Here we are again – it’s November 29th and as always, I like to make note of this day, now 43 years ago when I shot my first 35mm photograph of a diner. There I was on my second road trip to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, two days after Thanksgiving visiting my pal Steve Repucci who I had helped moved just short of 3 months earlier to the capitol of the Keystone State. Myself and my brother Rick as well as friend Scott Drown had driven down from Massachusetts the day before, the Friday after Thanksgiving and basically hung out that afternoon in Steve’s apartment. We decided to go to breakfast the next morning at the nearest diner to where Steve lived which turned out to be the By-Pass Diner on Herr Street. This is when I “broke my cherry” so to speak and turned my camera lens toward taking this first tentative photo…
The By-Pass Diner, Harrisburg, PA November 29, 1980 photo by Larry Cultrera
Since then I have photographed just short of 900 different diners throughout a good portion of the eastern United States, from Maine to Virginia and Tennessee as well as a few in Florida and one in Georgia and into the midwest area counting a handful in Ohio, Michigan and Illinois.
In this blog post I want to highlight the diners that I have photographed in the Capitol region of Pennsylvania. I will start with another view of the By-Pass Diner…
By-Pass Diner – Harrisburg, February 19, 1984
Dempsey’s Diner – Harrisburg, April, 1987
Dempsey’s Diner – Hershey, April 19, 1987
Ray’s Diner (AKA East Shore Diner) – Harrisburg, February 19, 1984
Riverview Diner – Harrisburg, March 20, 1982
West Shore Diner – Lemoyne, August 9, 1981
Decoven Diner – Duncannon, November 28, 1981
Trail Diner – Duncannon, August, 1981
Blue Diner – West Hanover Township, March 22, 1982
Bill’s Friendly Diner – Hummlestown, April 3, 1983
Highspire Diner (AKA Friendly Diner) – Highspire, March 27, 1982
Okay, so October 31st has come back around and as regular followers of Diner Hotline may know, I always like to acknowledge that this is the anniversary of the start of this blog. It has been 16 years since the debut of this blog which originally started out as a column in the Society for Commercial Archeology’s (SCA) News Journal which I wrote in December of 1987. This first Diner Hotline column which was not even a whole page, appeared in the Winter 1988 edition of the News Journal, a newsletter type publication by the SCA.
Eventually the News Journal was divided into two publications two or three years after I started the column – the SCA News (membership newsletter) and the SCA Journal (a magazine). At that point, I was given the option as to which publication Diner Hotline would appear in and I opted for the SCA Journal. Diner Hotline continued until the 2007 Summer Edition of the Journal when I decided to retire the column. Within a month or so after I discontinued the column, my friend Brian Butko emailed me. Brian knew I was thinking of continuing Diner Hotline possibly as another entity, and suggested I start a blog. So on October 31, 2007 this blog came into being…
So instead of just acknowledging the anniversary of the blog, I thought I would impart some news about a handful of diners being sold to new owners and hopefully (most) will be brought back as working diners in the near future.
Harrisburg’s By-Pass Diner moved from long-time operating location & saved from possible demolition.
The very first diner I ever photographed was the By-Pass Diner of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. That one photo taken on November 29, 1980 led to my taking thousands of photos of 896 diners since and that diner has always held a spot close to my heart.
By-Pass Diner, Harrisburg, PA November 29, 1980 by Larry Cultrera.
The diner changed hands in the 1990s and the new owner Fred Jenkins operated it for many years as the American Dream Diner before closing in 2020. As of January 28, 2021, the diner had reopened as Harry’s Bistro by Lou Antonio Vazquez with his daughters, Audrey and Anna Vazquez. Unfortunately for some reason the diner was forced to close within a few months of re-opening. As of earlier this year it was announced that the property the diner occupied as well as the parcel next door that housed a gas station was going to be redeveloped and the diner was put up for sale.
According to a news article dated last week (October 26, 2023) by Sue Gleiter of Penn Live, the diner was disassembled and moved across the street to get it out of harms way. The following is the gist of the news article… A nostalgic Harrisburg diner saved from the scrap heap by a longtime customer and local insurance agent, could face roadblocks as attempts are made to resurrect it at a new address. Hugh Dorsey recently bought the 70-year-old American Dream Diner at 1933 Herr St., where a convenience store is slated to be built. He then relocated the 1953 stainless steel DeRaffele diner across the street to a vacant lot next to the former State Police headquarters in Susquehanna Township.
Sections of the By-Pass Diner after the move to property across the street. Photo by Dan Gleiter, Penn Live.
At the time of this report, it is not clear where the diner may end up or if in fact it will be set up and reopened. I truly hope this diner will have a good outcome!
World Famous Rosie’s Diner gets sold after 12 years sitting idle.
Rosie’s Farmland Diner, Little Ferry, NJ. June 24, 1983 photo by Larry Cultrera.
The diner known as Rosie’s was originally operated as the Silver Dollar Diner in Little Ferry, New Jersey. Built in 1946 by the Paramount Dining Car Company, the diner was located at the traffic circle on U.S. Route 46 when it opened in the 1940s. Owned by Ralph A. (Tex) Corrado, Sr. and his young son, Ralph A. Corrado, Jr., the Corrados operated the diner together until Tex retired in the early 1960s when Ralph Jr. took over and eventually renamed the business the Farmland Diner.
The diner’s large size and close proximity to New York City were perfect for the diner to become the location for many print ads and television commercials, for different products and services. In the earlier days of the diner, commercials were filmed for Sanka Instant Coffee and Pepsi Cola. Other companies like Ethan Allen Furniture, New Jersey Bell and Sony used the diner’s location for their advertisements. However, the series of TV commercials that made the diner famous were for Bounty Paper Towels.
The Bounty commercials were filmed at the diner during the 1970s when it was known as the Farmland Diner (local Little Ferry residents affectionately referred to it as “The Greasy Spoon”). In the TV commercials, clumsy patrons would knock over beverages, and Rosie the Waitress, played by the late actress Nancy Walker, would clean up the mess using Bounty Paper Towels, pronouncing the product the “quicker picker-upper”. Two decades after the first commercials were filmed, Walker was still cleaning up after her television customers, but in a studio instead of in the diner. After the Bounty Paper Towel commercials became well known, Ralph Corrado decided to take advantage of the notoriety and renamed the restaurant in the 1970s to Rosie’s Farmland Diner after the waitress character from the commercials.
