Marking 13 years of blogging, Diner Hotline style…

This coming Saturday, October 31, 2020 will mark 13 years since I started this blog. Granted I have not been very regular with my posts this year, but there is nothing “very regular” about this year anyway!

Truth be told, I am still working on my multi-year project – scanning of my diner photos/slides. I have completed scanning all the 35mm slides that I shot between March 1983 thru to mid-2008. For the last two years I have been slogging thru the scanning and cleaning up of the 35mm prints I shot between November, 1980 and March, 1983. The prints take longer as the clean-up/enhancing is fairly time consuming as I am extremely particular on how the photos should look.

To mark this anniversary, I want to look back to the origins of Diner Hotline and how it eventually morphed into this blog. Diner Hotline started way back in the early to mid-1980s (long before the internet) as an unofficial way to communicate info and issues concerning American Diners. Basically I would phone Dick Gutman, John Baeder, David Hebb or other interested people (usually a select group of like-minded members of the Society for Commercial Archeology) to let them know some tidbit of info on the goings on in the diner community. I would usually start off the greeting by saying… “Diner Hotline, Diner Hotline” and then proceed to impart the news I had to tell the particular individual that I had called.

In November of 1988, the Society for Commercial Archeology had a yearly gathering hosted by The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. It was a memorable event with hundreds of people from all over the country in attendance. A few weeks after I attended the event, I had phoned the then President of the SCA, Michael B. “Mike” Jackson. I happened to mention some now forgotten diner news and he suggested that I should write a piece for the SCA NewsJournal. He even went as far as saying it should be a regular column! My first reaction was to almost decline as in my mind, I was not a writer. But as we continued talking, I started to warm up to the idea and basically said yes, I would give it a shot. I do recall telling Mike that I already had a name for the column – Diner Hotline.

So, in December of 1988, I wrote the first brief installment of Diner Hotline. It appeared in the Spring, 1989 issue of the SCA NewsJournal.

the front cover of the Spring, 1989 Issue of the SCA NewsJournal.
You can see the first official reference to Diner Hotline in the bottom right corner…

Page 10 of the Spring, 1989 SCA NewsJournal showing my first Diner Hotline

I continued to write Diner Hotline, which became the first ever regular column for any of the SCA publications. Within a few years, the SCA Board of Directors decided the NewsJournal was not being produced as frequently as they would have liked. After all, it sort of started as a newsletter that had actually outgrown the format and it was taking longer for all the different pieces of the puzzle to come together and be published. It was decided to revamp the concept and split the publication into a newsletter called The SCA News which would be published four times a year. They would also create a new publication, a magazine called the SCA Journal which would be published twice a year. The Board offered me the option as to which publication to contribute Diner Hotline to. I opted for the Journal as I would only have two deadlines.

I wrote all but one Diner Hotline from that first Spring, 1989 Issue of the NewsJournal until the Fall, 2007 Issue of the Journal when I officially retired the column.

The cover from the Fall, 2007 Issue of the Journal featuring my final Diner Hotline for the SCA

Page 30 of the Fall, 2007 Issue showing my last Diner Hotline

Page 31 with the continuation of my final SCA Diner Hotline

Page 36 showing the last page of my final SCA Diner Hotline

So, not long after I retired the Diner Hotline column I was convinced by long-time friend Brian Butko to create this blog. He suggested the WordPress platform to use for this new endeavor. I checked it out and made my first tentative post into blogging on October 31, 2007. Here is the link to that short piece… https://dinerhotline.wordpress.com/2007/10/31/

Since that inauspicious & brief blog post, I have written many posts! Quite a few have taken a life of their own, such as an early one on local (to the Boston area) drive-in restaurants… https://dinerhotline.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/drive-in-restaurants-from-years-past/ and my personal favorite is the only post that was co-written by me and someone else (my friend Matt Simmons)… the one about the The Abandoned Luncheonette, aka the Rosedale Diner, the diner depicted on the cover of Daryl Hall & John Oates 1973 LP of the same name…. https://dinerhotline.wordpress.com/2010/08/14/the-story-of-the-the-abandoned-luncheonette-aka-the-rosedale-diner/ Those two blog posts have generated the most comments by far!

But the biggest thing that happened was being contacted by The History Press in early 2011 about the possibility of me authoring a book for them on Diners. It was initially proposed as a book on Diners of New England. But I was familiar with the books that The History Press put out and I informed the editor that you could not do justice to the region with a book that only had just under 200 pages. So it was suggested that I do one on Massachusetts Diners. I agreed that would be more doable and put together an outline which was accepted. This led to me writing my first book for them entitled Classic Diners of Massachusetts (October, 2011) and ultimately my second book, New Hampshire Diners: Classic Granite State Eateries (October, 2014).

After these books came out, I continued to write the blog but the frequency of posts have dwindled. But I promise that I will continue to keep the blog alive and make more posts. The next one will be in a month to mark a huge milestone – 40 years of photographing diners!

Thanks for coming along for the ride!!!

Diner Hotline weblog – 8 years old today!!!

October 31, 2015 is of course Halloween, but also the date marks the 8th anniversary of the creation of this blog! As some of my readers know, Diner Hotline started as the first regular column to ever appear in the publications of the Society for Commercial Archeology (SCA). It was suggested to me by Mike Jackson (then president of the SCA) in the Fall of 1988 during a phone conversation that I could possibly write a piece to appear in the SCA News Journal. The News Journal was the organization’s only regular publication at the time that was a combination newsletter/magazine.

