28 Flavors

With summer at its peak and the temperature rising, we’re revisiting a story from the Summer 2009 issue of Historic New England magazine that shared a drawing of a planned, but never built, Howard Johnson’s Ice Cream Shoppe and Restaurant in Boston. Howard Johnson’s is a nostalgic favorite for many New Englanders—the once-ubiquitous chain was founded in Massachusetts more than one hundred years ago.

In the late 1940s, Howard Johnson’s, the highly successful restaurant chain known especially for its ice cream, proposed a new facility at the corner of Tremont and Stuart Streets in Boston, as shown in the drawing at right. Founded in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1925, the business was undergoing a rapid post–World War II expansion, of which this proposal, by architect Joseph A. Cicco, was probably a part.

The use of color in this rendering emphasizes the up-to-date, stylish design of the eatery, which was to be incorporated into an existing building. Howard Johnson’s famous logo, based on the nursery rhyme “Simple Simon Met a Pie Man,” is visible. Charles Goodale, the delineator, provided context by portraying a city where late-model luxury automobiles cruise the streets, stylish women walk their dogs, and theatrical productions like the musical revue Lend an Ear abound. It is likely, however, that the company did not build the restaurant at this site but constructed one of a similar design a few blocks away on Tremont Street.

Purchased at auction, this drawing of an iconic twentieth-century ice cream shop now joins Historic New England’s collection of more than 35,000 architectural drawings depicting regional building types, including houses, three-deckers, schools, city halls, factories, and even an elevated railway station.

Written by Lorna Condon, Chief Curator

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2009 issue of Historic New England magazine.