In 1989, after running the diner for 45 years, Ralph Corrado and his son Arnie sold the land under the diner to the auto glass repair shop next door. The business did not want the diner, leaving it up to Corrado to sell the building. His offer to place “the most famous diner in America” in the Smithsonian Institution was rejected.
At this time, in steps Jerry Berta, a Michigan artist that produced ceramic replicas of classic diners, with the original Rosie’s as one of his inspirations. He already owned one diner, the former Uncle Bob’s Diner a 1947 Jerry O’Mahony diner (moved from Flint, Michigan circa 1987) at that time located on his site on 14 Mile Road in Rockford, Michigan. Berta used that diner as a studio and gallery known as The Diner Store.
On a subsequent trip to the New York City area toward the end of 1989, Jerry and some friends revisited Rosie’s Diner and found out that the New Jersey diner was for sale. Berta bought Rosie’s and moved it to Michigan to it’s current location. The purchase price at the time was $10,000 for the 24-by-60-foot (7.3 by 18.3 m) building. Work crews separated the two sections of the diner and lifted it off the foundation the week after it closed in January of 1990. The sections were loaded onto two flatbed trucks for the move to Michigan. The restaurant opened in its new location on July 5, 1991. The following link is from a video I posted to You Tube featuring all of my photos of Rosie’s Diner….https://youtu.be/2XlDiGzRM3I
The Diner Store and Rosie’s Diner in Rockford, MI. 1990s photo by Fred Tiensivu.
Diner World in the late 1990s. Left to right – Diner Store, Rosie’s Diner, the former Garden of Eatin’ Diner and an on-site built addition. Photo courtesy of Jerry Berta.
The vintage two-diner collection expanded to three when Berta purchased the former Garden of Eatin’ diner (a 1952 Silk City) and moved it from Fulton, New York to the Michigan site in 1994. A fourth (reproduction) diner was also built on site as an addition. Known collectively as Diner World or Dinerland USA, the location featured the Diner Store art gallery (in the O’Mahony car), Rosie’s Diner (the primary restaurant), and a 3 1⁄2 acre food-themed mini-golf course designed by Berta, where guests could putt around a big burger and slice of pie. The roadside attraction continued under Berta’s ownership being operated by able management and staff until 2006, when it was purchased by new owner/operators.
View of Diner WorldPhoto Photo courtesy of Tom Loftus & Robin Schwartzman on their Website ” A Couple of Putts”.
Jonelle and Randy Roest purchased the diner in January 2006. They continued to run Rosie’s as a diner and reopened the Silk City car as a sports bar. The O’Mahony car was opened seasonally as an ice cream shop. The mini-golf course was not reopened. While under the Roests’ ownership, the location received TV coverage on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and the Travel Channel’s Diner Paradise.
Rosie’s Diner closed for business on October 2, 2011. The property was sold through online auction to Aaron Koehn of nearby Koehn Chevrolet, with a winning bid of $125,000. In September 2014, he offered tours of the buildings as part of a car show that attracted an estimated 3,000 people.
Since then the diners including Rosie’s have sat idle – slowly deterioratng. But the good news is that within the last two weeks it was announced that Rosie’s Diner has been bought by Chuck and Dawn Perry of Millersburg, Missouri and they’re going to restore it. He’s a car restorer, and she runs restaurants. So, it’s like the perfect fit,” said Berta. Although the Perry’s actually purchased the diner last winter, all the T’s are crossed and the I’s dotted, allowing the process of moving the diner to it’s new location. This transition may take some time but it looks like Rosie’s has found a new home and a renewed lease on life!
Dawn Perry at Rosie’s Diner in Rockford, MI. Courtesy of Dawn Perry.
Shawmut Diner of New Bedford will live again!
The Shawmut Diner, New Bedford, MA early 2000s photo by Larry Cultrera
One of my favorite diners in Massachusetts -the Shawmut Diner, formerly of New Bedford looks to be on the road shortly to a new location and life in Norwich, Connecticut. The Shawmut Diner closed in 2014 when long-time owners Phil and Celeste Paleologos decided to retire. Back in the mid-to-late 1990s, Phil who also had a daytime gig as a local Radio personality hosted a daily news/talk and entertainment show right from the diner. Called the Diner Show, he interviewed national personalities from show business and politics to the local customers of the diner. I was on his show quite a few times.
Phil Paleologos and myself in the broadcast booth set up in the back corner of the Shawmut Diner. September, 1998 photo by Denise Cultrera
Back at the beginning of 2014 the Paleologos’ had a generous offer from Cumberland Farms, a local Gas Station/Convenience Store chain for the property. The Paleologos’ hoped to sell the large 1953 vintage Jerry O’Mahony Diner but were not getting any reasonable offers in the short time allotted. So they in turn donated the building to the Bristol County House of Correction and had it moved to the prison’s property in nearby Dartmouth, Massachusetts.
Phil and Celeste Paleologos on the last day of operation at the Shawmut Diner. March 20, 2014 photo by Larry Cultrera
The hoped for plan was to get the funds to set the diner back up and have it used for vocational training to rehabilitate inmates prior to release. Unfortunately, this plan never came to fruition and the diner has been sitting on blocks awaiting it’s fate.
Earlier this year the current Sheriff of Bristol County announced plans to put the diner building up for auction. The auction was held in July and the winning bid of $20,200 was won by New Yorker Evan Blum, owner of Demolition Depot in Harlem, and the yet-to-open Irreplaceable Artifacts of Norwich, Connecticut.
According to Blum, while his business is in buying and selling old items like the Shawmut Diner, he has other plans in this case. “I have a property over in Norwich, CT and I’m opening up an art, antiques and crafts market there,” he said, “and I wanted to put this in the parking lot to help attract more people.
“I figured I’d get one of my operators there to bring in some decent food and set it up so it’ll be an accomodation.” Blum, noted that he is still working out “some logistics” of transporting the diner from the Bristol County House of Correction property in Dartmouth to Norwich, Connecticut, said he looks to have the diner up and running “some time next year.”
On a side note, the last diner to operate in Norwich was Burt’s Diner which was moved out in the 1980s and is now operating in Hubbard, Ohio as the Emerald Diner.
