The Old Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge

UPDATED: 


                                The Old Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge

 This was originally the Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge at 8201 W. Higgins Rd in Chicago near O'Hara airport. My grandparents James and Izora Moreland and my uncle William Moreland were the people that originally built it in 1960. They also built the homes on the other side of the Kennedy Expressway across from Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge.

                        
                                                   They Built That
 Here they are in front of their Real Estate Office at 5717 N. Milwaukee Ave in Chicago Ill.

They also owned and ran their Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge. It was a 4 Star Motor Lodge back then. My uncle was always proud of that rating. He kept it in top shape. He was the first to have Cadillac Limousines running to and from O'Hara airport for the guests.

       Above is a post card of the Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge

The Morelands are having a family party at our Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge, 1971

    I started working there in 1968 right after I got married. I was one of the maintenance men but soon my uncle had me working behind the desk and doing ever other job that it takes to run a hotel. There are so many stories I could tell about that place. Some were funny while others were not. Then in 1972 my uncle called me into this meeting. All of the family were there. My grandparents, my aunt, and my cousins. The whole family had some part in running the hotel plus we all had shares in the business. My Uncle starts off and says, "We're selling the Motor Lodge." Well I almost fell over because I was young and just had a baby. I said to the whole family, "What am I going to do for a job?" Everybody laughed and said, With the money you will get you won't have to worry about that." Well I was worried. My Grandparents , my uncle and my aunt where planning on retiring. I still had my whole life ahead of me. 

After they sold the Motor Lodge they retired and bought a huge home called "WestGate" on lake Geneva Wisconsin.
 After they all passed away the new owners remodeled the whole inside. But for some reason unbeknown to me they never moved into it and then they tore in down. It doesn't exist any longer. 

        

 When the new owners of the Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge took over after my grandparents sold it, they fired all 52 employees. I was on my own. I eventually got my Real Estate License and sold homes in the northwest suburbs of Chicago for the next 10 years.

After the Motor Lodge was sold it became a Holiday and then as a Wyndham. By the latter 2000s it was unbranded and called The Chicago O'Hara Garden Hotel. Last year, the owners Sethi and his father were sued in federal court for $355,000 by the Wyndham hotel chain for failing to maintain sanitary conditions in the hotel, which Wyndham said violated a franchise agreement. The hotel lost the Wyndham name and was operating independently as the Chicago O'Hara Garden Hotel.
 http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-07-15/news/ct-met-china-investment-visas-sethi-sidebar-20120715_1_eb-5-hotel-proposal-foreign-investors/2
 I don't know what happen to the hotel but if you look around the windows in the pictures I took you can see some burn marks. It looked like it had a fire, maybe, I'm not sure. Someone told me that the fire department used the hotel for practice just before they demolished it. 


  I suppose my Uncle would have been a little upset to see someone run his building into a pile of rubble but since he and the whole family are long gone now, I'll never get a chance to ask him what he thinks about it.

 As far as I'm concerned, I don't care. I'm glad to see it torn down. Yeah there is a story behind that too but I'm not here to write a book about the way I feel in this post. Maybe some other time.

I got a couple of souvenirs of the old place before they took it away.





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Update 

 Well it looks like Somebody tried to pull a scam and got caught. To bad they tore down the old Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge. Now it will probably stay a vacant lot for a long time. I know my Uncle who built that Motor Lodge would probably be pretty pissed right now.

 

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Update

  

July 23, 2014

 Fortune

Whistleblower unmasked as partners battle over $14.7 million award

 

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Update

July 29, 2014

Well, I found out that they finally put the property up for sale. Back when my Grandparents and my Uncle sold it back in 1972, I remember my uncle saying that they got 1 million for the Building, I million for the land underneath the building and 1 Million for the property that was on the east side of the Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge at 8101 Higgins rd, They later sold the Howard Johnson Restaurant for 600K in 1984 or 85. That was a lot of money back then. Here is what they want for the property now in 2014.

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I Had a Dream Today

                                                     I Had a Dream Today


 I just woke up from a nap. While I was asleep I had a dream.  I was talking to someone, telling them about a memory I have of my Dad. This is that dream...
 