When he suggested to me about writing a column, I first thought… I am not a writer, but then again I read a lot and could probably relate personal tales associated with diners and happen to have had some good info and sources at my disposal to possibly attempt something like this. I also thought that it was an opportunity to be one of the few “non-academic voices” (basically the average everyday roadside enthusiast) contributing to the publication. I even recall saying to Mike… I already have a name for the column, “Diner Hotline”, which had been a sort of inside joke between myself, David Hebb , Dick Gutman and John Baeder. I had been known to call any and all of these guys on the phone when I had some juicy tid-bits of news and other information about a diner. As soon as they answered the phone, I would preface by saying “DINER HOTLINE, DINER HOTLINE” and then impart the info!

Thus, Diner Hotline became a reality and the first short piece appeared in the Spring 1989 edition (Volume 10, Number 1) of the SCA News Journal continuing through to when the publication separated into two different entities, the SCA News (a newsletter) and the SCA Journal (a full fledged magazine) The News was published more frequently while the Journal was twice a year. I opted for Diner Hotline to continue in the Journal (only two deadlines a year). My Hotline contributions went though a whole host of Journal editors over the years and continued until  the Fall 2007 edition of the SCA Journal when I retired the column.

Shortly after I retired the column (almost immediately actually) my good friend Brian Butko mentioned to me in passing that I should start a blog! So I asked him some questions about how to go about doing this and by the last day of October of 2007, the blog was born!

So I want to mention that coming up really soon, I will be reviewing the new book about my pal John Baeder (John Baeder’s Road Well Taken). Written by Jay Williams, it is an extremely heavy book (figuratively as well as literally). It is filled with many of his paintings (diner and non-diner) and delves into John’s psyche and how all the influences in his life lead him to become one of the internationally renowned artists of our time.

Also, I have another Author event coming up on Friday evening, November 6th at Gibson’s Bookstore (Concord’s indie bookstore since 1898) in downtown Concord, NH. Starting at 5:30pm with a small slide presentation followed by a book signing for my New Hampshire Diners: Classic Granite State Eateries. Gibson’s Bookstore is located at 45 South Main St, Concord, NH 03301

http://www.gibsonsbookstore.com/event/nh-diners

Diner Hotline is back from hiatus….

I’ll bet a lot of my regular readers who are not connected to me on Facebook have been wondering where I have been. The last post was at the beginning of May and I have been inactive ever since! In fact it is probably the longest period between posts since I started the blog on October 31, 2007! Well some of you know I had contracted with The History Press to author another Diner book…. this new one is called New Hampshire Diners: Classic Granite State Eateries. It is sort of a follow-up to my Classic Diners of Massachusetts that was published almost 3 years ago – October of 2011. I actually worked it out with the publisher to have a longer lead-time with this book but outside of taking a bunch of new photos in late summer and early fall of New Hampshire diners, I basically dragged my feet in the writing department through a portion of the winter. So with the deadline looming I pushed thru the remaining time that I had, between not only working my regular job and trying to write the manuscript, I also was dealing with a health issue that had been coming on.

Back at the end of January I learned that I had Type 2 Diabetes and had to make some lifestyle changes. With the help of my wife Denise, I changed my diet by cutting back on almost all carbohydrates and pretty much all sweets as well as started walking the treadmill at a local gym. So I had to work the gym time into the schedule with the regular work and book writing, which of course increased the anxiety of getting everything done! I am happy to say that all the hard work paid off. I lost around 40 pounds since January and am no longer considered in the diabetes range. I am classified as glucose intolerant which means I will pretty much have to always watch the carbs and sweets intake and am allowed the occasional cheat. I am currently (according to my new scale) just over 170 pounds which is pretty amazing as I probably have not been this weight in 30 years or more!

November of 2013 weighing in at around 214 pounds or so.

April 13, 2014 with Dick Gutman after my slide presentation at the
Morse Institute Library in Natick, Mass. In this photo I am under 180 pounds and
I am actually even lighter at the time of this post!

Anyway, I also met the deadlines for the book,as the photos were submitted a week before the July 1st deadline and the manuscript 2 days before the July 22nd deadline! I approached this book differently than the first as the diner scene in New Hampshire is not as straightforward (in my mind) as Massachusetts was. In Massachusetts I was able to separate the chapters into the different regions of the state which made writing that book fairly easy. New Hampshire’s diners can be classified as either spread out or concentrated into small groups, making the regional chapters unworkable. I instead decided to break the book in chapters that touched on the strengths of this particular demographic that the state seems to dictate. Starting out with “Lunch Wagons“, I of course show some old postcards from the collection that depict lunch wagons in street scenes and then went on to feature Gilley’s P.M Lunch, the last surviving truck-pulled Worcester Lunch Car (now permanently anchored and no longer movable) in downtown Portsmouth. The other place I featured in this chapter was the Lion’s Corner Popcorn Wagon of Goffstown. I consider this a second cousin to a lunch wagon and that is why I included it here.

A postcard image showing a lunch wagon in Woodsville, NH circa 1914

Gilley’s P.M. Lunch in Portsmouth, NH. April 2014 photo by Larry Cultrera

Lion’s Corner Popcorn Wagon in Goffstown, NH. May 2014 photo by Larry Cultrera

Chapter 2 is the longest chapter that talks about “Long-time Favorites”, basically diners that have spent their entire life (or in some cases, most of their life) operating in the Granite State!