Burt’s Diner, Norwich, Connecticut July 10, 1983 photo by Larry Cultrera
Miss Bellows Falls Diner on track for a restoration and reopening!
Miss Bellows Falls Diner, Bellows Falls, VT. August 7, 1983 by Larry Cultrera.
The Miss Bellows Falls Diner, Worcester Lunch Car No. 771 was the second diner to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Built by Worcester in 1941and originally installed in Lowell, Massachusetts as Frankie and Johnny’s Diner, its stay in Lowell was brief.
The diner was then transported to Bellows Falls, Vermont in 1942 to begin a new life, adorned with new front panels announcing the diner’s new identity. It has since been operated under quite a few different people over the intervening decades which continued until it closed in early 2020 at the beginning of the Pandemic.
Fast forward to May, 2023 and it was reported that after signing a purchase and sales agreement earlier in the Spring, Rockingham for Progress (RFP) took possession of the diner.
RFP, a nonprofit formed in 2016 to promote progressive economic development, an appreciation of the historic and cultural value of Bellows Falls, and citizen participation in our local democratic processes had plans for the diner’s revival. Undertaking the challenge of restoring the Miss Bellows Falls Diner to its original working condition is being done in consultation with historic diner expert Richard J.S. Gutman and with the support of a $100,000 Paul Bruhn grant from the Preservation Trust of Vermont.
“They plan on using the grant funds exclusively for the restoration of the historic dining car. Both the exterior and interior will be repaired and restored, including the marble counter, tile-work, built-in coolers, stools, oak booths, fixtures, signage and stained-glass filigrees on the windows,” the Preservation Trust said in a prepared statement.
Red Wing Diner of Walpole, Massachusetts closed and For Sale.
The Red Wing Diner, a long-time favorite restaurant on U.S. Route 1 in Walpole, Massachusetts known for its fried seafood and iconic (bar Pie) pizza has closed.
Back on September 5, 2023, an announcement was posted on the Red Wing Diner’s Facebook page that the diner was temporarily closed for repairs. By the beginning of October a “For Sale” sign had appeared outside the diner.
The Red Wing Diner, Walpole MA. May 26, 2006 photo by Larry Cultrera.
The Red Wing Diner, Walpole MA. 1930s photo from my collection.
The Red Wing is Worcester Lunch Car, No. 709 dating from 1933. The diner was expanded later when the owners purchased the former railroad depot in town. They moved the building to the diner’s location and attached it to the left side of the diner.
The Red Wing Diner showing the attached addition in the 1940s, from my collection.
Jack Conway Realtors out of Mansfield is handling the sale. It is listing the 2,727-square-foot restaurant and 5-acre property at $1.35 million. Unfortunately, with a price tag of that size, redevelopment would be a likely scenario and it seems unlikely the diner will survive. We will have to see how this pans out.
Well, it’s that time of year where I mark the anniversary of taking my first 35mm photo of a diner. As regular readers of this blog know, that first Diner photo was the following photo…
By-Pass Diner of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
November 29, 1980 photo by Larry Cultrera
In looking back on these last decades there was an unofficial pattern of going on road trips over Thanksgiving weekend. So I did some digging and found some images of diners I had photographed on the Thanksgiving weekends in the years from 1980 until now. It seems there were actually only 10 of those weekends between 1980 and 2022. Now granted, on some of those weekends in the early 1980s that I photographed more than a handful of places, so I will only choose one diner from each of those trips to be representative from the year.
Olympia Diner, Newington, Connecticut
November 27, 1981 photo by Larry Cultrera
Ed’s Diner, Brattleboro, Vermont
November 26, 1982 photo by Larry Cultrera
Market Diner, New York, New York
November 25, 1983 photo by Larry Cultrera
Libby’s Diner, Manchester Center, Vermont (never opened here)
November 27, 1987 photo by Larry Cultrera
Andros Diner, Belmont Massachusetts
November 27, 1993 photo by Larry Cultrera
Old Lunch Wagon /derelict cabin, Brookfield, Massachusetts
November 24, 2006 photo by Larry Cultrera
Roundabout Diner, Portsmouth, New Hampshire (former Howard Johnson’s Restaurant)
Current photo of East Shore Diner courtesy of CBS 21, Harrisburg, PA
It had been reported within the last year or so that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) announced the I-83 Capital Beltway interchange project and the possibility of displacing businesses in the process. One of the redesigned interchanges includes some land taking along the area where the highway intersects with Cameron Street exactly where the East Shore Diner, a vintage Jerry O’Mahony diner has operated since the early 1950s.
The current owner Bill Katsifis, who bought the former Ray’s Diner in the early 1980s after it had been closed for a time, co-owns the business with his wife, Dorothy Katsifis, said they want to move the diner to another location in Harrisburg. In an article reported by Sue Gleiter of Pennlive.com on November 01, 2021, according to Katsifis, negotiations had stalled over the amount of financial compensation PennDOT is willing to pay and whether the agency will cover upfront expenses to relocate the diner.
Bill and Dorothy Katsifis, courtesy of East Shore Diner
He said he has no intention of blocking PennDOT’s acquisition of the diner’s 3/4-acre property and just wants to be fairly compensated and not be left with debt, especially when the diner’s mortgage is already paid off. “It’s so sad. I’m 61 years old and I have a diner. I have a business. I have it all. I told them I’m begging you to let me keep what I have,” Katsifis said.
PennDOT District 8 spokesman David Thompson said the diner is considered a dislocated business and the owner entitled to compensation for the value of the real estate, as well as business relocation assistance and benefits. PennDOT’s multi-year, multi-contract project is intended to widen an eight-mile stretch of I-83 from four to eight lanes. Recently, the rebuild of a northbound portion of I-83 between I-81 and just south of the Union Deposit Road interchange reopened with final improvements scheduled to be completed by next spring.
I was contacted right after re-posting the news on my personal Facebook page by my old friend Ed Womer who lives in the area. He offered to go over and take some current photos of the diner for me….
