests and dignitaries inspected the ultra-modern facility in the summer of 1961 just as it was readied for business.