One of the Long-time Favorites is the Bristol Diner of Bristol, NH.
May 2014 photo by Larry Cultrera

Another Long-time Favorite is the Milford Red Arrow Diner.
May 2014 photo by Larry Cultrera

The 3rd Chapter is about “Transplanted Diners”. New Hampshire is unique in the New England region because even though a lot of diners have disappeared or moved out of state in the last 50 years, at least 8 or 9 diners have actually been moved into New Hampshire in the last 35 years after having operated in other states previously!

The Tilt’n Diner when it was in Salisbury, Mass. as Linda’s Jackpot Diner.
Early 1980s photo by Larry Cultrera

The Tilt’n Diner of Tilton, NH today. August 3, 2013 photo by Larry Cultrera

The Route 104 Diner at its original location on Route 6 in Johnston, RI operating
as Lloyd’s Diner. October 29, 1981 photo by Larry Cultrera

The Route 104 Diner of New Hampton, NH today. August 3, 2013 photo by Larry Cultrera

Chapter 4 has the “Onsite/Homemade Diners” of which there are more than quite a few in the Granite State.

George’s Diner of Meredith, NH. August 3, 2013 photo by Larry Cultrera

Joey’s Diner of Amherst, NH. May 18, 2014 photo by Larry Cultrera

Chapter 5 is called “Former New Hampshire Diners Living Another Life Elsewhere” and deals with diners that have moved out of New Hampshire, either to a new operating location, or at the very least into storage for possible reuse.

Tony’s Diner of Rye, NH. Early 1980s photo by Larry Cultrera

Louis’ Diner of Concord, NH. Early 1980s photo by Larry Cultrera

 

The last Chapter (6) brings attention to some “Lost Diners”, including ones I have managed to photograph since the early 1980s as well as old postcard images of others that do not exist anymore!

The Lancaster Diner of Lancaster, NH. January 4, 1986 photo by Larry Cultrera

Andre’s Diner of Manchester, NH. August 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

 

A bonus that I had not planned to include was a piece on “Spider Osgood”, probably the most incredible short order cook ever to work a back bar! The idea cropped up while doing research and ended up being something that needed to be included in any book about New Hampshire Diners. Ken “Spider” Osgood was a well know character in and around the Lakes Region of New Hampshire and there are many people who have related stories about this guy over the years. I started hearing about him back around the mid-1980s and in 1989, while being interviewed by a producer for a segment on Diners for the CBS Sunday Morning show, the cameraman related a story to me about recalling this guy everyone called Spider working the grill of a diner he frequented back in his college days. So I googled his name and found this video made from a movie shot by Gary Anderson of New Hampshire Movies Inc. back in 1971. This shows Spider at his best late one night….  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR1Z99XgQew

Spider Osgood at the Paugus Diner. 1991 photo by George Surabian

 

I recently got the first draft of what the cover will look like back from the publisher and besides an edit on the back of the cover this is pretty much the way it will look….

I like the mix of new an old photos on this cover as in fact this book does feature a lot of before and after shots. More than the last book! I am also glad they took my suggestion of including Mary Ann’s Diner on the cover and that it is the largest image outside of the title block! For many years I have been looking to take the definitive photo of this on-site diner and was never successful. Part of the problem (OK, most of the problem) was the fact that I was always there in the morning and it was never the best light for a photo. Finally at the end of a day shooting diners for the book back in April, I was on my way back from the Lakes Region and decided to swing by on the way home. This was around 3:00 or 3:30 pm after the place closed for the day. It was the perfect light! When I downloaded it from the camera I saw this shot and said YES! This should be on the cover of the book!

The book should be published by October. I’ll keep you posted

Goodbye to the Rosebud Diner

Well as reported in the past few months, the Rosebud Diner of Davis Square in Somerville, Mass. has finally closed under the ownership of the Nichols family after a long run. The Nichols’ actually purchased the diner from its original owner back in 1957 and almost immediately they converted it to use as a Cocktail Lounge/Bar. The backbar was removed along with all the cooking equipment and the original ventilation hood when it became the cocktail lounge. It was operated this way right up until around 1989 when the family sold it. During the time period from 1989-1994 it was operated by at least 2 different entities, one of which was a Tex-Mex place called the Cuckoo’s Nest. At that point a couple of more changes were made to the already altered interior. The original stainless steel covered refrigerator was removed and the left end of the counter was chopped off. When the place closed circa 1994, the new owners defaulted on the mortgage that was held by the Nichols family. The Nichols’ ended up getting the diner back thru land court at this point. The diner had gotten a slightly bad reputation and the Nichols’ decided that it was time to bring the building back as a true diner.

Bill and Nicky Nichols on Grand Reopening day, February, 1995 at the
Rosebud Diner –  photo by Larry Cultrera

So the family spent a few months cleaning up the interior by refinishing the original woodwork getting some used wooden booths that were not too different than what had been there originally as well as installing a new left end of the counter. They also refurbished the neon sign on the roof. The menu from 1995 to now had been slightly upscale but the diner was now serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. The back room which had operated as another space variously as an upscale Italian Restaurant, Night Club and eventually a venue for live music acts and bar & grill since 1995. About a year and a half ago rumors started flying that the diner was for sale. The first rumors never panned out but more recently the word got out that a guy named Marty Bloom was in the running to buy the place. Bloom had started the successful chain of upscale restaurants called Vinny Testa’s (later known as Vinny T’s) and eventually sold the chain and started other venues. Bloom’s reported plans for the diner have not sounded like he wants to retain the interior character unfortunately. He does say the exterior will remain the same and as I believe, the fact that the diner is listed in the National Register of Historic Places will not protect it from being altered. So I guess the future of this classic diner remains to be seen.

