Mad Men's America: The forgotten Howard Johnson's restaurants of the American roadside

This is the final edition of our six-part look at the largely defunct chain of Howard Johnson’s restaurants. Once numbering in the thousands, only three HoJo’s restaurants remain.

Last week, I shared my visits to two of those survivors, which are hanging on in the Adirondacks, and paid tribute to the defunct Howard Johnson’s in Manhattan, which was among the last holdouts of the old Times Square. I also remotely visited a Howard Johnson’s in Baldwin Park, Calif., near Los Angeles, which was used in the filming of a “Mad Men” episode that aired two Sundays ago. See my entire HoJo’s travelogue HERE.

To wrap up today, I’ve decided to raid my archives once again and share with you an interesting discovery I made in 2009 during a road trip down I-95.  

I spied this building in Lumberton, N.C. from the highway, and immediately realized what it was. A former Howard Johnson’s!

The restaurant later served as a Mexican joint, El Triunfo, which was closed as of May 2009.

The orange-and-blue paint scheme was gone, but the roofline had that tell-tale pitch that was unmistakably HoJo’s, so much so that it was as much a part of HoJo’s corporate imagery as Simple Simon and the Pieman. And the cupola was there, too, absent the Simple Simon and the Pieman weathervane. (They can, by the way, be quite valuable. Here’s one selling on eBay for $1,395.)  

The true payoff awaited when I took a closer look. As you can see in the photos below,  the Howard Johnson’s orange paint can be seen peeking through the red paint job.

Similar finds await across the country. Last week, a reader shared a comment about a former Hojos’s restaurant-motel combination in Greenfield, Mass. Like the one in Lumberton, the Greenfield restaurant betrayed its HoJo roots by exposure of its old orange paint job. The Greenfield restaurant was torn down, but the motel became a Quality Inn.

Interestingly, in Lumberton, the motel remains a Howard Johnson’s. It’s important to note that the motel chain has survived, but all but one have discarded the HoJo’s restaurant in favor of another brand. The only HoJo’s motel-restaurant combo left in the nation is in Bangor, Maine. 

Of course, many Hojo’s locations, like the one in Times Square, have been demolished. A commenter last week shared her interesting website that touches on the famed Colonial-style HoJo’s that was in Kew Gardens, Queens, and even rated a mention in the Museum of the City of New York’s magnificent exhibition last year on the Colonial Revival style.

The Kew Gardens building was demolished for a glass-and-steel box, but many more HoJo’s buildings survive, like the one near Los Angeles, below, that was gussied up to stand in for an upstate New York HoJo’s on Mad Men. 

There have been rumblings from time to time of a revival of Howard Johnson’s restaurants. To me, it’s a no-brainer: HoJo’s is a treasured national brand with a wholesome identity. It’s known for what we’d call today “fast casual” food and, of course, that rich ice cream.

That culinary approach still seems to jibe with prevailing tastes, certainly if you consider the calorie counts on menus for most national chains. And, of course, the authentic retro aesthetic would give it an edge over other chain restaurants.

But let’s not hold our breath. HoJo’s fan can still savor the three remaining restaurants, visit nostalgia sites like this one and Hojoland, and, of course, watch that great episode of “Mad Men.”