Howard Johnson's

In 1925, Howard Deering Johnson borrowed $2,000 to buy and operate a small corner pharmacy in Wollaston, a neighborhood in Quincy, Massachusetts. Johnson was surprised to find it easy to pay back the money lent to him, after discovering his recently installed soda fountain had become the busiest part of his drugstore. Eager to ensure that his store would remain successful, Johnson decided to devise a new ice cream recipe. Some sources say the recipe was based on his mother's homemade ice creams and desserts,[7][8] while others say that it was from a local German immigrant,[9] who either sold or gave Johnson the ice cream recipe. The new recipe made the ice cream more flavorful due to increased butterfat content. Eventually Johnson created 28 flavors of ice cream. He is quoted as saying, "I thought I had every flavor in the world. That '28' (flavors of ice cream) became my trademark."[10] The baker with the pie image, the symbol representing Howard Johnson's, was sculptured by Charles Pizzano.

Throughout the summers of the late 1920s, Johnson opened concession stands on beachfront property along the coast of Massachusetts. The stands sold soft drinks, hot dogs, and ice cream. Each stand was successful. With his success becoming more noticeable every year, Johnson convinced local bankers to lend him funds to operate a sit-down restaurant. Negotiations were made and, toward the end of the decade, the first Howard Johnson's restaurant opened in Quincy. It featured fried clams, baked beans, chicken pot pies, frankfurters, ice cream, and soft drinks.

The first Howard Johnson's restaurant received a tremendous boost in 1929, owing to an unusual set of circumstances: The mayor of nearby Boston, Malcolm Nichols, banned the production of Eugene O'Neill's play, Strange Interlude in Boston. Rather than fight the mayor, the Theatre Guild moved the production to Quincy. The five-hour play was presented in two parts with a dinner break. The first Howard Johnson's restaurant was near the theater, and hundreds of influential Bostonians flocked to the restaurant. Through word of mouth, more Americans became familiar with the Howard Johnson Company.[11]

Corporate logo of the Howard Johnson Company, circa World War II (1939-1945), showing a depiction of an orange-roofed restaurant, characteristic typeface, and "Simple Simon and the Pieman" logo.

Howard Johnson entered the airline catering market segment.

Most Howard Johnson's restaurants featured a food counter known as a "Dairy Bar" on one wing of the building, such as this Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts unit photographed in 1959.

Howard Johnsons restaurant entrance with emblematic weathervane.

Johnson wanted to expand his company, but the stock market crash of 1929 prevented this. After waiting a few years and maintaining his business, Johnson persuaded an acquaintance in 1932 to open a second Howard Johnson's restaurant in Orleans, Massachusetts. The second restaurant was franchised and not company-owned. This was one of America's first franchising agreements.

By the end of 1936 there were 39 more franchised restaurants, creating a total of 41 Howard Johnson's restaurants. By 1939, there were 107 Howard Johnson's restaurants along American East Coast highways, generating revenues of $10.5 million. In less than 14 years, Johnson directed a franchise network of over 10,000 employees with 170 restaurants, many serving 1.5 million people a year.

Johnson’s success gave him added opportunity to capitalize on getting his name around. When wealthy socialite Dorothy May Kinnicutt Parish (known as Sister Parish) began her decorating business in the 1930s, Johnson hired her to decorate the restaurant he built in Somerville, New Jersey. She told a reporter from The New York Times, “I dressed the waitresses in aqua, did the walls in aqua, I made the placemats in aqua. I guess I must have thought it was quite chic, but I haven’t done a thing in aqua since.” (quoted in A History of Howard Johnson’s by Anthony Mitchell Sammarco).[12]

The unique icons of orange roofs, cupolas, and weather vanes on Howard Johnson properties helped patrons identify the chain's restaurants and motels. The restaurant's trademark Simple Simon and the Pieman logo was created by artist John Alcott in the 1930s.[8]

There were 200 Howard Johnson's restaurants when America entered World War II.