Back in March, Glenn Wells and Mike Engle decided they wanted to make a trip out from the Albany area to check out the Rosebud one last time. They were joined by myself, David Hebb, Gary Thomas and Bob Marville on March 3, 2013 and we all had breakfast. We kibitzed with Billy Nichols and Helen DeFransisco and shot some photos, etc.

Left to right, Larry Cultrera, Glenn Wells (in back), David Hebb, Mike Engle, Gary Thomas and Bob Marville at the Rosebud Diner. March 3, 2013 photo by Larry Cultrera

I have been friends with Billy Nichols for around 30 years. Along with my friendship, I have actually designed the logo for their coffee mugs as well as a breakfast menu and 2 post cards for the diner. I actually had one last meal about 3 weeks ago on a Friday night and the diner closed after the day of business on Sunday May 26, 2013. I got an email this past Saturday morning from Dick Gutman who had placed a link for  a Craigslist ad  to a yard sale at the diner. They were selling off various and sundry things like dish ware, pots and pans, etc. Denise and I stopped by for one last visit.

Bill and Nicky Nichols on Saturday June 1, 2013 at the Rosebud Diner
 photo by Larry Cultrera

 Rosebud Diner during yard sale, June 1, 2013 photo by Larry Cultrera

I’ll be keeping in touch with Billy Nichols and wish him well along with Helen DeFransisco, his dad Gally and brother Nicky. I hope the diner does not get trashed too bad, but I guess that will remain to be seen.

Diners and such, Fall River, Mass. in the 1980’s

I have probably written this before (in the book for sure), that back in the 1980’s, the old mill towns in Massachusetts still had high concentrations of diners left over from earlier decades. The cities of Lowell, Attleboro and Lynn come to mind. As the last 30 years have gone by, the amount of diners in these towns have also dwindled. In this post I am going to talk about the South Coast city of Fall River.

To start off this little tour, I am going to take you for a ride down the main thoroughfare known as Pleasant Street. Back in the 1980’s, Fall River still had 5 diners, 3 of them were located on Pleasant Street.

Paramount Diner/Catering

The first diner, heading from west to east on this street was the Paramount Diner/Paramount Catering located approximately at 171 Pleasant St. This was a  barrel-roofed Worcester Lunch Car dating from sometime in the 1930’s. I was checking through some Worcester Lunch Car Company info and could not find a Worcester Diner of this style and size that was delivered brand-new from the factory to Fall River. I suspect it was brought here from elsewhere (possibly the former Romeo’s Diner of nearby New Bedford). As I understand it, this operated at this location as the State Diner circa 1940 and was renamed the Paramount Diner later.

Paramount Diner/Catering at 171 Pleasant St. in Fall River, Mass. This is from my first visit to document diners in Fall River. I do not know the exact date as it was taken just before I started the diner log in July of 1981. It looks like the owners were covering the exterior with T-111 wooden panelling. The diner was just being used for a catering operation at this time.

In this second shot from the same visit in July of 1981, you can see the diner was attached to a larger building in the rear which itself was attached to what looks to be an old gas station-type building.

Here we see the diner in April of 1984 looking to be in similar condition.
No more T-111 has been installed (or finished for that matter). The only big difference is the windows on the side of the addition which were covered in the earlier shots are now uncovered, at least on the outside.

In doing some research for this post I came across an obituary from the Fall River Herald News dated April 26, 2008 for Peter Ciosek. Mister Ciosek passed away on April 25, 2008 at the age of 93. The obituary mentioned that he was the owner of the Paramount Diner/Catering for 35 years. The diner itself was gone by the late 1980’s, reportedly destroyed in a fire. There is currently an “L” shaped modern professional building on this site.

Sambo’s Diner

The next diner heading east on Pleasant St. was Sambo’s Diner. Located at 657 Pleasant St. it was a pretty rare configuration built by Paramount Diners of Haledon, NJ. Ironically, I received a scan of an ad from Jeff Kunkle of Vintage Roadside a few years ago. The ad was featured in a rare edition of the trade publication “Diner & Drive-In” magazine dating from May of 1956. The ad depicted this very diner and stated the owner was Sam Schwartz (hence the name Sambo’s).

Advertisement from May, 1956 issue of Diner & Drive-In magazine

This photo and the following three photos were shot in August of 1983 showing this diner in great detail. I can only conjecture that the flat roof of the diner had problems over the years and the owner added this slanted roof over the structure.

As one can see, this was a fairly small diner for the time period.

It was very stylish with large plate glass windows.

Looking inside you can see this interior is a throwback to lunchwagon days.

Unfortunately, this diner was gone by the early 1990’s and was replaced by a Mister Donut (now Dunkin Donut) shop.

Mark You Restaurant

In all those early diner hunting trips driving down Pleasant St., I passed by a completely remarkable looking storefront Chinese restaurant called the Mark You Restaurant (1236 Pleasant St.) and kept saying…. I have got to stop and photograph this place. I finally did shoot some photos of it in November of 1984, and I am so glad I did!  This place was so cool with a facade of black and biege Vitrolite, glass block windows and a tall verticle sign.

