Howard Johnson Co. - Available in Blue, Orange or Green - 1960's-70's dated Restaurant & Hotel Chain Stock Certificate - Printed Signature of Howard B. Johnson

Stock for one of the oldest restaurant chains in US. Vignette of a woman, a baker serving a boy with a dog and a man lighting a street lamp with a boy. Printed by Security-Columbian Banknote Company. Available in Blue, Orange or Green. Please specify color.

Howard Johnson's, also known as Howard Johnson by Wyndham, is an American hotel and motel chain primarily found across the United States and Canada. It was once a well-known restaurant chain for over 90 years, recognized for its name alone. Founded by Howard Deering Johnson, it became the largest restaurant chain in the U.S. during the 1960s and 1970s, boasting over 1,000 combined company-owned and franchised locations. Currently, Howard Johnson hotels and motels are part of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts. The restaurants under the Howard Johnson's brand were franchised separately from the hotel division starting in 1986, but their numbers significantly declined in the subsequent years, nearly vanishing by the turn of the century. As of 2018, only one Howard Johnson's restaurant remains operational: located in Lake George, New York. The rights to the food and beverage offerings of this restaurant are presently held by Wyndham Worldwide. The line of branded frozen supermarket foods, including ice cream, is no longer produced. As of December 31, 2018, the chain has 338 locations with a total of 42,181 rooms.

In 1925, Howard Deering Johnson secured a loan of $2,000 to purchase and run a small corner pharmacy in Wollaston, a neighborhood in Quincy, Massachusetts. Johnson was pleasantly surprised to find that repaying the loan was straightforward, as his newly installed soda fountain quickly became the most popular feature of his drugstore. To ensure the continued success of his store, Johnson resolved to create a new ice cream recipe. Some accounts suggest that this recipe was inspired by his mother's homemade ice creams and desserts, while others attribute it to a local German immigrant who either sold or gifted the recipe to Johnson. The new formulation enhanced the ice cream's flavor by increasing its butterfat content. Ultimately, Johnson developed 28 distinct flavors of ice cream. He is famously quoted as saying, "I thought I had every flavor in the world. That '28' (flavors of ice cream) became my trademark."

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