By 1944, only 12 Howard Johnson's restaurants remained in business. The effects of war rationing had crippled the company. Johnson managed to maintain his business by serving commissary food to war workers and U.S. Army recruits. When the Pennsylvania Turnpike (1940), and later the Ohio Turnpike, New Jersey Turnpike and Connecticut Turnpike were built, Johnson bid for and won exclusive rights to serve drivers at service station turnoffs through the turnpike systems.[13]

In the process of recovering from these losses, in 1947 the Howard Johnson Company began construction of 200 new restaurants throughout the American Southeast and Midwest. By 1951, the sales of the Howard Johnson Company totaled $115 million.

HoJo motor lodges used a lamplighter character lighting a lamppost with the Simple Simon character pointing to the light.

By 1954, there were 400 Howard Johnson's restaurants in 32 states, about 10% of which were extremely profitable company-owned turnpike restaurants; the rest were franchises. This was one of the first nationwide restaurant chains.

While many places sold "fried clams", they were whole, which was not universally accepted by the American dining public. Howard Johnson popularized Soffron Brothers Clam Company's fried clam strips, the "foot" of hard-shelled sea clams. They became popular to eat in this fashion throughout the country.[14][15]

In 1954, the company opened the first Howard Johnson's motor lodge in Savannah, Georgia. The company employed architects Rufus Nims and Karl Koch to oversee the design of the rooms and gate lodge. Nims had previously worked with the company, designing restaurants. The restaurant's trademark Simple Simon and the Pieman was now joined by a lamplighter character in the firm's marketing of its motels. According to cultural historians, the chain became synonymous with travel among American motorists and vacationers in part because of Johnson's ubiquitous outdoor advertising displays.[16]

In 1959, Howard Deering Johnson, who had founded and managed the company since 1925, turned control over to his son, then 26-year-old Howard Brennan Johnson. The elder Johnson observed his son's running of the company until his death in 1972 at the age of 75.

Howard Johnson Company went public in 1961; there were 605 restaurants, 265 company-owned and 340 franchised, as well as 88 franchised Howard Johnson's motor lodges in 32 states and The Bahamas.

In 1961, Johnson hired New York chefs Pierre Franey and Jacques Pépin to oversee food development at the company's main commissary in Brockton, Massachusetts. Franey and Pépin developed recipes for the company's signature dishes that could be flash frozen and delivered across the country, guaranteeing a consistent product.

While the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision by the United States Supreme Court in 1954 struck down segregation in public schools, the segregation and maintenance of whites-only public facilities continued in other domains, including the Howard Johnson chain. Segregation in Howard Johnson's restaurants provoked an international crisis in 1957, when a Howard Johnson eatery in Dover, Delaware refused service to Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, the finance minister of Ghana, prompting a public apology from President Dwight D. Eisenhower.[17] The Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, was instrumental in organizing protests and sit-ins at Howard Johnson locations in multiple states.[18]

The city of Durham, North Carolina, became notable as a focus for action against segregated restaurants and hotels, including Howard Johnson's. On 12 August 1962, attorney and civil rights activist Floyd McKissick initiated the first of multiple rallies and demonstrations against segregated establishments in Durham, including the Howard Johnson's restaurant on Chapel Hill Boulevard,[19] culminating in multiple protests on 18–20 May 1963 resulting in mass arrests as well as an eventual rapprochement with the city government. Future senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, while a student at the University of Chicago in 1962, helped organize picketing of a Howard Johnson's location in Cicero, Illinois, during his time as a student activist for CORE.[20]

By 7 December 1962, the Howard Johnson Company issued a statement to the press opposing racial segregation in its restaurants, citing its corporate policy against discrimination: "Where it has been possible to change the operation of our company-operated restaurants in the South to conform to our national policy of service without discrimination, this has been done."[21] The letter, written in conjunction with CORE and the NAACP, praised the organizations and aligned company policy with their outlook that segregation was "not defensible."[22]

In the 1930s, H.D. Johnson bought the Wayland Red Coach Grill and used it as the model for a new concept, a more upscale steakhouse restaurant chain called Red Coach Grills.[23] While they had some success, they were not sufficiently profitable. Eventually the last 15 Red Coach Grills were sold in 1983 to a company executive who closed them.[24] In 1969, Johnson again tried a new restaurant concept, Ground Round. It was successful. Though not a Howard Johnson's restaurant, the Ground Round chain was company-owned and -franchised, thus increasing the Howard Johnson Company profit.

