Wednesday Walk: One Last Original HoJo
Wednesday Walk: One Last Original HoJo
The last Howard Johnson Motor Lodge in Massachusetts to still bear the HoJo name, a tiny dead mall, and a mystery shop
Welcome to Willoughby Hills!
Every Wednesday, I offer a few short ideas that I hope will inspire you to do some more reading, thinking, and exploring. Let’s take a little walk together and see where the path leads…
Out of Pocket
Happy Wednesday! This post was scheduled in advance because I am currently on Cape Cod chaperoning an overnight camping trip with my daughter’s school for the next few days.
As always, I welcome your comments and messages, but it may be a few days before I am able to respond.
Another Howard Johnson
As you probably know if you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, I seem to have a thing for spotting old Howard Johnson restaurants and motels. I don’t have any particular connection to the brand- my appreciation has more grown out of learning the history of the brand than any personal nostalgia.
At one time, the orange peaked roofs of both Howard Johnson restaurants and hotels dotted roadsides across America. The restaurant was profiled in the amazing book Ten Restaurants That Changed America by Paul Freedman. In fact, Howard Johnson poached two chefs from another restaurant featured in that book (New York’s Le Pavillion): Pierre Franey and famed TV chef Jacques Pepin. These acclaimed chefs helped design standard menus with some items prepared in central kitchens and shipped to restaurants.
As I’ve described before, Howard Johnson was also heavily segregated, especially in the South. It was often the site of protests and sit-ins, leading the chain to desegregate in 1962.
The last surviving Howard Johnson restaurant unceremoniously closed its doors in 2022, not even attracting news reports until weeks after the closure. But the hotel chain lives on, purchased by Wyndham and currently operating nearly 300 locations worldwide.
It’s unremarkable to run into a modern HoJo, which is why I barely blinked when I passed one in Hadley, MA recently.
As you can see from the above photo, there’s nothing “Orange Roofed” about this location. Without the sign, the three story concrete building with a carport surrounded by asphalt could be literally any other hotel brand from a Holiday Inn to a Hampton Inn.
But I happened to be stopping by the business next door and realized that behind this concrete hotel tower was actually an original Howard Johnson motel still in use!
According to Highway Host, which has an incredible directory of former and current HoJo locations organized by state, what is now the hotel tower was once a classic restaurant with an orange roof, all of it opened in 1966.
The restaurant was closed and demolished in the 1980s to make way for the new hotel tower building. It’s unclear why the motel portion survived, but it did and it looks quite unchanged from its midcentury heyday.
Historic photos show an outdoor pool area that was bustling with both swimmers and sunbathers. The pool is still in the exact same spot, although it was covered when I stopped by. I’m not sure if it is now out of service or if it had recently been closed for the season.
The original motel building seems to be offered more to extended stay guests than nightly guests (who stay in the newer section). In fact, the hotel is listed as an option for students at the nearby UMass Amherst campus seeking off campus housing, renting for $1200 for students (the terms aren’t specified, but I’m assuming that’s a monthly rate).
Reviews of the property are not stellar, but even so, it’s pretty cool to see a relic like this still chugging along and serving nightly guests. According to Highway Host, this is the only Howard Johnson branded hotel in Massachusetts that is still operating at an original HoJo site!
I don’t know why I get excited to spot these old relics of the past. After all, the building itself isn’t in great condition and it’s certainly not anywhere I would want to stay or would recommend to family. I think the excitement is more in discovering and being able to identify something that was once ubiquitous, background noise, and taken for granted, but because it has survived this long, it gains noteworthy status.
What Is It?
Just down the street from the HoJo is the Hampshire Mall. It’s an enclosed mall anchored by some pretty popular big box tenants, including Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Petsmart. The mall also features a multiplex theatre, a small food court, and a JCPenney.
It’s essentially a suburban strip mall, except it also has an enclosed mall connecting most of the big box stores. The mall can give off “dead mall” vibes at times because many of the smaller mall stores are vacant.
Yet the mall seems to be busy with entertainment options, including a bowling alley/bar/axe throwing place, a skating rink, and a trampoline park/arcade that I could imagine draw evening and weekend crowds (I was there on a weekday morning).
Perhaps someday the Hampshire Mall will warrant a larger write up someday (if you’re interested in funky tiny malls like this,
had a good piece about one in Virginia last month).But for today, I wanted to share a photo from the mall of a vacant storefront to see if you can identify the former tenant.
It’s a large area (bigger than most retail stores) and it features some simulated columns and a green, yellow, and white color scheme.
And here’s one last hint: it’s actually related to the Howard Johnson down the street.
Leave your guesses in the comments and I’ll share the answer with you in next week’s Wednesday Walk!
I publish new issues every Wednesday and Sunday. Sign up to always receive the latest issue and support my work:
Other Wednesday Walks
If you’ve missed past issues of this newsletter, they are available to read here.