The lettering on the facade is probably 1940-1950 vintage and is accented by some stainless-steel trim. It might be hard to read, but the sign on the canopy/base of the verticle sign says “Chow Mein”.

That fantastic verticle sign really makes this place visible driving in either direction on Pleasant St.

A close-up of the sign

Another fantastic detail… a stainless-steel frame within the glass block window with a porthole that features a neon clock!

I checked online to see if this restaurant was still around as the last time I drove this stretch of Pleasant St. in May of 2011, I did not see the place. It seems the restaurant closed in 2007 and remained closed for approximately 3 years before being reopened. Unfortunately, it looks like the black and beige facade has been painted over in blue and white. Also during the 3 years it was closed, the verticle sign was removed, explaining why I did not notice the restaurant last year. I informed Dick Gutman about my plans in writing this post last weekend and mentioned the Mark You and he immediately told me that old friend Dave Waller rescued the sign. Well at least I know it did not go to a junk yard!

Nite Owl Diner

The Nite Owl Diner located at 1680 Pleasant Street is the final stop on this street before we move on. This circa 1956 diner was built by DeRaffele Diners.  I am not sure but I am thinking that this diner was also owned by Fall River “diner king” Al McDermott as this new little stainless-steel job replaced a truck-mounted Worcester Lunch Car (No. 786) that dated from 1945 that he owned.

The original Nite Owl Diner in Fall River. This was Worcester Lunch Car No. 786, the photo was taken right before it was replaced by the current diner.
Photo courtesy of John Baeder

This is possibly my favorite photo that I ever took of the Nite Owl Diner.
It dates to November of 1984 by the look of things, it seems the city was replacing the sidewalks around the diner.

This diner was “finished” on all sides with stainless-steel and red enamel stripes. Like its neighbor down the street, Sambo’s, this was set-up more like a lunch wagon on the interior instead of the more familiar layout.

As you can see the neon sign that had been installed on the roof of the older diner ended up on this one where it still sits today.

I went crazy photographing the diner that day in 1984 as the light was pretty much perfect!

Here is a 1991 “oil on canvas” painting by John Baeder of the Nite Owl.
(used with permission) image courtesy of John Baeder.

As far as I know, the Nite Owl Diner has stood closed now for a number of years but is still very much intact.

Al Mac’s Diner Restaurant

Now that we have left Pleasant St. we will travel back to the other end of town to Al Mac’s Diner located at 135 President Avenue. This is a 1953 vinatge DeRaffele Diner and one of the last bought by Al McDermott. When I first photographed this diner in July of 1981, it was actually facing President Avenue. Unless the light of day was a flat cloudy light, the diner which was facing north was very hard to photograph.

This particular day was sunny, but I managed to squeek out a couple of decent shots.

Before the end of the 1980’s, the diner was rearranged on the property. Basically the building was turned 90 degrees, counter clockwise and a new kitchen was built on the back. This way the large piece of property could be redeveloped into the strip mall that currently exists here.

Here is the diner turned and re-installed at the same location. Because of this new configuration, the diner has become more photogenic as it faces west now. By the way, that sign in this second photograph was brand-new and replaced the one in the older photograph which had rotted and ultimately fallen down.

Here is another “oil on canvas” painting by John Baeder from 1991. This image proves just how photogenic this diner became when it was turned around.

You can see more of John’s paintings here at his website….
http://www.johnbaeder.com/Gallery1.htm

Al Mac’s is a great place to have a meal when you are in the area and currently one of only 2 diners mentioned here that are still operating.

Andy’s Rockland Diner

This diner located at 1019 South Main Street in Fall River was known as just the “Rockland Diner” when I first came across it on March 13, 1982. This diner was built by J.B. Judkins of Merrimac, Mass., the manufacturers of Sterling Diners. This is in fact a Sterling Dinette, a fairly small diner model. This was one of at least two that I knew to exist in Massachusetts. The other was the Old Colony Diner in Mansfield (now The Catman Cafe). In fact both of these dinette models were enlarged by removing the left side wall and placing it on the front elevation.

The Rockland Diner in Fall River, The wall with 3 windows at the extreme
left of the front wall were originally the side wall of the diner.

The diner was enlarged even more with the brick addition on the right.

As I understand it, the diner is now completely encased in brick and fairly unrecogizable as a diner now. After Al Mac’s, the Rockland Diner is the only other diner that is still operating in Fall River.

Taunton Lunch Wagons, lost and found

Up until the winter of 1986, the city of Taunton, Massachusetts held on to a daily tradition that lasted for close to 100 years. It was the last city to host an honest-to-god lunch wagon at the town green. These lunch wagons of course started out as the horse-drawn variety, represented by  T.H. Buckley’s White House Cafe’s, etc. in the late 19th century.

