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| Trapezoid
in Neon |
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| Springfield,
MO |
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8mm film 1965:
Kummerlowe Archive |
Suggested
by Dan D. that the HoJo's depicted in the film clip
is Springfield, Missouri, an aerial examination revealed
that it must be! Moreover Springfield's Trapezoid
with its unique design exactly matches the one that
had been at the Springfield site.
Note
the Holiday Inn Great Sign in the background.
Speaking
of Holiday Inn, click 'here'
to view a couple of recently posted pages showing
a sample of that once great chain.
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| An
Arch Too Far |
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| Canton,
Massachusetts --
Photo March 25, 2001: Kummerlowe Archive |
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Twice
a prototype, the Canton Restaurant was acquired by
Franchise Associates Incorporated (FAI) in the late
1980s and served as their showpiece HoJo's. Having
met an ignominious fate, Canton was quietly closed
and sold by 2000.
Be
sure to check out A
Postcard from Canton
in the Canton History Blogspot. The blog's author
has posted a film clip showing the Canton Howard Johnson's
and several of its patrons and employees during the
Restaurant's prime just prior to WWII.
Special
thanks to Geo. C. for sharing his thoughts and the
film!
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| Carolinas
on the Mind |
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Built
in Howard Johnson's most classic and fully realized
modern style, the Manning property was opened in the
late 1960s at I-95's interchange with U.S. 301. A classic
Ramada Inn, Days Inn, and even a vintage Holiday Inn
came to occupy sites near the HoJos complex and the
area enjoyed a period of prosperity that lasted several
years. Eventually new development at other nearby interchanges
attracted most of the site's potential patrons resulting
in closure of all of its classic branded hospitality
offerings. The Howard Johnson's somehow lingered into
the late 1980s and remained incredibly intact as a no-name
motel until the middle 2000s. Likely no longer quite
the time capsule of HoJo's past, Robby discovered during
his November 2008 trip down I-95 that it had changed
hands and the Gate Lodge's Orange Roof had been painted
white.
Please
note that the Manning pages have not been updated and
contain a few broken image links--eventually I will
be able to correct the links and update the pages--thanks
for your continued patience, Rich. |
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Above:
A Mansard Manor, Gold Rock's circa 1979 Howard Johnson's
yet maintains its name and Orange Mansard! It has also
been called Rocky Mount and is now referred to as Battleboro.
Gold
Rock's section was last updated on November 9, 2008
with 2006 photos and a couple of vintage early shots
by Bob Venditti.
Below:
Also known as Cayce, the Columbia-West, South Carolina
Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge was added to a circa 1953
Restaurant in the early 1960s. The Motor Lodge continued
to be a HoJo's until the middle 1980s and endured a
steady but slow decline which lasted until its ultimate
closure during 2005. The long-lasting Landmark's erasure
will have been completed by mid-December of 2008. A
CVS is scheduled to replace it.
Thanks
to Tom E. for his timely alert about Cayce's final fate. |
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| A
HoJo-a-GoGo |
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| Hartford-Windsor
Locks, CT --
Photo Sept. 4, 2006: Kummerlowe Archive |
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Located
near Bradley
International Airport
along I-91, the Windsor Locks Howard Johnson's Motor
Lodge complex featured both a Red Coach Grill and
traditional albeit small Howard Johnson's Restaurant.
The property's facade was an unusual mansard design
set off by two orange roofed pagoda-like structures.
Its original developers had high hopes for the large
full-service property, but its site was less than
perfect never allowing the complex to reach its fully
planned potential. Nonetheless the Motor Lodge retained
the Howard Johnson's name from early 1974 until about
the end of 1991.
Unbranded,
Windsor Locks lingered on until May of 2004 when the
property was purchased by Sharok Jacobi and Jaklin
Mecanik. The new owners spent over $5.5 million dollars
renovating the site and rebranded it as a Howard Johnson.
However the property's new lease on life as a HoJo
was brief, for by 2008 it had become unbranded yet
again. Known as the Beverly Hills Suites, the site
had sunk to new lows by the end of 2008. The former
Motor Lodge was turned into a refuge for swingers.