The energy crisis of the mid-1970s shifted the focus of the business. Rather than promoting the restaurants to travelers, management knew it had to focus on nearby population centers.

The 28 flavors of ice cream and piggybank-sensitive meal prices made it possible to lure families. The company also started some child-friendly promotions. One was a birthday club. Children signed up in advance and were sent birthday cards redeemable for a free meal, a cake, and in some locations, balloons and lollipops. Family members’ meals were charged at normal rates. The Springfield, New Jersey, restaurant sent out 10,000 cards one year, and they had a 50 percent return on those who came to take advantage of the birthday offer.

Children’s menus were an attractive staple of Howard Johnson’s. In addition to offering kid-friendly food at lower prices, industrial designer John Alcott’s firm created a variety of menus that kept the kids entertained. Some were maps of the United States, one was a guide to the metric system. Another menu could be converted to a mask if string was added at home.

Howard Johnson’s also held contests. If a person submitted proof via a check-off coupon that they had sampled all 28 flavors of ice cream, the next ice cream cone was free.[25]

By 1975, the Howard Johnson Company had more than 1,000 restaurants and more than 500 motor lodges in 42 states and Canada. The company reached its peak that year, but the late 1970s marked the beginning of the end for the Howard Johnson Company. Because of the oil embargo of 1974, the Howard Johnson's restaurants and motor lodges, which received 85% of revenue from travelers, lost profits when Americans could not afford long trips or frequent vacations. Also, the company model of serving pre-made food with high-quality ingredients in traditional dining rooms was costly when compared to the innovations introduced by fast food outlets like McDonald's, which designed its products and restaurants to appeal to families with younger children. Around this time, the chain introduced "Hojo Cola" and other private-label sodas, which disappointed some customers who preferred familiar products such as Coca-Cola or Pepsi.

The company suffered from two infamous incidents at a property in the New Orleans Central Business District within 18 months of one another. The first was a July 1971 fire, set by two irate guests who had been ejected from the hotel, which killed six people.[26] The second, in January 1973, was a harrowing day-long siege. Former Black Panther Mark Essex used the hotel's roof as a sniper's perch, killing three police officers, the hotel's general manager and assistant general manager, and a couple from Virginia, who were on a belated honeymoon. He also wounded policemen, firemen and civilians. Then, in Jericho, New York, on 8 November 1974, singer-actress Connie Francis was raped at the Jericho Turnpike Howard Johnson's Lodge. She sued the motel chain for their lapse in security and won a judgment of $2.5 million, one of the largest such judgments at that time, leading to a reform in hotel security. Her rapist was never found.

H. B. Johnson attempted to streamline company operations and cut costs, such as serving cheaper food and having fewer employees. This strategy was unsuccessful, because patrons compared this new era of Howard Johnson's restaurants and motor lodges unfavorably to the services they had previously come to know. In a further effort to make the company more successful and profitable, Johnson created other concepts, such as HoJos Campgrounds and 3 Penny Inns for lodging, as well as Deli Baker Ice Cream Maker, and Chatt's for restaurants. All of these concepts failed, furthering the company's demise.

In the late 1990s, the Howard Johnson's Candy Factory and Executive Offices in Wollaston were purchased and renovated by the Eastern Nazarene College to form the Adams Executive Center.[27]

In 1979, Johnson accepted an acquisition bid of more than $630 million from Imperial Group PLC of London, England. Imperial obtained 1,040 restaurants (75% company owned/25% franchised) and 520 motor lodges (75% franchised/25% company owned). In 1981 Imperial recruited G. Michael Hostage, then CEO of Continental Baking Company and formerly executive vice president of Marriott Corporation, to replace Johnson as CEO. After four years, despite progress in a turnaround, Imperial reversed course and sold the company. Having declined to entertain Hostage's proposal to lead a leveraged buyout, Imperial employed Goldman Sachs who, with Hostage's assistance, sold the company to Marriott in 1986. In a contemporaneous transaction, Marriott sold the motor lodge business and the Howard Johnson trademark to Prime Motor Inns, a New Jersey company.