On the right you can see a White House Cafe at the Taunton Green.
Postcard from the collection of  Larry Cultrera

At one point there were four different wagons stationed one to each side of the green. By the year 1933, Behan’s Diner, Worcester Lunch Car No. 719 was operating and was one of the first that was pulled by a truck in that city. At that point there was still at least one horse-drawn wagon, Galligan’s Diner. Jack Hickey went to work as a counterman for Galligan’s in 1942 (according to Dick Gutman’s American Diner Then & Now). By 1944 Hickey stepped up to being an owner, buying an eight stool former horse-drawn wagon that had been mounted on a 1938 White truck. By 1946, Hickey decided to upgrade to a brand-new lunch wagon which he co-designed with Charles Gemme of the Worcester Lunch Car Company. Mounted on the old White truck, Hickey’s Diner No. 798 started plying its trade in 1947 along with Sully’s Diner (the former Behan’s Diner). After a few years Hickey obtained a 1954 bull-nose Chevy truck to replace the old White truck. These two lunch wagons (Hickey’s & Sully’s) continued operating together until circa 1966 when Sully’s was retired, leaving Hickey’s as the last one at the green. I once asked Mike Hickey (Jack’s son) if he ever heard what happened to Sully’s and he was not really sure.

View of the Taunton Green….  that is more than likely Behan’s/Sully’s Diner with the red colored roof in this scene. Postcard from the collection
of Larry Cultrera

In this 1947 postcard view, Hickey’s Diner can be seen just behind the decorated tree near the top center and of course Sully’s Diner is at the
bottom right. Postcard from the collection of Larry Cultrera

A similar view from 1954 showing  Hickey’s Diner near the top center and again Sully’s Diner is at the bottom right. Postcard from the collection
of Larry Cultrera

In 1982, this postcard was put out continuing the tradition of photographing the Christmas decorations at the Taunton Green. It shows a scene from 1948 (with Sully’s Diner) at the top and a 1982 scene (with Hickey’s Diner) at the bottom. Postcard from the collection of Larry Cultrera

Jump to the winter of 1986 and it is announced that the Hickey family will close the last remaining lunch wagon and put it up for sale. I personally heard about it before it was common knowledge because of a unique set of circumstances. Apparently the Hickey family had seen a recent newspaper article about Dick and Ona Jones who at that point had the Apple Tree Diner, formerly of Dedham, Mass. Their son Warren was the last operator of that diner. Warren had to move the diner from its only operating location when the land was sold to a developer in 1981. He hoped to set the diner back up at another location but his plans never panned out. So by late 1985 his parents who had taken over the diner to help Warren out, had the diner moved to auctioneer Paul J. Dias’s property in Hanson, Mass. where they hoped Dias would find a buyer for the diner.

Hickey’s Diner shown at its daytime location on Court Street .
1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

View of Hickey’s Diner showing the kitchen compartment.
1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

View of Hickey’s Diner showing the seating area for customers from the kitchen compartment. 1986 photo by Larry Cultrera

The Hickey’s, as I said saw a newspaper article about this and figured they would make an inquiry to Dias along the same lines. From what I know, Dias must have mentioned it to Dick and Ona Jones and they in turn mentioned it to their son Warren who then called me. I turned around and immediately called Dick Gutman! Dick answered the phone and I said…. “Diner Hotline, Diner Hotline”! Then I proceeded to tell him the news. He was shocked, to say the least. Well during the conversation, I mentioned that I was taking a ride down to Taunton the next afternoon (a Saturday) and check things out.

This is when I actually met Mike Hickey for the first time. I told him of my interest in diners but decided not to mention anything about the news that the diner was for sale as I did not think it was common knowledge. That afternoon I decided I was going to make this a regular Saturday trip until the diner closed. Between that week and the next, the word was leaked to the local newspapers that the diner was for sale, so when I got back there the next Saturday, Mike told me he wanted to let me know about the situation the week before. I told him I wanted to tell him that I did know but figured that the “word was mum” at that point. So we had a little chuckle over that. Anyway, I was a regular customer at Hickey’s every Saturday for the next 6 weeks or so and was one of a handfull of people that was in the diner on that last Sunday morning in March of 1986, when Mike Hickey ceremoniously turned the diner’s lights off for the last time at the Taunton Green. During those last six weeks the diner was operated by the Hickey family, I took quite a few photos of the diner. Here are a few of them…..

Here is Hickey’s Diner heading up Court Street toward the Taunton Green at 4:00 pm on a Saturday. 1986 photo by Larry Cultrera

Hickey’s Diner at the Taunton Green. 1986 photo by Larry Cultrera

Hickey’s Diner at the Taunton Green. 1986 photo by Larry Cultrera

Another view from the winter of 1986. Photo by Larry Cultrera

Perhaps one of my favorite shots from 1986. That’s my blue 1979 Chevy Van with the yellow back door. Photo by Larry Cultrera

Not too long after Hickey’s closed, the City of Taunton ended up buying the diner and keeping it in the city. Ideally, this was a no-brainer. They eventually replaced the old Chevy truck with a newer Ford. The city housed the diner at the Bristol-Plymouth Vocational School and brought the diner out for special occasions, especially at Christmas, where it would be back at the town green.

Unfortunately, by 1998, the city decided they did not want to own the diner anymore and “sold” it for $1.00 to an organization that was billing itself as the “American Diner Museum”. This museum unfortunately only existed on paper. It had an uncatalogued collection of artifacts and memorabilia as well as a collection of old diners that were “donated”. To make a long story short, Hickey’s Diner, as far as I know at this point in time, has been dismantled with the intention of it being rebuilt. To my knowledge it has not been rebuilt.

