Early years 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 repay the loan 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, while others say that it was from a local
German immigrant, 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." Throughout the summers of the late 1920s, Johnson opened beachfront concession stands 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 family-style restaurant. 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:
Malcolm Nichols, the mayor of nearby
Boston,
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 the
Wollaston Theatre in 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.
Expansion in the 1930s and 1940s and orange roof 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 1935 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 the 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). 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 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.
Entering the hotel business 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. 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. 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.
Civil rights 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. The
Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, was instrumental in organizing protests and sit-ins at Howard Johnson locations in multiple states. 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, 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. 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." 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." Howard Johnson's restaurants by the 1960s were known to be accommodating to members of the
LGBTQ community, particularly in metropolitan New York. On April 21, 1966, at the Howard Johnson's in the Greenwich Village neighborhood,
Dick Leitsch,
Craig Rodwell, and John Timmins, all members of the New York chapter of the
Mattachine Society, an early American gay rights group, patronized the restaurant as part of a 'Sip-In' demonstration in protest of New York liquor laws that prevented serving gay customers. The men were served drinks without incident at the restaurant; they later visited
Julius' Bar where they were denied service, eventually leading to changes in the laws. In the late 1960s,
gay liberation activist
Marsha P. Johnson chose that
drag queen name with the surname Johnson inspired by the Howard Johnson's restaurant on 42nd Street.
New chains and a changing public 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. 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. In 1969, Johnson again tried a new restaurant concept,
Ground Round. It was successful. Although not a Howard Johnson's restaurant, the Ground Round chain was company-owned and franchised, thus increasing the Howard Johnson Company profit. 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; the location 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. 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, including Deputy Superintendent Louis Sirgo, the second-highest ranking officer in the
New Orleans Police Department, 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 citizens. Then, in
Jericho, New York, on 8 November 1974, singer-actress
Connie Francis was raped at the Jericho Turnpike Howard Johnson's Lodge and nearly suffocated when the rapist threw a heavy mattress on her. 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 HoJo 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, hastening 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.
Changes in ownership 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. Marriott was interested in the company-owned restaurants for 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, 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. Those involved with the company owned and franchised motor lodges banded together and formed the Howard Johnson Acquisition Corporation. They successfully obtained all the rights to operate and maintain the company-owned and franchised lodges. With these rights maintained, they changed their name to "Howard Johnson International Incorporated," which became a subsidiary of "Hospitality Franchise Systems Incorporated," which eventually merged with other companies to form
Cendant. In 2006, Cendant split itself into
Wyndham Worldwide and three other companies. Wyndham operated the Howard Johnson brand under several "tiers" based on price, level of amenities, and services offered. Under Cendant/Wyndham, the chain became a parking place for franchise conversions, which were existing independent motels which had been renovated and added to the chain in order to provide them with access to a nationally recognized name and central reservation infrastructure. As these properties were not originally constructed as Howard Johnson sites, they lacked distinctive architecture; some locations had no restaurant at all. Howard Johnson Express Inns, Howard Johnson Inns, Howard Johnson Hotels, and Howard Johnson Plaza Hotels range from limited-service motels to full-service properties with on-site concierges and business centers. Howard Johnson began offering a "Rise 'N' Dine" continental breakfast at some economy-limited service locations. The chain abolished the multiple price tiers by 2015. ==Locations==