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Don Boyd | all galleries >> Memories of Old Hialeah, Old Miami and Old South Florida Photo Galleries - largest non-Facebook collection on the internet >> Miami Area GAS STATIONS Historical Photos gallery - All Years - click on image to view > 1963 - a Gulf gas station, Jerry Clarke Real Estate, the Keyhole, Hurricane Harbor lounge and a restaurant on Key Biscayne
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SEP-1963

1963 - a Gulf gas station, Jerry Clarke Real Estate, the Keyhole, Hurricane Harbor lounge and a restaurant on Key Biscayne

24 Crandon Boulevard, Key Biscayne, Florida


This is another Paradise lost: 23.9 cents for a gallon of gas at Gulf, $15,000 homes on Key Biscayne at Jerry's, 25 cent drinks next door at two lounges and $2.95 filet mignons at the Hurricane Harbor Lounge. The restaurant looks like a Howard Johnson's but the cupola was not the standard HoJo variety - can anyone identify what it was in 1963?


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Terence 30-May-2011 03:18
I visited the former Howard Johnson and La Carreta restaurant at the far right (12 Crandon Blvd) last Sunday, May 22 - it is now El Cayo Cuba Restaurant. Same Orange Roof but no more cupola, just the concrete base.

I was also trying to check out the former Howard Johnson Restaurant at 2901 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. As far as I knew it was Bavaro Cafe - A Dominican Restaurant - but when I got there for lunch on Friday (May 20) I realised that it has closed down like so many other places at this location apparently.

I will have to wait until the next restaurant opens at that location.

BTW the Hollywood Gateway Inn on the same lot was, of course, the Howard Johnson Hotel that accompanied the restaurant - the A-Frame roof section is still in evidence
Armando Campaneria 20-Oct-2009 16:43
I spent over 10 years delivering McArthur Dairy & Tropicana products on the Key.
My home delivery route expanded when Fisher Island (Bill Reboso was caretaker of the island then) was starting and hosted the first tennis tournaments. The barge would take me in my 1955 Divco milk truck from Virginia Key. In the weekends I worked at the Key Biscayne Golf Course cleaning golf carts. The best breakfast was at the Donut Gallery (Ted's special).
Guest 18-Nov-2008 01:28
According to America's Landmark: Under the Orange Roof, a website dedicated to the history of Howard Johnson's, the restaurant to the far right was indeed a Hojo's, located at 12 Crandon Boulevard during the 1960s.
Guest 24-Jan-2008 21:09
I remember when the key was all woods and you had to sneak through the woods to get to the lighthouse. We had lots of parties out there and initiations into the various high school fraternities. We painted our greek letters (Tau Nu Sigma) on the top structure which at that time could only be reached by climbing. It has now been rebuilt and everything painted over.
Guest 16-Sep-2007 03:28
The Gulf station was owned by a guy named "Geist" and he had lost a finger to a belt years before. I tended to trade at the Shell station on the other side of Harbor Drive until the gas crisis in 1973. Then the Shell station only took care of special clients, and I who had to have gas to get to work could only get it at the Gulf station.

I lived at 141 Harbor Drive for 15 years.

I can still remember when the Ho Jo's was a Ho Jo's.
- Mark Lincoln
vlkyrie 31-Jul-2007 02:32
Hi ! I was born and raised on the Key. Howard Johnson's... (became the Beachhouse restaurant )the memories ! Across the street was Larry's Texaco... and nothing but woods till you got to the ocean.. I remember the days on the old KeyColony golf course, now the the humongous condo); the silver sands... thanks for photos! The Key Biscayne Hotel and Villas...My mom had a key to the gates to the get down to the light house to fish off the wall, All woods and palms and pines. The old Mashta Mansion, used for a church for awhile.. then Jim Griffin came with the crane and ball and we were all there to watch it be wrecked; fishing off the rocks there at the Mashta tip and the old boathouse from the mansion; the old rendevous... riding my bike past ... I remember the smell of smoke and liquor seeping out to the walkway... the Ott brothers used to hang there... The Jamaica Inn and English Pub... Listening for the lion's roar every late afternoon from the Zoo...the merry go round, skating rink parties! The Collosium Bowl, that became a skating rink ( Douglas Rd, now Publix and Condos!) Taking the buses to downtown to go to the Olympia and Miami theaters (From Russia with Love...first James Bond Movie!) or Burdines, Richards, Jordan Marsh... the great old Jewish deli in the Seybold buiding; Howard Johnson on the corner of 3rd and the Brickell, now the entrance for driver's wanting to hope on 95; The gorgeous Library on Bayfront.. gee thanks Ferrar..., the Candlelight Inn in the Grove; Late nights to Royal Castle on 27th and US1, Gordon's bait and tackle next door! The Serpentarium, now the sight of Siam restaurant. The drive- in at the Apex Bird and Us 1, now Post office; Coral Gables High and lunch time at Don's Den. Allen's Drugs in the 60's! I could go on and on. Yes... Miami was a finer place, a gorgeous, simple elegant paradise... I know all of us that shared it, yearn for that atmosphere...
Don Boyd24-Jun-2007 15:37
If you'd like to post the menu send it to me at SunbirdPhoto@aol.com and I'll put it up. My e-mail address is under "profile" in the top left corner of some of the pages. Thanks. Don
Guest 24-Jun-2007 12:58
I also have a website with a menu of that era for the Hurricane Harbor Lounge but your site won't let me post it
Guest 24-Jun-2007 12:49
I do not remember the name of the other restaurant but it definetly was not a HoJos. It is now a La Carreta restaurant. I remember the Keyhole very well as I hung out there with my motorcycle buddies when we cruised into Key Biscayne. It was a local hangout for key rats, as the working class locals called themselves