An undercover police operation in November of 2008
resulted in several arrests including that of Sharok
Jacobi. According to an article in the Journal
Inquirer ,
"an arrest affidavit said liquor-law violations
found at the hotel's Club 91 included smoking inside
a public building, nudity, sex acts, not serving food,
and improper use of a service bar." Moreover
the affidavit indicated "that swingers' groups
had been renting out the Beverly Hills Suites on weekends
[prior to the sting] for the past several months."
Thanks
to Dan Doanhue for keeping us up-to-date about Windsor
Locks
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| Perry:
re-View |
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| Perry,
Florida --
Photo December 16, 2008: Kummerlowe Archive |
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Below & Above: Even as late as 1989 the
many intact and well maintained vestiges of the Orange
Roofed chain continued to highlight the roadscape lulling
HoJo's fans into complacency.
By
late 2008, the property was still recognizable, but
had seen much stucco and many other alterations including
an oversized "carport" for the Patels. |
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| Photo
May 1989: Bob Venditti |
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| HoJo's
in the 60's: High Style! |
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| New
Castle, DE--
Ektachrome July 1964: Kummerlowe Archive |
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Above:
The New Castle Restaurant and Motor Lodge complex was
among the first group of standardized Howard Johnson's
properties, and was officially designated as the 28th
Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge when it opened in 1958.
An important and exceptionally visible link in the chain,
New Castle with its "squat" prototype A-frame
Gate Lodge and unusual open gabled Nims-type Restaurant
was built just south (west) of the Delaware
Memorial Bridge
(note the bridge's single span configuration in the
photo above seen between the Gate Lodge and guest building--the
second span was not completed until the latter 1960s).
Most
of the New Castle complex was demolished: however its
Gate Lodge and Restaurant were reused as parts of Mike's
Famous Harley Davidson
and might yet stand.
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Below:
Opened in 1964, the Newark complex was built in Howard
Johnson's fully realized standardized style, yet it
featured an unusual guest building arrangement due to
the site's terrain. Often Howard Johnson's served as
vacation get-a-ways for middle Americans during the
booming post war era. Seen below, Mr. Donahue took full
advantage of the Orange Roof's many ultramodern amenities.
He, his wife, and their brood ventured on many road
trips to enjoy HoJo's over the years! (Remember diving
boards at motel pools? And how bout that black model
500 standard Bell System dial phone out by the pool
for the convenience of Howard Johnson's guests! And
see the copycat Yellow roof of Horne's
which was just across the street from the Newark HJ!)
Note
that the Newark Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge was by
late 2008 one of the last original Howard Johnson's
Motor Lodges still listed as such. |
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| Darien
Demolished |
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| Dairen,
CT --
Photo 2003: Bob Venditti |
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While
Darien's Restaurant closed in 2000, its Motor Lodge
lingered on until nearly the end of 2008. Plans published
in 2006 announced that the classic 1962 Howard Johnson's
would be demolished and a retail center anchored by
a Whole Foods Market was to be established in its place.
Delayed by land use and ownership issues, the redevelopment
was put on hold providing a brief reprieve to the site.
Alas not even the "global financial meltdown"
could save the 46 year old HoJo's, for its total elimination
will have been completed by the beginning of December,
2008. |
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Owned
by the Darien
Hospitality Group ,
the Darien Motor Lodge was one of the last original
HJ's in all of New England. Moreover it was the second
last of the several hundred built to continue to feature
a signature A-frame Gate Lodge topped with a space age
tower-style cupola and Lamplighter weathervane (the
last Howard Johnson's with a cupola topped Gate Lodge
complete with Lamplighter is Harrisburg--assuming
that it yet remains). |
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Above:
Even in its circa 1990s squared off state, the A-frame
Gate Lodge still boasted a gleaming Orange Roof and
towering cupola topped with The Lamplighter. Thank
you Scott C. for letting us know that Darien is lost. |
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| The
goal is to serve the hospitality needs of travelers with hotel and
restaurant descriptions focusing on Howard Johnson's. |
| Google
Bans ORANGEROOF
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Are
you tired of seeing so many online Advertisements...