Howard Johnson's restaurant painted in 1970s "environmental" color scheme

A former Howard Johnson's restaurant in Bay City, Michigan, which closed in 2005. Note the adjacent former motor lodge, now occupied by Econo Lodge.

Marriott was interested in the company-owned restaurants for the real estate. Marriott already owned Big Boy Restaurants and Roy Rogers Restaurants. In 1982, it acquired Host International, which had operated a number of highway rest stops. Many of the established Howard Johnson sites were in prime highway locations which could be profitably converted to Big Boy or various fast food banners. As Marriott quickly demolished the company owned restaurants or converted them to the Bob's Big Boy restaurant chain,[28][29] the number of Howard Johnson's restaurants remaining circa 1985 was sharply reduced. Only the franchised restaurants remained untouched.

Marriott left all company-owned and franchised motor lodges untouched, as the deal called for them to be sold a year later (in 1986) to Prime Motors Inns, an existing franchisee with 63 motels.[28]

By 2005, there were fewer than eight surviving restaurants. A combination of no vision, no reinvestment of capital, aging restaurants, a stale menu, lack of marketing or new ideas, and competition from other chains had taken their toll; restaurants were closing their doors.[34] FAI ceased operations in 2005, the same year that the Springfield, Vermont, location and the last New York City restaurant in the chain closed.

Cendant acquired the rights to operate and maintain the remaining Howard Johnson's restaurants. In 2006, Cendant sold them to La Mancha Group LLC,[35] which had proposed an aggressive expansion of the restaurant chain that never materialized. After the Waterbury, Connecticut restaurant became The Brass House Restaurant in April 2007,[36] only three locations remained. Cendant split into four smaller companies in 2006; its hotel group became Wyndham Worldwide while other pieces were spun off separately to become Avis Budget Group, Realogy, Travelport and Affinion Group.

A line of Howard Johnson-branded frozen foods disappeared from grocery stores after Fairfield Farms Kitchens shut down its Brockton, Massachusetts plant in 2006[37] and America's Kitchen of Atlanta, Georgia shut down in May 2008.

In spring 2012, one of the last three original Howard Johnson's restaurants closed, in Lake George, and was listed for sale.[38] Television personality, chef and author Rachael Ray once worked at that site while living in Lake George as a teenager.[39] By 2013 only two original restaurants remained open, but the Bangor (hotel and restaurant) no longer had the distinctive orange roof. While the highest tier in the hotel franchise (HoJo Hotel Plaza) does include a restaurant, there is no requirement that these replicate menus, format or branding of the former Howard Johnson restaurant chain.

With La Mancha Group LLC no longer active, Wyndham Hotel Group now owned the rights to the HoJo's food business as well as the Howard Johnson hotel chain.[40] In 2013, Wyndham proposed a Howard Johnson Brand Reinvigoration which would bring select flavors of ice cream back to the hotels, adopt a new logo, phase out the multiple branding tiers and give the properties a facelift and redesign as a lower-midscale chain starting in 2015.[41]

In August 2014, the Lake George restaurant regained the Howard Johnson's name when the lease was transferred from its original owners, DeSantis Enterprises, to John Larock.[42] The restaurant reopened 10 January 2015, briefly bringing the number of locations back up to three. On 31 March 2015, the Lake Placid, N.Y., Howard Johnson's closed, leaving only two locations remaining. Then in September 2016, the Bangor restaurant closed, leaving the Lake George restaurant the last location remaining out of the original 1,000-plus.[43][44][45]

Despite the Lake George Howard Johnson's restaurant proclaimed resilience as "The Last One Standing", its future has been put in question. In January 2017 its land went up for sale and redevelopment projects have been proposed for the site since.[46][47] On October 12, 2017, owner John Larock was arrested and convicted of sexual harassment of female employees, and on October 31, 2018 began serving a six-month jail sentence.[48][49][50] The restaurant continues to operate with Larock as owner, but is open limited days and hours.[51] With all the food commissaries defunct, and no official connection with Wyndham, the restaurant operates as an independent entity. Use of the Howard Johnson's restaurant name is permitted because of a grandfather clause. Despite retaining the original building and trademark name, and with little to no connection to the former franchise, its authenticity as a true Howard Johnson's restaurant has been questioned due to its dissimilar menu and negative reviews.[52]