Oklahoma History: June 2022 Archives

The last surviving Howard Johnson's restaurant, located in Lake George, New York, was recently found to have closed, evidently for good. An enthusiast, Alyssa Kelly, reported on Facebook over Memorial Day weekend that there were cobwebs on the door, a for-lease sign out front, and all the furnishings and memorabilia gone. This followed years of inconsistent schedules and poor management. One commenter on Kelly's post stated that the Lake George location didn't deserve the title of last HoJo's; but that honor belonged to the stores in Lake Placid, NY, Waterbury, CT, and Bangor, ME. Atlas Obscura profiled the Lake George HoJo's in 2019, noting that it had opened in 1953.

HoJo was once the largest restaurant chain in America, famous for fried clam rolls and 28 ice cream flavors (33 if you counted their five flavors of sherbet). The Bangor, Maine, HoJo's, which closed in 2016, was the last survivor in New England, where the chain got its start. This Yankee magazine feature story from 2015 outlines the history that began when Howard Johnson opened an ice cream parlor in the Wollaston neighborhood of Quincy, Mass., and describes the diner's mid-century atmosphere: "The deep red vinyl booths, wood paneling, patterned carpet, and the unmistakable whiff of restaurant/lounge mixed with fried food is a powerful combination."

Some HoJo fans mark as the beginning of the end the 2005 closure of the Times Square restaurant, with its spectacular neon depiction of the Simple Simon and the Pie Man logo.

The news got me thinking about the days when HoJo was dominant on Oklahoma's turnpikes. HighwayHost.org documents long-lost or much-changed chains that served the motoring public, thriving in the 1960s and 1970s, including Howard Johnson's, Horne's, Stuckey's, Holiday Inn, Alamo Plaza, Wigwam, Nickerson Farms. This page documents Howard Johnson's in Oklahoma, including motels in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Norman, standalone restaurants, and the many locations on Oklahoma turnpikes.

In 1953, Howard Johnson's won the restaurant concession for the newly opened Turner Turnpike, with the big restaurant on the eastbound side near Stroud (linked with the other direction of travel by a pedestrian overpass), counter-service cafes linked with Phillips 66 gas stations at Heyburn (first-stop westbound) and Chandler (first stop east-bound). Howard Johnson himself traveled to Oklahoma for the dedication. The Highway Host website says that HoJo also had a sit-down restaurant at Wellston and counter service at Bristow, but I never knew those sites as anything other than Stuckey's. The service areas were built by Phillips, who then sublet the restaurant spaces to HoJo.

Postcard of the Turner Turnpike midway and toll gate.Courtesy of Metropolitan Library System of Oklahoma County