December 1, 2021 photo by Ed WomerDecember 1, 2021 photo by Ed WomerDecember 1, 2021 photo by Ed WomerDecember 1, 2021 photo by Ed Womer
Earlier this spring, the diner was offering a new t-shirt announcing their Farewell Tour. My friend Wendy Van Hove was gracious enough to send me one of which I wear proudly…
yours truly sporting an East Shore Diner Farewell Tour t-shirt
On August 17, 2022, the diner posted this announcement on their Facebook page to officially announce the following statement…
Change is never easy and as many of you may know, our family business – our East Shore Diner is being forced to relocate by PennDOT’s I-83 Expansion Project. Therefor we are making adjustments to our family business and have some news to share.Given the tough circumstances, we have stayed open as long as possible. So it is with a heavy heart that we must first announce the closing of the East Shore Diner. Our last day will be September 1, 2022.
We have been a part of the community for 38 years and we are saddened to have to close our current operations. Bill Katsifis started this business with his Dad in the fall of 1984 and worked tirelessly and passionately to make this Diner the best it could be for his family, his employees and his customers. Throughout the many years, everyone who walked in for their shift or a bite to eat, has become friends and in many ways, turned into an extension of our family! Together we have been through quite the journey of both Covid and tough times as the East Shore Diner family. We want to deeply thank all of the employees and customers we’ve had throughout the years. We wouldn’t be where we are today without each and every one of you!
We will be moving our historic O’Mahony diner building to a new location. While due to our changes, we will no longer be called the “East Shore Diner”, the heart and soul we all created will remain. We are excited for our new journey to officially begin and sincerely hope to continue to see familiar faces visit us in our new venture. We cannot thank our wonderful staff enough and all our East Shore Diner family for your support and love and friendship. We are forever grateful, keep checking our Facebook page for more updates on the exciting future of our family business!
Shortly after this, I contacted Bill Katsifis and our conversation went like this… (LAC)Hi Bill, I understand that the diner is closing on September 1st. I heard you will be moving it to Mechanicsburg…. (BK)Hi Larry, how are you? Yes, September 1st is our last work day. We’re moving the diner sometime in October to Mechanicsburg, I’m happy that we get to keep it in the family. We purchased the property and had the foundation permit approved so everything looks good I’ll message you when we’re getting closer to the move thanks again. We have to save as many of these diners as we can.
This is great news when another vintage diner will get to live and operate again in a new location! When this diner was installed in the early 1950s, it operated as Seybold’s Diner…. It has a somewhat unique set-up as it was built as an “L” shaped unit with two sections. These sections comprised of a large front section that faced Cameron Street and a smaller section that was attached to the right rear of the front section. Both of these pieces wrapped around the front and right side of an on-site constructed cinder block building that housed the kitchen and rest rooms. This configuration fooled me as there was a similar diner in the Harrisburg area, the Decoven Diner, that was approximately the same age and had an “L” shaped dining area. The difference between the Decoven and Seybold’s was the rear section of the Decoven was the same length as the front section. So that diner had a factory kitchen and rest rooms instead of an on-site addition.
Postcard of Seybold’s Diner from the early 1950s
My own personal history with this diner goes back to early in 1981 when I was visiting my friends, Steve Repucci and Ed Womer in the Harrisburg area. It was called Ray’s Diner at that point but was closed. It had “Sheriff’s Sale posters in a few of the windows but was completely intact on the interior, (FYI, a Sheriff’s sale is basically an auction to sell equipment and other property to help get money from a mortgage foreclosure). Later on, probably when I first photographed it on November 27, 1981, Ed Womer (who took the recent photos last December, see above) drove me over from his place so I could take my first two photos of Ray’s Diner, months after the Sheriff’s sale. I took a look inside and saw the interior of the diner was completely stripped! No counter, stools, booths or back-bar equipment, the place was completely bare.
November 27, 1981 photo by Larry CultreraNovember 27, 1981 photo by Larry CultreraFebruary 19, 1984 photo by Larry CultreraFebruary 19, 1984 photo by Larry CultreraFebruary 19, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera
Seeing the interior completely bare, I thought this diner would never survive. Luckily, I was wrong – as stated above, the Katsifis family eventually purchased the empty diner in 1984 and spent some time, effort and money into replacing the gutted interior with new counters, stools, etc and re-opened the diner in 1985.
January 1, 1985 photo by Larry CultreraJanuary 1, 1985 photo by Larry CultreraJanuary 1, 1985 photo by Larry Cultrera
I wish the Katsifis family well on the up-coming transition and will be following up with the progress. I am also curious as to what the new operating name will be once it opens in Mechanicsburg.
By-Pass Diner, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. November 29, 1980 – My first Diner photo
Monday, November 29, 2021 marks the anniversary of me shooting the first of thousands of “Diner” photographs. Most regular readers probably know I always acknowledge this date every year on the Diner Hotline blog. A couple of things have come together in recent months that sort of underline the importance to my life that this seemingly innocuous event that happened forty one years ago has loomed large in the scheme of things, at least to me.
Number one: I have completed the digitizing of all my 35mm prints and slides of “Diners”. This task in itself took all told at least 4 years to complete. I have also updated my database (digital Diner Log) to reflect the location of the original slides and negatives of those images as well as included two photos of each diner entry into the log. I am currently revamping the 35mm slide archive of “Diner” images to be housed in new archival boxes. This task is being done to get all images into a semblance of order to possibly facilitate the eventual donation of these slides to an institution that might want them as part of an historical record. Doing something like this to the 35mm prints (and negatives) might actually be a little more daunting. Not so much for the prints more than the negatives as other non-diner images are mixed in with the diner images. That is a problem to be attacked at another time.
new Archival Methods 35mm slide storage boxes for my Diner slides
Number two: the future of diners in general is still precarious and to place a spotlight on this fact, that first diner I documented with my photos, the By-Pass Diner of Harrisburg, PA is currently in limbo. The diner had changed hands in the 1990s and been operated as the American Dream Diner right up until the last year or so. It changed hands again earlier this year to become Harry’s Bistro. If you check it out online, it has gotten some great reviews and it gives the impression that it is still in operation. But someone I know recently stopped by and found it closed with an ominous notice taped to the window that says there were problems that have shut down the business. For how long, I do not know but the person who reported this fact said it looked like it had been closed for some time.
It turns out there are other diners I have documented over the last four decades that are also in jeopardy, including another Harrisburg diner, the East Shore Diner. The East Shore Diner is being threatened with possible demolition or at least in the best scenario moved to a new location because of a planned construction project to revamp highway on/off ramps adjacent to the property where the diner has been since the early 1950s when it was first installed as Seybold’s Diner.