I have been documenting diners with my photographs for almost 31 years and I have long harbored a fantasy that someone would come out of the woodwork someday and report that they had an old lunch wagon in a barn or at the very least, a backyard. Fast forward to last month, I got a message from someone who was familiar with my blog. Her name was Mary and she told me she had Sully’s Diner in her backyard! Needless to say I was shocked and got back to her immediately. I gave her my phone info and she called me back. Mary informed me that she had already been in touch with Dick Gutman and I told her that was very wise! She sent a couple of photos and sure enough, it was Sully’s Diner, in very rough shape but fairly intact on the exterior!

I finally got a chance to take a ride to Mary’s house last Sunday, (out of privacy concerns I am not revealing Mary’s full name or location). I will just say that there is no way that someone could ever stumble upon this old diner, even by accident! I had the pleasure of meeting Mary and her fiance, Scott and they showed me the diner. Here are the photos I shot last Sunday…..

Behan’s/Sully’s Diner, exterior photo by Larry Cultrera, 2011

Behan’s/Sully’s Diner, exterior photo by Larry Cultrera, 2011

Behan’s/Sully’s Diner, as you can see most of the stained-glass windows are intact. Exterior photo by Larry Cultrera, 2011

Behan’s/Sully’s Diner, exterior photo by Larry Cultrera, 2011

Behan’s/Sully’s Diner, exterior photo by Larry Cultrera, 2011

Behan’s/Sully’s Diner, the tile floor is pretty much all that is left of the original interior. Photo by Larry Cultrera, 2011

Behan’s/Sully’s Diner, interior photo by Larry Cultrera, 2011

As a back story, Mary and Scott bought the property in the last two years and were told by the previous owner that the diner was a horse-drawn “trolley”. They decided to do some digging and contacted the Seashore Trolley Museum in Maine and asked them about it. They also sent some photos and the museum got back to them and told them they had a diner.

Then Mary started to do some more research and eventually found Dick Gutman at the Culinary Arts Museum and also my Diner Hotline blog, which brings us up to the present. Both Mary and Scott have expressed a desire to possibly restore the diner. I was concerned after seeing how close to the ground the diner was sitting, that there might be some condition issues, especially with the integrity of the floor structure. When I got there, I went inside and I sort of jumped up and down a little on various parts of the floor of Sully’s and it felt quite solid! This was a good sign to me as I have been inside diners that had been stored for a short period of time and stood on the floor (behind the counter of one particular diner) and thought that I might actually go through it, it was so soft!

I did observe that the wall by the door had pulled slightly away from the floor, but that was not too bothersome. I suggested they make an attempt at either repairing or temporarily board up the broken windows and get the door to close again, basically secure the structure to weather the elements and therefore foregoing any further deterioration. I also suggested possibly raising the building up off the ground more and get it supported better than it currently is. Scott mentioned that they might look into moving it into a barn thay have on the property and I told him that would be ideal.

I hope to follow any progress Mary and Scott make with this monumental find!

Rare view of Medford, Mass., Circa 1950

I have been collecting postcards of Medford, Mass., the city I grew up in for somewhere around 32 years now. In that time, I have managed to amass quite a collection. Well, I was on Ebay earlier this week and checked all my usual categories and found an extremely rare view of Riverside Avenue in Medford Square, circa 1950. This black & white photocard showed an atypical view of this street. It was taken from the east looking toward the middle of Medford Square and it’s subject matter presumedly was to showcase the newly built Shopping Center along the south side of the street.

As noted in an article about the first shopping malls in the Bay State, (specifically about “Shopper’s World” in Framingham), written by Kathleen Kelly Broomer for the Society for Commercial Archeology’s Journal Magazine (Volume 13 –  Number 1, Fall-Winter, 1994-95 edition), it was mentioned that the Medford Square Shopping Center was one of the earliest developed in-town shopping centers that predated the suburban ones built in the following decades.

Riverside Avenue, Medford Square – circa 1950 postcard

Anyway, I was excited to see this card for a couple of reasons, the first was because I had never seen it before. The second reason was that I was able to date this pretty much because of what was shown in the scene. Chief among this was the shopping center on the left, next and very obvious was the large brick structure across the street with the blank wall. This was the old Square Theater which I personally do not remember in my lifetime (I was born in 1953). Although I do not know for sure when exactly this happened, the theater was redeveloped (I conjecture) within a few years from when this photo card was shot, to become more retail space. The top half of the building was removed and a new street-level facade was built to house a good 7 or 8 stores that are still in use today.

Close-up showing Howard Rust’s Radamat, a Valentine Diner
(under the Mobilgas sign)

Also seen in the post card at the base of the eastern end of the theater, just under the hanging Mobilgas sign, is a small box-like white building. This is as far as I know the only streetview that shows the legendary (in my opinion) Howard Rust’s Radamat. The Radamat was a 1948 or 49 vintage Valentine Diner that was extremely rare for this part of the country. Whoever Howard Rust was, he was kind of ahead of his time. He attempted to open a chain of small diners (all Valentine diners, built in Witchita, KS) that featured an early version of Microwave cooking.

Rare postcard image of Howard Rust’s Radamat, this was the one on Riverside Avenue in Medford Square. Courtesy of the Stephen Lintner collection

In doing some research in the early 1990’s, I found an old ad that featured Howard Rust’s Radamat. It was from the July 15, 1949 edition of the Medford Daily Mercury. The ad is frustrating as it tells of “Existing and Proposed Locations” without actually saying which were real and which never existed!

