| Postcards 1950s & 1960s: Above--Crayon Graveur by W. Walter Bowers |
Allendale,
South Carolina --
N Main St (U.S. 301) |
Located at a crossroads and along the important north-south route of U.S. 301, Allendale once boasted a prosperous commercial strip of gas stations, restaurants, and lodging facilities. During the boom years of Howard Johnson Restaurant expansion in the early 1950s, a stand-alone HoJo's Restaurant opened on the north side of Allendale in 1953. The Deep South became a key market for the Orange Roof, for travelers from the Northeast headed to the Sunshine State and other points became frequent customers of the many Howard Johnson's facilities that sprang up along the highways in the region. The need for reliable lodging provided by chain operators was readily apparent to most motorists by the middle 1950s when the Howard Johnson Company licensed its first Motor Lodge in Savannah, Georgia. The initial demand for the new Motor Lodge concept far outstripped the Company's ability to licence new units, and it accepted conversions of existing motels during the early years. |
The
Allendale Motor Lodge opened in about 1957 -- the first in the
Palmetto State, and was among the first group of Howard Johnson's
Lodges to have been in operation. Although its Ranch-style looking
lobby sported an Orange Roof and weather vane topped cupola, there
was little else standard about the location. Like other early
Motor Lodges, it was probably a conversion of an existing motel
that happened to be adjacent to the Restaurant. Moreover, rather
than having been based on any "corporate" model of lodging
operations, Allendale was more like a "Mom & Pop"
motel of a prior era with the husband and wife team of Mr. and
Mrs. W. L. Wallace as managers. Predating Howard Johnson's proliferation
of Motor Lodges, it was also like the other early Lodges in that
it was a member of the then larger Superior Motel referral chain.
|
| Photograph October 2002: Courtesy of Phil Edwards |
| Postcard circa 1960s (detail) |