Business Failures

[pbrower2a]

Do you remember the iconic Howard Johnson's chain of restaurants?

Quote:Text and photographs copyright 8/2002 – 2007 by Glenn Wells, except as noted

For most of the twentieth century, the orange roof of Howard Johnson’s was a familiar sight along the great American roadside. When the motorist spotted a Howard Johnson’s, he knew exactly what to expect – with standardized menus and building designs, a Howard Johnson’s miles away felt as familiar and comforting as the one back home.

Howard Deering Johnson was a struggling businessman in 1925 when he put a new twist on a favorite American treat, ice cream. Using his mother’s recipe, he produced ice cream with a butterfat content far exceeding that of other brands – in essence, creating a “super-premium” ice cream years before Haagen-Dazs. After a slow start, customers flocked to Johnson’s stands at beaches along the Massachusetts shore, and Johnson kept adding new kinds of ice cream until he hit the now-familiar “28 Flavors.”

It would be the roadside restaurant, however, that would propel Howard Johnson to fame and fortune. Johnson seemed to have a keen eye for what Americans liked, and was able to combine elements of various styles of roadside dining into one package that would be appealing to the greatest number of people.

From the early days of motoring, establishments sprouted along the roadways to feed travelers, but each of these had some drawback that hindered their growth. There were tea rooms, whose homey atmosphere appealed to women, but in this era it was usually men who were driving the car. There were diners, which men liked, but women were not likely to want to sit on a counter stool in the days before booth service was common. Finally, there were hot dog stands and other casual food stops, often operating out of shacks or other unsavory looking buildings, where the quality of the food was open to question.

For his creation, Johnson borrowed a building type that was well-known and loved throughout New England: the large Colonial home. In the early years, there was some variation in the size and detailing of the buildings, partly because many of them were built by franchisees. As the 1930s came to a close, however, the style became refined and more uniform: a Colonial building sided in clapboards painted white, multi-paned windows, three dormers, and a cupola with a clock mounted on the front. This handsome style fit well in the New England towns where Johnson opened his restaurants, but Johnson added a twist of his own: a brilliant orange roof, guaranteed to catch the eye of the passing motorist. The cupola was also topped off with a weathervane featuring an outline of Simple Simon and the Pieman, a trademark developed for Howard Johnson’s by artist John Alcott.

http://www.roadsidefans.com/features/howard-johnsons


It had its niche. Many have since become other chains if they have not been demolished.

As of September the chain goes down to one last eatery. The second-to-last closes in Bangor, Maine.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/howa...ction=&