Murphy’s Diner in storage, June 1994, Peabody, Mass.
Regular readers of this blog should recall the post I wrote back in November about the former Murphy’s Diner of North Cambridge, Mass., a 1950 vintage Jerry O’Mahony built stainless steel diner, see…. https://dinerhotline.wordpress.com/2009/11/28/murphys-diner-lives-on/ .
That post was about how and when I found this diner and where it now is operating today. That post was eventually brought to the attention of Stephen G. Surette, the editor of a magazine entitled “Growing up in North Cambridge”. Steve knew about the group of 1957 graduates of Matignon High School (that I mentioned in the earlier post) who are making a trip over to England this coming May to have a mini-reunion at the 50″s American Diner (which is the former Murphy’s Diner where they used to hang-out after school).
Steve contacted me within the last 2 months and asked me to write about Murphy’s so I reworked the post from the blog and sent it along with some photos. Steve ended up making the “copy” I sent to him into a “2-part” story. The first installment has now been published in Volume 11, Spring 2010 edition of the magazine. The second installment will be out in Volume 12, Summer/Fall 2010 in the next couple of months.
The reworked article is entitled Murphy’s Diner lives on (and how I found it) , It features one of my photos from when the diner was in storage in Peabody, Mass. and a photo from the Survey of Architectural History, Northwest Cambridge book put out by the Cambridge Historical Commission in the late 1970’s. Also, I provided a photo of the 1st incarnation of Murphy’s Diner, a 1939 Worcester semi-streamliner that was on the 2525 Mass. Avenue site prior to the O’Mahony.
This photo of the earlier diner was shot by none other than my pal John Baeder at it’s 2nd location, when it was operating as the Victory Diner, 190 Hampshire St. near Inman Square in Cambridge. In fact it was more than likely the first photo of a diner John ever shot (circa 1967 or 1968), see below. I had a photocopy of this but remembered that Dick Gutman may have had the original (I was correct). He sent me a good scan which I passed along to Steve, who got permission from John to use it!
Victory Diner (the 1st incarnation of Murphy’s), with the black
porcelain panels painted over. Photo by John Baeder
Steve provided a photo that shows the 1st Murphy’s at the Mass. Ave. location (way in the background of the shot) from July 6, 1945. In fact he also provided a blow up of the same photo which shows the diner in better detail. He even included a photo he got from the Cambridge Historical Commission of the earlier version of the Victory Diner on Hampshire St. a “Brill” diner that the first “Murphy’s” took the place of in the early 50’s.
You can order a copy of the magazine at http://growingupinnorthcambridge.com/
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