A HISTORY OF HOWARD JOHNSON'S

Howard Johnson created an orange-roofed empire of ice cream stands and restaurants that stretched from Maine to Florida and the West Coast. Popularly known as the "Father of the Franchise Industry," Johnson delivered good food and prices that brought appreciative customers back for more. The attractive white Colonial Revival restaurants, with eye-catching porcelain tile roofs, illuminated cupolas, and sea blue shutters, were described in Reader's Digest in 1949 as the epitome of "eating places that look like New England town meeting houses dressed up for Sunday." Join us as Boston historian and author Anthony M. Sammarco recounts how Howard Johnson introduced twenty-eight flavors of ice cream, the "Tendersweet" clam strips, grilled frankfurts, and a menu of delicious and traditional foods that families eagerly enjoyed when they traveled.

Referred to as the “Balzac of Boston History” by the Boston Globe, Anthony Mitchell Sammarco is a noted historian and author of over seventy books on the history and development of Boston, and he lectures widely on the history and development of his native city.

Mr. Sammarco teaches the popular course Boston History at the Boston University Metropolitan College. He has also taught at The Urban College of Boston, where his courses led to him being named Educator of the Year. He wrote the book Boston’s Immigrants for the widely diverse ethnic base of students to use in his course on Boston immigration.

He has received the Bulfinch Award from the Doric Dames of the Massachusetts State House, the Washington Medal from Freedom Foundation, a lifetime achievement from both the Victorian Society and the Gibson House Museum, and was named Dorchester town historian by Raymond L. Flynn, mayor of Boston, for his work in local history. He was elected a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society, is a member of the Boston Author’s Club, the Colonial Society, the St. Botolph Club in Boston, and a proprietor of the Boston Athenaeum.