“In the 1960s and ’70s, Howard Johnson’s restaurants were the biggest chain in the country, with more than 1,000 locations. Their iconic orange roofs were fixtures of the American highway, beckoning hungry motorists to come and dine at HoJo’s, as they were affectionately called. Now, almost all of the restaurants are gone. One of the three last surviving Howard Johnson’s eateries closed its doors [March 31st] in Lake Placid, N.Y.”
The Lake Placid HoJo’s had been open since April 1956. Two other locations still operate: one is attached to a hotel in Bangor, Maine, the other is in Lake George, a tourist destination 60 miles south of Lake Placid.
Read more and listen to the NPR story here.
