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Clipping Kenneth Kummerlowe: The Warrenton Journal February 22, 2001. A7
 
 
Photos 2003: Phil Edwards

Having slipped many notches in quality and service after its owner, James Butler, died in 1998 the Restaurant was allowed to linger on until March of 2001 as a Howard Johnson's. Then his widow decided to make a "fresh start."

However what was old did not magically become fresh or new. The restaurant's interior was in sad shape, but was not spruced up. Rather the exterior which was nearly perfect (HoJo wise) was utterly defiled with its new drab color scheme.

Left: An incomplete picture--no Simple Simon and the Pieman, chopped off Spire, and drab green roof.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Photos August 2002: Kummerlowe Archive
 
 
 
 
Photos ca. 2005: Phil Edwards

By the middle 2000s Front Royal's Porcelain Enamel Tiles were removed as were the original exterior lights.

Having become a significant local landmark, the Front Royal Howard Johnson's Restaurant served as a meeting place for scores of people over its more than forty years of operation--then lived on in diminished form for nearly another ten years as Jimbo's. During the first quarter of 2010 the fifty plus year-old restaurant was demolished without a trace.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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