1949 advertisement for Howard Rust’s Radamat

I do know there were at least 2 of them, the one in Medford Square and the one on Boston Avenue (Medford Hillside). The Malden location sounds real as it gets specific about what was across the street. The chain reportedly went out of business fairly quickly. The Medford Square location became known as the Humpty Dumpty Diner before being torn down circa 1959 or 1960 when the current professional building was built there. The Medford Hillside location went under various names such as, the White House Cafe and the Jumbo Diner. I also recall it being called Pacigalupe’s or Bacigalupe’s before that was demolished in the 1970’s.

Jonathan Yonan asked me how a rare Valentine Diner made it so far afield from Witchita, Kansas after I posted the image of the postcard on Facebook. I told him that there had been a dealer based in Long Island, NY, basically, it was Valentine’s East Coast sales office, National Diner Sales in West Hampstead. (Thanks to Dick Gutman’s American Diner, Then & Now). It would be safe to assume that any Valentine Diner that made it into the New England market, as well as anywhere in the Northeast was sold by National Diner Sales.

Same view as the postcard, May 14, 2011 photo by Larry Cultrera

Slightly closer view, May 14, 2011 photo by Larry Cultrera

Although things have changed a little in Medford Square since 1950, the view is still identifiable by the fact that Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church is visible in the distance on High Street at the other end of the Square.

A look back at the Park Street Diner – Ayer, Mass.

Here is a diner that never should have disappeared. This was a 1950’s vintage DeRaffele Diner, one of only 3 known to be delivered to Massachusetts (not counting the Corner Lunch which was a Musi re-do of a similar model DeRaffele). This was the Park Street Diner located in downtown Ayer, Mass. It was also one of the largest diners in the Bay State and had plenty of business, probably because of its proximity to Fort Devens. In fact it was open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year!

I ate at this diner quite a few times over the years, in fact some of those visits predated the start of my officially documenting diners with photos. It was always pretty startling to round the corner of Rte. 2A and see this huge stainless steel covered diner sitting on the corner, especially since most of the diners in this area of Massachusetts were much smaller Worcester Lunch Cars! Dick Gutman has a photo in his book, American Diner Then & Now showing the earlier incarnation of this diner, a very rare Barriere Diner!

The Park Street Diner closed  in late 1985 if I recall correctly. It was bought by Carlton Blackwell, a former Mayor of Fitchburg. Ironically, when I researched just now to get Mr. Blackwell’s name right, I found he had passed away on my last birthday (May 25, 2010). When the diner closed, I recall reading that Mr. Blackwell said the day of the diner had passed and that he was renovating the building to become a different restaurant called “Ryan’s Roast” which featured roast beef and other meats.

So, after an auction  the diner was started to be renovated. Before all the stainless steel and enameled striped exterior was destroyed, Dan Scully, one of the original members of the Society for Commercial Archeology was able to secure the rights to remove the exterior covering which to my knowledge, he still has. In fact Dan loaned 2 or 3 sections including window trim which became a huge part of the landmark exhibit, American Diner Then & Now that was curated by Dick Gutman at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Mass. back in 1995. They were used at the entrance to the exhibit.

Above you can see the diner building after the stainless exterior was removed. It was being enlarged to become Ryan’s Roast. This restaurant did not last too long, maybe 1.5 to 2 years at the most. After it closed, it became a bank and is currently still being used as a bank. See below….

Here is an image from Google Street view showing the building as it currently is…. a Sovereign Bank branch. It looks to be even more modified since I shot my photo, the entryway is larger now!

Bel-Aire Diner goes “Aire” borne……

Bel-Aire Diner right after being slid down the beams into the parking lot
by Gary Sylvester’s Building Movers and Excavators yesterday.

As I have mentioned in the previous recent Bel-Aire Diner posts, I drive by the diner on U.S. Rte. 1 usually twice a day (Monday thru Friday), to and from work. Ironically Wednesday was one day I did not drive by in the afternoon as I had errands to do in Medford and Somerville and it was quicker for me to bypass Rte. 1 south and instead take I-95 to I-93 to get to my destinations.

rear view of the diner as I approached from where I parked my car.

Wednesday morning the diner was still the way it has been since the early 1950’s although during the previous 3 weeks, crews had been excavating the parking lot behind and to the right of the diner as well as dismantling the service bays of the gas station next door in anticipation of the redevelopment of the site.

diner now in parking lot next to the tall roadside sign

So driving north on Thursday morning at 5:50 am, I looked over at the diner and was surprised to notice the cinder block kitchen addition had been torn down the day before! Well Thursday afternoon I also had to be somewhere but had enough time to drive by the site and noticed the diner was newly jacked up off the foundation and the movers had beams under the diner ready for rolling the building forward into the parking lot.

opposite view of the diner next to sign

I immediately got on the horn and called Dick Gutman, Steve Repucci, Randy Garbin, Beth Lennon and Ron Dylewski to alert them that the diner was in fact being moved (Diner Hotline, Diner Hotline!). I continued on to my appointment and as soon as I was done with that, I went home and got my camera and drove back to the diner.

rear view from right side with workman checking under the diner

I shot all these photos and met Gary Sylvester whose company was contracted to move the diner. He told me that he thought the diner might be moving to Lowell, Mass. but was not really sure. My take on this is that the diner will be temporarily stored in the front parking lot prior to being transported to parts unknown.

looking at the broken foundation and cellar hole

another view from right hand side with sign

walking back to the car, I turned and took this shot

Reworked Hardcopy version of my Murphy’s Diner post

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/