Harrisburg, PA’s East Shore Diner is currently threatened with removal, either by demolition or hopefully moved to a new operating location.
Another diner threatened with demolition is Bishop’s Fourth Street Diner of Newport, Rhode Island as the property owner wants it gone to expand an adjacent business.
Newport, RI’s Bishop’s 4th Street Diner also threatened with demolition
Back at the end of July, 2021, it was reported that the Daddypop’s Tumble Inn Diner of Claremont, New Hampshire had suffered a suspected arson fire. They were reported to start repairs on the damage which affected the basement and electrical equipment. Unfortunately this may be complicated by the fact that Deborah Ann Kirby, the owner of the Tumble Inn passed away suddenly towards the end of October, putting the fate of this diner in limbo.
Claremont, NH’s Daddypop’s Tumble Inn Diner is in limbo after an arson fire and passing of owner Deborah Kirby
Another diner is also in limbo and slated for demolition is the former Ann’s Diner, operated more recently as Pat’s Diner of Salisbury, Massachusetts. Pat Archambault the owner for many years has had the diner up for sale for quite some time. She finally sold it at the end of July and unfortunately the owner of the gas station next door to the diner bought the property and has no intention of utilizing the diner. Ironically as I write this I just found out that Pat Archambault just passed away herself.
Salisbury, MA’s Pat’s Diner (when it was still Ann’s, circa 1989) is threatened also…
Two other Massachusetts diners future are questionable, the first is the Salem Diner which is currently owned by Salem State University. The university stopped using it as a food option within the last two years and is trying to get someone to buy and move the diner. As far as I know, no one has come forward with a likely proposal to move and reuse this very rare Sterling Streamliner.
The Salem Diner circa May, 1982
The second Massachusetts diner is a late model Worcester Lunch Car currently operating as the Breakfast Club in Allston, Mass. The diner sits on leased property which is slated to be redeveloped. The future of this diner is not looking good at this point.
The Breakfast Club Diner with a brand-new addition circa, 2012.
Within the last week or so we have heard that the 29 Diner in Fairfax, Virginia has had a very bad kitchen fire that miraculously has spared the diner in front but closed the business for at least 6 months.
Fairfax, VA’s The 29 Diner (when it was known as the Tastee 29 Diner circa 1990).
It’s not all bad news as the Edgemere Diner of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts which has been closed fairly recently was sold at auction within the last two weeks. The diner had been owned since 1995 by the town of Shrewsbury when the diner and property was taken for back taxes owed by the owner of the business. Since then the town has leased the diner out to numerous operators until now. The town finally decided that they did not want to be landlords anymore. The good news is that Michael Cioffi bought the diner and said he plans to move it from its location on U.S. Route 20 – which was a stipulation of the sale – to New York’s Catskills, where he already owns and operates the Phoenicia Diner.
Shrewsbury, MA’s Edgemere Diner is being moved to upstate New York.
So this post not only highlights that first photo of the By-Pass Diner but also sheds some light on the fragility of the American diner and the diner business in general. It points to the fact that my photos are my contribution to documenting diner history over the last forty one years….
This year November 29th falls on a Sunday. Who knew that a tentative single 35mm photo taken on this same date 40 years ago in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, would lead me into a multi-decade mission to document diners (at last count 875 in my database) throughout the Eastern United States with my photographs.
Now granted, I have always had a fascination with diners that goes back to my early childhood in Medford, Massachusetts in the late 50s and early 60s. I recall going with my dad to a few local diners like Bobbie’s Diner and the Star Lite Diner, both on Mystic Avenue in our hometown as well as the Victoria Diner in Boston.
Bobbie’s Diner, 33 Mystic Avenue – Medford, Massachusettscolorized image of the Star Lite Diner, 383 Mystic Avenue – Medford, MassachusettsVictoria Diner, 1024 Massachusetts Avenue – Boston, Massachusetts
I also recall after Easter Morning Mass going for breakfasts with my family to Carroll’s Colonial Dining Car on Main Street, a large “L” shaped diner delivered in the early 60s that was a brand new replacement for a smaller stainless steel diner that the Carroll family had operated previously in the city from 1948, that itself was a replacement for an even earlier diner started in 1929.
Carroll’s Diner, 101 Main Street – Medford, Massachusetts
Later on during high school as well as years after graduating, Carroll’s was the go-to meeting place that was open 24 hours a day. Myself and my friends could be found there, day or night! So I can safely say that diners became part of my DNA, a constant throughout my life and by 1979, I started thinking about them in an expanded view. My pal, Steve Repucci and I started taking Sunday morning road-trips around the area and the first stop along the way was a local diner for breakfast. Soon, the task of finding a diner to have breakfast determined the direction of the road-trip.
All through the 1970s, I had owned one or two Kodak Instamatic cameras and never seriously looked at photography as a hobby. As 1980 began, I had been toying with the idea of getting into photography after being exposed to it by Steve Repucci who had been shooting 35mm photos for a number of years. So the first of two key events leading me to take that first diner photo occurred sometime in the Summer of 1980, when I co-purchased my first 35mm camera along with my older brother Steve. My friend and former co-worker Scott Drown was selling a used Mamiya 1000 DTL that he had been shooting with for a few years. So my brother and I alternated using this camera for around 9 months before I decided I needed my own camera and sold him my half.
a camera similar to what I used to take that first Diner photograph
The first couple of months I tested my wings by shooting scenic photos, etc. It was just a month or so into using that first camera when the second key event happened. Steve Repucci had decided to try living outside of Massachusetts and moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This happened on Labor Day weekend. Because I owned a van, I of course offered my services in helping with the move. This was my first ever trip down to the Keystone State. During that first visit to Pennsylvania, I had taken notice of one or two diners driving around the Capitol region. After that first trip a second one was already planned for Thanksgiving weekend.