  While I was growing up I always remembered my Dad in a fresh pressed white starch shirt with a tie around his neck as he got ready to go to work in the morning. He would hug me before he left and when he did I could smell the Mennen After Shave lotion that he had on. He always smelled so good. I went on to tell this person that I used to wear it when I was a teenager but when I joined the Navy they didn't allow you to use it in boot camp. From then on I stopped wearing after shave lotion. 

 I started to wake up and the dream was fresh in my mind. That's when it hit me that my Dad died 9 years ago today on November 25th 1963. 

 I got up to make sure I had the date right so I looked it up on my computer. I also found out that today is the day my Mom and Dad got married back on November 25th 1937. 

Today I'm going to wear his Mennen After Shave lotion. It's funny how certain smells can bring back so many memories. It feels like Dad is right her in the room with me.


 Bill Kaufman

My Train Set

                                                                                                                                                             My Train Set

                                                 
My son always liked trains when he was little. We had a train station that was close to our house at the time.  So when he was 7 or 8 years old I wanted to build one for him. I had never built a train layout before so it was all new to me. I went to the hobby shop and picked up a book that showed different layouts and how to build them. Since I had gotten a divorce, I lived by myself in a little one bedroom apartment. There wasn't any room so I chose this one layout that was 4x6. It just fit in my little dining area. It was fun building it and it gave my son and I something to talk about when I would call him. Whenever I got stuck and didn't know how to do something I went right for a book that told me how to do it. It took a long time and finally it was done. It wouldn't have taken so long but I didn't have any money. My son finally got to see it and he was excited. He built the mountains and helped me with the landscape. We both loved it. During the Christmas season I put garland and lights all around the edges of the layout and I had the buildings all light up. I put the Christmas music on and watched as the train went around. My son lived with his mother in another state so he didn't get to see the train set during Christmas. I missed being with him.

I always told him that I built the train set for him and he could take it anytime he wanted too. But as the years went by my son grew older and I lost interest in our train set. I let it go and it got all dusty. The landscape looked terrible and the train wouldn't work anymore and that's the way it stayed. My son got married and moved away as far as he could. I still don't know why. I have been in this same apartment for 27 years now. I guess I got a little depressed last week because it's that time of the year when everybody decorates for Christmas. I looked over at the train set still sitting in my living area and thought about my son and how it use to be between the two of us. I really miss that. I didn't want to look at it any longer and I thought about throwing it away in the dumpster in the back of my apartment. I got up and went over to the train set and just looked at it for a while. I happen to see a bag of grass left over from long ago. I picked it up and wondered how it would look if I sprinkled a little grass on the layout. It looked cool. I had nothing to do so I got out the bottle of the white scenic cement and started brushing it on the layout. I sprinkled a little more grass down over the cement. "Hey, that looks good." Before I knew it I was hooked. I had to get this train set looking good again. In the mean time I sat down and worked on the train itself and got it running again.

 I decided to redo the whole train set but this time I'm doing it for me. I still have a long way to go before I'm finished with the scenery but I'm having fun. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I want to put the garland and lights around the layout again just like I used to do and play Christmas music. My only wish for Christmas would be if my son was with me when I turn on the lights in the town and get the train going around the tacks.            

                                                  

I DON"T UNDERSTAND

 

 Well the stock Market fell 312 points today the day after the Election. Could someone Please tell me WHY a little over half of the country is cheering that Obama got re elected, no really, I really don't understand. The Divided States of America is going in the dumper and they are cheering about the fact that he gets to continue to do his job. At least I can look forward to another stimulus check.

 There were a couple of reasons I think Romney lost. The first one that comes to my mind is that he didn't follow up on Benghazi Gate. He had Obama in the hot seat and then he just let it go. That was a real biggie. Romney decided to play it nice and that cost him the election. The other reason was Hurricane Sandy. Although there was nothing Romney could do to stop it, it didn't help matters when Obama came to play president and take advantage of the photo ops with Governor Christie. All that back slapping and Christie's remarks surely set Romney back.

 Well there is nothing I can do about anything so I'll just sit back and wait to see what happens while I wither away and die.