Howard Deering Johnson

In the 1950s and 1960s, Howard Johnson’s rose to become the first and largest American restaurant chain in the industry. The company’s familiar orange roofs and white steeples covered much of the U.S. highway system. Colloquially known as "HoJos," it was also a leader in the development of roadside lodging. 

Howard Johnson (1897-1972) began his restaurant venture in 1925 in a single location in Quincy, Massachusetts. Seeking better financial opportunities, he bought a combination drug store, newsstand, and soda fountain. Soon noticing the popularity and profitability of ice cream, he developed his own formula with nearly twice the butterfat content of other ice creams, with a creamier consistency, not like hard, hand-dipped ice creams at the time. Needless to say, folks lined up to buy his ice cream. "HoJos" were eventually known its twenty-eight flavors.

The rise of highway travel also elicited the rise of crudely-made billboards. Howard Johnson elected an upscale approach to make his buildings stand out with memorable signage. On top of a historic New England-style white building was a bright orange roof that was visible in the daytime and floodlit at night. He topped it off with a steeple reminiscent of a New England church or city hall, a weathervane, and added the “Simple Simon and the Pieman” neon sign. Later modernizations dropped the nursery rhyme characters. The beautiful Howard Johnson's at left was located in Queens, New York City, in 1940.

By the 1950s, the company expanded operations by opening hotels, then known as Howard Johnson's Motor Lodges, which were often located next to HoJo restaurants. Johnson also owned and operated “company stores,” using franchising only when money was tight. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, it had become the largest restaurant chain in the U.S. with over one thousand owned and franchised Howard Johnson’s restaurants.

Lacking the vision of the previous business CEO, handing over a business to a second generation can spell doom for a company. Under the leadership of the son, Howard B. Johnson, his father's legacy of first-class dining and lodging fell to the wayside. Howard Johnson's no longer stood alone in the restaurant and lodging universe. By 1980, the once-great company was in dire straits through mismanagement and cost-cutting from a guy who wanted no further future ties to the business. For a $360 million profit, H.B. sold the company to Britain’s Imperial Group. Their six-year ownership saw further decline, which became an embarrassment to the industry. All hotels and company trademarks, including those of the former restaurant chain, have been owned by Wyndham Hotels and Resorts since 2006 as Howard Johnson by Wyndham. In the following fifteen years, the Howard Johnson name dramatically diminished.