Solution: Historic Preservation
Answer: BAKER STARTS PLAYING DOCTOR

Written by Jonah Ostroff

The puzzle consists of 24 things to find, followed by 24 panoramas, so the first thing to do is to try to find them. Each clued business appears in one panorama, and the panoramas are arranged alphabetically by the names of the businesses. Each panorama also comes with a number, which can be indexed into the names:

Clue Order Clue Panorama Business name Index Indexed letter
1 an eatery & pub... P Monty’s 3 N
2 a hotel across from... W Travelodge 7 O
3 a restaurant whose name... X Wing & Fish 1 W
4 a chain variety store... G Family Dollar 1 F
5 a restaurant next to Tobacco & ... T Thai Time 6 I
6 a music store... R Rock N Roll 5 N
7 a chain pharmacy... Q Rite Aid 7 D
8 a national sandwich shop chain... S Subway 1 S
9 a gas station... F Citgo 5 O
10 a lounge... U Timbers 3 M
11 an Australian... E Christmas Elves 13 E
12 a realtor... K IPro Realty 7 A
13 an Afghan restaurant... M Kabob Zone 3 B
14 a furniture and electronics store... A Aaron’s 2 A
15 an organic supermarket... V TNS Health Food 2 N
16 an athletics club... L JD Gyms 2 D
17 a car repair shop... H Foreign Auto Service 11 O
18 a Hibachi buffet... J Hunan Hibachi Buffet 3 N
19 a hair salon... I Great Clips 3 E
20 a Japanese buffet... O Minado 5 D
21 a financial institution... B Bank of the West 8 H
22 a hotel with a... N La Quinta 4 U
23 a sandwich shop... C Best Steak and Gyros 4 T
24 a furniture store... D Buddy’s Home Furnishings 6 S

The indexed letters spell NOW FIND SOME ABANDONED HUTS. Exploring the panoramas some more, solvers may notice that each one contains a building that used to be a Pizza Hut, most of which are identifiable by the iconic roofs and/or trapezoidal windows. For example, Panorama C contains this liquor store:

A liquor store labeled Nemo's, with a Pizza Hut-style roof.

Panorama M contains this church:

A church labeled Holiness Tabernacle, with Pizza Hut's trapezoidal windows.'

Some solvers may spot the Pizza Huts early, but the pairing is still necessary to find the ordering of the panoramas for the next step.

Now, repeat the extraction with the names of the businesses in these abandoned Huts:

Clue Order Panorama Former Pizza Hut Index Indexed letter
1 P Subway 3 B
2 W Physical Therapy Specialists of Idaho 7 A
3 X Kevin’s Package Store 1 K
4 G Elations 1 E
5 T Rock N Roll Sushi 6 R
6 R Relish 5 S
7 Q Mass Motors 7 T
8 S American School of Jewelry 1 A
9 F Clear Choice MD 5 R
10 U After Dark 3 T
11 E Seaspray Pools 13 S
12 K Hakim Optical 7 P
13 M Holiness Tabernacle 3 L
14 A Carewell Urgent Care 2 A
15 V Symposium 2 Y
16 L Little Dessert Shop 2 I
17 H Flo-Anna’s Diner 11 N
18 J Big Ed’s BBQ 3 G
19 I Red Apple Diner 3 D
20 O Curion 5 O
21 B Electric Lettuce 8 C
22 N Fast Payday Loans 4 T
23 C Nemo’s 4 O
24 D Fried Rice #2 6 R

The indexed letters spell the answer, BAKER STARTS PLAYING DOCTOR, which I guess is what would happen if a Pizza Hut employee in some of these locations continued to work in the same building.

Author’s Notes

Most of the former Pizza Huts in this puzzle were found on /r/FormerPizzaHuts.

Originally, the plan was to embed a navigable Google Street View of each location, but many of the FPHs turn over often enough that moving to a nearby Street View location (taken at a different time) can reveal a different business. I was also dreading having to fact-check the puzzle right up to the day of the hunt.

Huge thanks to Justin for figuring out the tech necessary to postprod this.