This site had set up an agreement with Google's adsense division
to provide relevant content ads for viewers to click. You
see, Google charges advertisers and then offers webmasters
a small cut if they allow the advertisements to be displayed
on their sites. The set up pretends to be a way for the little
guy to make a few pennies in order to offset the costs associated
with providing websites like this one. But the whole scheme
is simply too good to be true, and after a couple of months
Google abruptly canceled this site's account seizing the $38
which had accrued. Meanwhile Google reported excellent financials
for the first quarter of 2008 with its stock price soaring
on the news (BTW, Google's two founders celebrated a one hour
increase in their wealth to the tune of $2.2 billion
each as a result). Hmm. So Google gets little guys to display
ads, cancels them, takes the money, and then posts a big profit.
How long before somebody catches on--I wonder? Below is a
copy of the short email Google sent: |
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While
going through our records recently, we found that your
AdSense account has posed a significant risk to our
AdWords advertisers. Since keeping your account in our
publisher network may financially damage our advertisers
in the future, we've decided to disable your account.
Please
understand that we consider this a necessary step to
protect the interests of both our advertisers and our
other AdSense publishers. We realize the inconvenience
this may cause you, and we thank you in advance for
your understanding and cooperation.
Sincerely,
The
Google AdSense Team |
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You
can Cancel Google... Well not really, but
there are a couple of things that you can do. First change
to another search engine like Yahoo! or MSN. Second and better,
switch to Firefox
and BLOCK Google's ads with AdBlock
Plus or
some other add-on
that might be available. This site was NEVER any kind of risk
or threat to Google or its advertisers and made every effort
to follow Google's rules. Nonetheless, even without the small
amount of revenue that was anticipated from Google to financially
support this site, it will remain online in one form or another.
Thanks for everyone's comments and encouragement! Rich
Firefox
AdBlock
Plus |
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| Site
remains largely dormant |
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11/15/2008:
Sadly, production of Howard Johnson's Toastees ceased some
six months ago. No doubt the miniscule royalties realized
by Mr. Kushner from his contract with the now defunct America's
Kitchen were all that sustained his "LaMancha Group."
Save for the now non-standard and virtually independent Lakes
Placid
and George,
as well as the de-oranged Bangor
restaurant little is left, for Toastees limited availability
in Publix
stores as well as in various supermarkets in the Northeast
United States represented the last tangible evidence of the
once largest and greatest hospitality chain on the planet.
Please
note that this site and its affiliated sections will be mostly
dormant until further notice. Due to personal circumstances
your webmaster and Howard Johnson's enthusiast has moved half-way
across the country and must focus on continued employment.
There will regrettably be little or no free time in which
to update this site. However it will remain online and available--and
of course--free of charge:) Thank you for your continued support
and interest! Richard Kummerlowe |
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| Hard
to Believe but |
| ONLY
Three Howard Johnson's Restaurants Remain: |
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At
the onset of my endeavor/adventure to document Howard
Johnson's in 1998, I never could have imagined that
I was witness to the end of an era. It is difficult
to believe that an institution so ingrained in our culture
could vanish almost without a trace. For it would seem
that with each passing day another HoJo's is closed
and demolished. Not that long ago Howard Johnson's was
the largest hospitality chain in the world. But now
this once ubiquitous roadside landmark fades from America's
rear-view mirror, and as we speed off into the uncharted
future fewer and fewer orange roofed Restaurants and
Motor Lodges remain to serve the hungry and sleepy motoring
public.
This
site commemorates the Roadside Empire created by Howard
D. Johnson, and chronicles with photographs and commentary
the story of a once vast organization and its legacy
to the American roadscape, and to the hospitality industry.
Please browse and enjoy the photographs, and I hope
that they rekindle many memories. |
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"Howard
Johnson's -- An American way of life -- convenience, comfort
and hospitality for the entire family, at home and away from
home." |
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