What Happened to Howard Johnson's? Why Howard Johnson's Disappeared

In mid-1979, Howard Johnson's still ran 1,040 orange-roofed restaurants. By 2005 only eight were left, so where did they go? Fast food is the usual answer, and it explains only part of the collapse. Howard Johnson's was a food manufacturer, a restaurant chain and a motor lodge chain held together by one name. Its commissaries shipped frozen clams and ice cream to hundreds of kitchens. In September 1985 Marriott bought the company and, in the same announcement, handed the name, the lodges and the franchise system to Prime Motor Inns. Marriott kept the food plants and began turning orange roofs into Big Boys. What this video covers: • 1925-1935: A Quincy soda fountain, 28 flavors and the first franchise • 1940: The Pennsylvania Turnpike concession • 1950s-1970s: Why the commissaries earned more than the restaurants • 1979: The $630 million sale to Imperial Group • 1985: The deal that split the name from the kitchens • 2022: The last restaurant, in Lake George, New York The restaurants did not lose to fast food alone. They lost the company behind them. If your family stopped under an orange roof for fried clam strips, tell us which highway it was on in the comments. Subscribe for more careful histories of the places American families used to eat. Sources: Howard Johnson's: Rise and Fall of an American Icon - William Crandall and John A. Parnell, FIU Hospitality Review, 2001: https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/hospitality... Marriott Corp. Buys Howard Johnson's - Michael Abramowitz, The Washington Post, 1985: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/pol... Annual Report on Form 10-K, fiscal 2025 - Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, SEC EDGAR, 2026: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/17... The Pennsylvania Turnpike, From Tollbooths to Tunnels - Curtis Miner, Pennsylvania Heritage, 2015: https://paheritage.wpengine.com/article/pe... #HowardJohnsons #HoJo #HowardJohnsonsRestaurant #OrangeRoof #FriedClams #PennsylvaniaTurnpike #RoadsideAmerica #RestaurantHistory #DeadRestaurants #AmericanNostalgia Disclaimer: The voiceover used in this video was generated using AI.