Thanksgiving fell on Thursday the 27th that year. If I remember correctly, my brother Rick and friend Scott Drown accompanied me on that trip. We left not long after midnight on the 28th and drove out through Connecticut and New York on Interstate 84. In fact we took I-84 all the way to Scranton, PA to access I-81 south to Harrisburg. I recall hitting some pretty bad fog through that stretch of highway between Scranton and Harrisburg, possibly the worst I have ever attempted to drive through in my life. After arriving we rested a bit and visited as well as probably going out to eat somewhere and probably called it a day fairly early. The next morning we went to breakfast at the nearby By Pass Diner on Herr Street, probably around four miles or so from where Steve was living on North Progress Avenue. This is when I snapped my first photo of a diner. Little did I know this would be the first in what has turned out to be a few thousand photos taken in the next four decades!
My first diner photograph, By Pass Diner, 1933 Herr Street – Harrisburg, PA
Well, the dam was broken and after I came home from Harrisburg I started going around the Greater Boston area and shooting photos of all the diners I knew of. Unfortunately, in my inexperience, I was insisting on using a wide angle lens in a lot of these early photo excursions. The reason I say it was unfortunate was that I was usually across the street using the wide angle lens and it pushed the subject a little too far away. Now in hindsight this seemed to work out OK as anyone who sees these early photos can get the perspective of seeing the diner in relation to its surroundings. And seeing that I am currently in a multi-year endeavor of scanning all my archive of diner photos, I have developed a way to create new versions of these photos by zooming in and re-cropping the image to represent the photo it should have been (and keeping the original version intact).
Here are a few of those early shots after Harrisburg…
Viv’s Diner – Malden, Massachusetts_November, 1980Boston Street Diner – Lynn, Massachusetts_November, 1980White Way Grill – Lynn, Massachusetts_November, 1980 a rare early close-up only because the truck was blocking the view. Unfortunately, I never got another shot of this the way it looked here as new owners renovated the diner totally and lost the original classic look…Rosebud Diner – Somerville, Massachusetts_December, 1980Apple Tree Diner – Dedham, Massachusetts_January, 1981Salem Diner – Salem, Massachusetts_March, 1981
Since those early days I have used quite a number of different cameras to shoot diner photos including some Kodak Brownie and Dual Lens Reflex cameras that I have collected. Also two Chinon 35mm cameras as well as some small digital cameras. Since 2008 when I changed totally to digital, I have used my trusty Pentax DSLR, a couple of Nikon Cool Pix and my newest an Olympus Pen mirror-less camera. After changing careers in 1996, I have become proficient in using Adobe Photoshop to digitize all of my 35mm slides and am currently working on the early 35mm prints. I hope to complete the digital archive of all the diner photos within the next year!
1st pet peeve – Writers and or reporters referring to Diners as Greasy Spoons
Back on March 25, 2020, Jeremy Ebersole – a current Vice President of the Society for Commercial Archeology (SCA) who makes frequent contributions/posts to the SCA Facebook page posted a photo album to that page entitled “Greasy Spoons from sea to shining sea”. Now I had no problem with the photos per se, but I have always bristled at the term “Greasy Spoon”. In fact being a member of the SCA myself since 1981, I was somewhat shocked to see the term used by someone affiliated with the world’s premier organization that deals with documenting and preserving the businesses and sociological aspects of the American Roadside. Especially since the origins of this blog came out of the first ever regular column (Diner Hotline) that was featured in SCA publications.
Because I personally believe the use of this term in regards to Diners is derogatory… shortly after reading the post by Jeremy Eborsole, I decided to hold an informal poll and ask a few people I know and respect, what their feelings are on the use of the term “Greasy Spoon” in reference to diners?
Glenn Wells, diner aficionado, Roadsidefans.com
Glenn Wells: I agree. I think the term is used more by people who dislike diners to put them down, rather than embraced by people who like diners. As you saw I was VERY surprised to see SCA use that term the way they did Also found something I wrote around 2001 on my web site (not updated for a long time) under Diner FAQs: Some people refer to a diner as a “hash house” or a “greasy spoon.” Does this mean the food is bad? Let’s be honest for a minute. If every diner from the beginning of time had been spotlessly clean and served delicious food, such terms never would have entered the vocabulary. Some diners DO serve food deserving of the epithets that some people hurl at ALL diners. But diners are hardly alone in serving sub-par food. Even some very high priced restaurants can turn out some meals that are less than satisfactory. Then, of course, there are the fast food chains, where the fare is more consistent from location to location, but that does not mean that it is good.
Richard J.S. Gutman, preeminent Diner Scholar
Richard J.S. Gutman: I hate the phrase! Glad you are doing this. I can’t believe that the SCA used it recently…several times.
Ron Dylewski, diner aficionado, writer, designer, commercial director and editor
Ron Dylewski: We often hear people refer to classic diners as “greasy spoons.” To many this might seem like an innocuous term, even a term of endearment. It is perhaps a more visual nickname than simply, diner. It can appear more evocative, denoting a certain je ne sais quoi or an ineffable quality that can’t be captured by simply saying “diner”. But none of that matters. The phrase is pejorative and should be stricken from any journalistic or scholarly writing, unless the phrase is called out for what it is; a slur. Similar names, such as grease pit, hash house and beanery are similarly used to denigrate diners. Writers are often encouraged to spice up their writing by using these terms. It just seems to add flavor to their prose, but in this case the flavor is all off. It actually distracts from the reality of what diners are and were. Now, don’t get me wrong. Not every diner is spic and span and not every one serves wonderful home-cooked meals. But that’s a decisionthat a writer would have to make on a case-by-case basis, not as a blanket statement about all diners.
Bill Katsifis, owner/operator of the East Shore Diner, Harrisburg, PA
East Shore Diner, photo by Larry Cultrera, January 1, 1985
Bill Katsifis, East Shore Diner: I do think the term greasy spoon is a degrading adjective. Makes it feel dirty. Yes, Greasy spoon, makes a diner/restaurant sound like a less than desirable place to eat. Thanks for the diner work you do….
Alexis Lekkas, owner/operator of Alexis Diner, Troy, NY
Alexis Diner, photo by Larry Cultrera, August 8, 2002
Alexis Lekkas, Alexis Diner: I agree with you. Only greasy spoon diners consider that a compliment and there are not many of them. By the way I am still in business even with all the Covid-19 issues…
Alex Panko, former owner of Peter Pank Diner
Larry Cultrera, Alex Panko and Les Cooper. Alex Panko is the former owner of the Peter Pank Diner, Sayersville, NJ
Peter Pank Diner, photo courtesy of Alex Panko
Alex Panko, former owner of Peter Pank Diner: Hey Larry I am with, you, greasy spoon is derogatory. But I would always make a joke and made the people who referred to the diner in that way look stupid if they said that to me. LOL !!!!
