Why is the caretaker cabin called "HoJo's"?

[darnell]

I know ignorant question... probably answered a thousand times over... I tried to do a search, but found too many hits to search through. Can anyone enlighten me?

[RR]

Coming over the crest of the Tuckerman Ravine Trail, one of the croo remarked, "Just like pulling in to Howard Johnson's"....at least that is one version.

Tuckerman.org on history: http://www.tuckerman.org/tuckerman/history.htm

This is the salient part:

With the 1930's came the Depression. John Carleton was instrumental in convincing the Civilian Conservation Corps to cut downhill ski trails in the White Mountains, and one, the John Sherburne Trail, was cut from the floor of the ravine to the Pinkham Notch Road. Also built was a skier's warming hut at Hermit Lake. Its roofline was similar to the Howard Johnson's roadside restaurants then springing up in New England, and it was soon nicknamed HoJo's.

[Cliff]

Ahhh I get it. I figured it had something to do with Howard Johnson's. Thanks for the link to that article RR.. pretty interesting. I didn't know about Toni Matt and all of that till now either. Man thats a crazy fast time to ski from the summit to Pinkham!!!

[M@]

I could be wrong, but my recollection was that an earlier version of the hut had a roofline similar to the Howard Johnson's hotel chain at that time:

Like this:






But I could be wrong - the roof line in question might be more like these Howard Johnson hotels:




I'm not sure where I read the roof line info - but it's my theory.

M@

[P-HUG]

I concur with M@, I heard it was b/c the hut's roofline looked like a Hojo's restaurant

[Skilasnow]

Yes, it was the roof, but not that funky one M@ posted, it was more the color scheme of the roof.

Our resident historian, who has been quiet of late, has great pictures of the original hut that looked like hojos.