Uniontown

Postcard circa 1950s

Connellsville Daily : 5-22-1971

Uniontown, Pennsylvania
AKA Hopwood

-- U.S. 40 East

Although the Uniontown Restaurant was listed in Howard Johnson's 1954 directory/map as an open location, the local newspaper, the Herald Standard, reported in a January 2, 1994 article that it opened on February 15, 1955. The paper claimed that the restaurant was first owned by Robert Rex.

Once a prime spot to capture travelers on the National Road, the Restaurant was adjacent to the Uniontown Motel which boasted of having 32 units with tile baths, hot water heat, optional air conditioning and television, Simmons furniture with Beautyrest mattresses, playground, and telephones in every room -- It was a simpler time!

SCA News: spring 1994 p. 4 (uncredited image circa 1993)

Photos by Len Davidson?

The sign's design was the standard used for only about five years during the early 1950s prior to the creation of the Lamplighter logo used by the Motor Lodges. Uniontown's was the last known to exist.

Respected neon sign expert Len Davidson rescued and restored one side of the Simple Simon and the Pieman sign topper. The sign was an early "planter" Trapezoid and featured a lamp along with the SSPM figural.

Postcard circa 1950s (detail)

Photograph 2005: Courtesy of Bob Venditti

A beautiful HoJo's turned Hideous ... The Restaurant was purchased by Ceta Group Limited in 1988, and was closed in December of 1993 when its license with Franchise Associates Incorporated expired. Ceta offered the site for sale, complete with its HoJo's fixtures, but had no takers for the Restaurant. Instead the pristine Howard Johnson's time capsule--highlighted by a vintage phone booth topped with an orange roof--was dismantled and mutilated into a woman's health clinic.

Photographs courtesy of Phil Edwards

Photographs 2005: Courtesy of Bob Venditti