Maria Pagelos Wall, co-owner of the Village Diner, Milford, PA
Village Diner, photo from Larry Cultrera, November 27, 1981
Maria Pagelos Wall, Village Diner: I don’t like it. To me, it makes it sound like a place is dirty with low quality food.
Michael Engle, diner aficionado/author
Michael Engle: I think for anyone who has put the time, passion, energy, and back breaking labor into running their diner or restaurant, that is the last thing they want to hear. There are a number of people who are so far removed from the food industry. Many of these same people, especially the ones who find a diner “cute,” like they would a puppy, these are the people who are perfectly fine with the term. They don’t mean any harm by the term. And these people are validated by the few restaurant owners who adore the term.
Brian Butko, diner aficionado/author
Brian Butko: I agree, we’ve always avoided that term. I recall old diner industry mags discussing the term, and always talking about how diners should help themselves by paying attention to details, paving parking lots, lifting the industry, acting like “real restaurants,” that could be a fun angle.
Jeremy Ebersole, current Vice President of the Society for Commercial Archeology
Jeremy Ebersole: Thanks so much for letting me know, Larry. I certainly didn’t mean to offend. I’ve used the term my whole life and never thought of it as derogatory, and that photo album has been up for years without any negative feedback. However, I certainly do not want to offend or imply that the SCA does not hold diners in the highest esteem. I love diners with every fiber of my being and just had no idea that term was contentious. I’ve been going back through all the old SCA publications and reading them. They’re just so great, and I always really enjoy your column! Please let me know when your blog is published and I will make sure we promote it on the SCA Facebook page! P.S.: Jeremy changed the title of the post to “Awesome eateries from sea to shining sea”.
2nd pet peeve – Writers and or reporters mentioning railroad cars/trolley cars when writing about Diners
Another thing happened recently which tends to cause me to freak out. In fact it is something that I have been calling out newspaper reporters on for the better part of 40 years. Around the beginning of June, 2020, reports came out of Maine about the resurrection of the Farmington Diner of Farmington, Maine.
A number of years ago (2008), Rachel Jackson decided to embark on a risky adventure and save the Farmington Diner when the land it was on was sold to a national pharmacy chain. She had the diner transported to property she owned a few miles away where it has sat in storage since. Within the last couple of years, Ms. Jackson actually bought another old diner that had operated in Pennsylvania and Connecticut under various names. Her plan was to use parts of each to restore (the one out of Connecticut) and return it to operation under the Farmington Diner name.
The reporter , Donna M. Perry of the Sun Journal wrote the first recent report I read on the Farmington Diner, kept referring to both diners as railroad cars. I immediately sent off an email to this reporter:
I just read the piece you wrote on the Farmington Diner. Thanks for the update as I was wondering what was happening up there. I write a blog on diners (www.dinerhotline.com) and have written 2 books for The History Press, (Classic Diners of Massachusetts, 2011) (New Hampshire Diners, Classic Granite State Eateries, 2014). I have been conducting a personal research project on diners since 1980. I have photographed approximately 870 plus diners since November 29th of that year. I just want to point out that writers/journalists like yourself have periodically perpetuated a common misconception that diners are rail cars or trolleys. That is far from accurate. Diners are custom built buildings, usually built by a Diner manufacturer and shipped to a specific (or more than one) location. The diners in question are both Mountain View Diners, manufactured in Singac, New Jersey.
Donna Perry responded to my email and told me she had used railcar diner in her piece because Rachel Jackson thought that it was a commonly used generic term. Perry went on to say that she would amend her online piece to just say diner.
The second report I read was from Maureen Milliken of Maine Business News (www.mainebiz.biz) and I was very happy to see that Ms. Milliken, a seasoned reporter had done her homework. Her piece was well researched and mentioned Mountain View Diners. Not only that, she found a blog post I wrote from 2010 on The Silver Diner of Waterbury CT being closed and in jeopardy, (this became the second diner rescued by Rachel Jackson). The link to my bog post is here… https://dinerhotline.wordpress.com/tag/the-new-lafayette-diner/ So I immediately wrote Maureen Milliken and thanked her for referring to my blog as well as doing her diligent research.
Just to give a quick primer, here are exterior and interior views of an old Dining Car from the Boston & Maine Railroad…
That being said, let me say that there were and are still examples of diners that had been created from converted train and trolley cars. Here are a few examples…
an old Postcard of Leona Hillier’s Dinette from my collection. This is a converted railroad car…
The Club Car Restaurant, a converted railroad car, located in Nantucket, Massachusetts
exterior view of Sisson’s Diner, a converted trolley located in South Middleboro, Massachusetts
interior view of Sisson’s Diner, a converted trolley located in South Middleboro, Massachusetts
exterior view of Bill Gates’ Diner, a converted trolley formerly located in Bolton Landing, New York
interior view of Bill Gates’ Diner, a converted trolley formerly located in Bolton Landing, New York
The following photos are examples of factory-built diners that had the railroad car resemblance in their details…
Chadwick Square Diner, Worcester, Massachusetts
The Sparky Diner, formerly of Pittsfield, Massachusetts
The Capitol Diner, Lynn, Massachusetts
Casey’s Diner, Natick, Massachusetts (looking like a caboose)
On this day, 39 years ago (November 29, 1980) I took one 35mm photograph of a diner… namely, the By Pass Diner of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This event, small in comparison to others in the greater scheme of things, steamrolled into a multi-decade long odyssey that encompasses thousands of photos of 870 plus diners throughout the northeast United States down through the mid-Atlantic states as well as small pockets in Tennessee and Florida.
The By Pass Diner of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Photo from November 29, 1980
I have been in the process of scanning and in some cases, re-scanning the library of 35mm prints and slides, to digitize the archive. In looking back on some of the older photos, including that first one, I am delighted in how these have held up as time goes on. The slides have been scanned but the prints are only partially complete. My hope that now that I am semi-retired, I can make more inroads in the scanning project.
