Howard Johnson's - FAI Prototype Design - Canton, MA - Howard Johnson's on Waymarking.com

In Canton, at the intersection of Washington Street and Blue Hill River Road, stands a building that houses a pair of eating establishments that once was a Howard Johnson's restaurant that was twice a prototype for HoJo restaurants built or remodeled after it, according to highwayhost.org, which is where most of the information in this post comes from. There are excellent old images of the restaurant on this web site.

The restaurant dates back to the 1930s, and is less than 10 miles from Wollaston (in Quincy). It is also located about 2 miles from the house of the Johnson family in Hyde Park (in Boston).

In the 1940s this restaurant was replaced with a new restaurant using a colonial house design. The design was used at several other locations, and elements of the design were widely used elsewhere. Internal company brochures refered to the "Canton-type" design. The restaurant was remodeled in the 1960s.

In 1985, at the end of the Howard Johnson Company, the Canton restaurant was still standing, as a licensed operation. Some time after the formation of Franchise Associates International (FAI), the Canton restaurant became the new company's first owned and operated restaurant. The company decided to completely remodel this building inside and out. The outside was changed to de-emphasize the orange roof by reroofing the right side in blue-gray, building a modern-looking angular archway over the entrance, and colored banner-like structures off to one side. The interior was updated to 1990s standards and included small tables with chairs as well as booths, brass fittings at various places, neon lights in the lobby, and an updated dairy bar. With this modern design, the new company hoped to entice new franchises. Unfortunately, there were few new franchises. The Canton restaurant was later closed in 1999.

It took a while for the building to be occupied again. The first operation was Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin Robbins store that occupied the old dairy bar section. The restaurant section was first made into the Blue Hill Grille, then was remodelled and became the Suffolk Grille, which is the present establishment.

I remember the restaurant both under the old company and when it was run by FAI. Under FAI, they had an all you can eat special on fried clams one of the nights of the week. It was good, though it was hard on the digestive system!

Restaurant or Gate Lodge?: Restaurant Architectural Style Found: Colonial House

Visit Instructions:
Traditional Visiting Requirements. Take a shot of the restaurant and share your thoughts of your visit.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.