About this Site
About Hot Shoppes
Before becoming a hotel baron, J. Willard Marriott was a restauranteur. In 1927 he, his wife Alice, and friend Hugh Colton opened the first Hot Shoppe, a small A&W Root Beer stand in Washington, D.C. Later Hot Shoppes restaurants were sit-down full-service family eateries, complete with a drive-in lane for curbside meals. During the chain's heyday in the early 1960s there were more than 70 Hot Shoppes restaurants and cafeterias up and down the East Coast from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Greensboro, North Carolina. Hot Shoppes also provided food service to airlines, hospitals, apartment buildings, and highway rest areas in this region.
Marriott began its exit from the restaurant business in the late 1980s, as it slowly began liquidating its Hot Shoppes brand. The last Hot Shoppes restaurants finally closed down in the weeks before the Millenium.
Charles Baptie
Charles Baptie, a photographer, printer, and publisher, was born in Munhall, Pennsylvania, on March 13, 1914. Early in life, Baptie became interested in photography and airplanes, interests that would eventually lead to him becoming a photographer and public relations agent for Capital Airlines. His camera recorded the life of the airline for many years. When Capital Airlines merged with United Airlines, Baptie left the company and formed his own business, Charles Baptie Studios, Inc.
While operating his own studio, Baptie provided photographs for more than fifty books and other publications, including: Capital Airlines: A Nostalgic Flight Into the Past, Great Houses of Washington, Camera on Assignment (with Ollie Atkins), the sixteen volume Encyclopedia of United States History, Guest House of the Presidents, the story of the Blair Lee House, and Mid the Hills of Pennsylvania. As a photojournalist, Baptie covered feature stories for leading magazines and other news publications. Over the course of his journalistic career, Baptie met and photographed many world leaders and public figures. He passed away November 9, 2000.
The Charles Baptie Photograph Collection
The Charles Baptie Photograph Collection contains images from his more than sixty-year career as a photographer. Featured are color prints and negatives of Gunston Hall, the home of George Mason; color transparencies from the Encyclopedia of United States History; color transparencies and prints from the book, Great Houses of Washington, D.C.; black & white negatives of the Washington metropolitan area; and photographs of George Mason College. There are, in addition, aerial photographs, photographs documenting malaria prevention overseas, and publicity photographs for various print publications. Also included in this collection are photographs pertaining to the childrens' book, Herkie the Pup, written by Baptie. The total volume of the collection is 26 linear feet, consisting of 24 document boxes, 35 3-ring photo boxes, and 12 oversize boxes.
Hot Shoppes restaurant photos make up Series 6 of the collection. The series includes images of Hot Shoppes food, airline service, kitchens, dining rooms, and exteriors of the restaurants.