Now when I started this little research project of documenting diners, I will confess that I was a “diner-snob”. Of this I mean that I would only take photos of classic factory-built (prefabricated) diners. The ones built between the 1920s through to the 1950s. Initially, I sort of ignored the newer ones (1960 -1980) and have been kicking myself ever since for not including more of these. As time went on, I did get quite a few of the newer ones and just wish I had gotten more. I also started including storefront and on-site built diners as subjects for my photos.
That being said, in honor of the 39th anniversary of taking my first diner photo, I decided to take some photos of a “Diner” that is about to open within the next month.The Minuteman Diner, located on The Great Road in Bedford, Massachusetts had this honor. I had been reading earlier this year that Ed & Diane Cohen were taking over the spot in a commercial strip-mall that had housed a D’Angelo Sub Shop and planned to open it up as a diner after renovations and updates to the spot were complete. The Cohen’s plans were to open sometime in August, but these plans had a slight detour due to unforeseen building code requirements that set them back a few months. These problems have been alleviated and they are waiting for the town to sign-off and allow them to open.
The Minuteman Diner, Bedford, Massachusetts.
An exterior view from November 29, 2019
The Minuteman Diner, Bedford, Massachusetts.
An exterior view from November 29, 2019
The Minuteman Diner, Bedford, Massachusetts.
An exterior view from November 29, 2019
The Minuteman Diner, Bedford, Massachusetts.
An interior view from November 29, 2019
The Minuteman Diner, Bedford, Massachusetts.
An interior view from November 29, 2019
I had contacted Diane the other day and told her I was planning on showing up this morning to take photos. When I got there, I had a nice conversation with both her and Ed and am excited to see them do well as there are no other breakfast and lunch places in town other than McDonalds, Dunkin’ Donuts and various sandwich places. I am definitely planning to make a return trip or two when they open up soon….
It is still hard to even wrap my brain around the fact that I took my very first “Diner” photograph 37 years ago on November 29, 1980! Although my interest in Diners goes back to the 1950s when I was around 5 or 6 years old, the groundwork for this first “Diner” photo op was a few months in the making. I had purchased a used 35mm camera in the summer of 1980 and started taking some scenic photos after being inspired by my pal Steve Repucci.
The Bypass Diner, Herr Street in Harrisburg, PA. The first “Diner”
photograph featuring my blue 1979 Chevy Van parked in front!
To backtrack a little, Steve and I crossed paths after I had started a new job in September of 1976 at Analogic Corporation in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Steve had been employed there since 1974. We became acquainted through our shared employment between 1976 and all thru 1977, but did not socialize much outside of work until June 24, 1978, when we had gone on a camping trip to the Lake George, NY area for a weekend.
After that weekend, we became fast friends and I soon learned of Steve’s passion for 35mm photography! At that time I had always had a Kodak Instamatic camera around just for taking snapshots. I was not an avid photographer at all. But seeing some of the photos that Steve shot inspired me to look at photography seriously as a new hobby.
In April of 1979, another critical high point came when I purchased my first brand-new vehicle, a 1979 Chevy Van. From 1971 until that April, I had always owned used vehicles which got me around adequately enough, but there was always that looming cloud of possible mechanical problems which could hinder long distance travel. In purchasing the new van, this cloud had finally dissipated! In fact during that year, Steve and I had started our weekly Sunday morning short road trips, usually stopping for breakfast at local diners. This got our heads wrapped around the idea of tailoring the Sunday morning ride destinations either driving to already known diners to just flat out exploring to find new places to have breakfast.
So with the purchase of the new van in 1979, this allowed me the opportunity to increase the scope of my traveling. And then with the subsequent purchase of my first 35mm camera, the stage was set that led me to that first “Diner” photo! September of 1980, Steve had realized his plans of moving to Harrisburg, PA for a change of scene. A good friend of his from the U.S. Air Force, Ed Womer, lived there and gave Steve the incentive to relocate.
I was one of the people who helped in getting Steve moved (owning a van back then, I was always being asked to help people move). So this was my first time traveling to Pennsylvania. On that initial trip, I noticed a few diners while I was there, although I do not recall eating in any on that trip. It was the next time down over the long Thanksgiving Day weekend when I took that first shot of the Bypass Diner which was a mile or so from where Steve and Ed had their shared apartment. Nowadays, the Bypass Diner still exists although it has been operated as the American Dream Diner for many years.
Now that 37 years have elapsed and I have photographed over 860 diners in that time. I can’t help but think back on this personal trip, especially since I have been scanning all my slides and photos in earnest for the last 2 and 1/2 years, (I stopped using 35mm film and went fully digital in 2008). With this scanning project, I am building up my digital archive of photos. It seems that whenever I scan any particular photo, be that of a diner or any other miscellaneous subject, I tend to relive those days.
But really, it all started when I was a kid, living in Medford, Massachusetts. My dad Sebastian “Sam” Cultrera loved diners and was the guy who first told me about them. He brought me out to breakfast to places like the Star Lite Diner, on Mystic Ave. in Medford…
The one and only photo of the Star Lite Diner known to exist.
This is my colorized version (using Photoshop).
The Star Lite was fairly close to my family’s meat market and I also used to ride the delivery bike from the store down to the diner for lunch. I recall playing tunes on the juke box and kibitzing with the owner Jim and his son Richie. They closed for their usual 2 week vacation in the summer of 1968 but unfortunately never reopened. The diner reportedly was moved to a salvage yard in nearby Chelsea, Massachusetts.
My large scale scratch-built model of the Star Lite Diner.
We also frequented Bobbie’s Diner, also located on Mystic Ave. in Medford. My dad actually supplied hamburger meat and Italian Sausage to Bobbie’s Diner from our family meat market, the Blue Eagle Market.
My one and only photo of Bobbie’s Diner, not long before it
was demolished.
I was driving by one morning and saw that the diner had been
dismantled and placed in a dumpster.
The next day it was almost completely gone…
Later, when I became friends with David Hebb, he gave me one of his definitive photos of Bobbie’s Diner for my collection…
David Hebb’s photo of Bobbie’s Diner from circa 1980 or so.
I have since learned a bit of the history of this diner and that it was located prior to World War II in Haines Square a commercial center just off the Fellsway in Medford.
It was originally known as Jack’s Diner. The family that owned it moved it in the early 1940s to the yard adjacent to their home for a few years before relocating it to Mystic Avenue where it again operated as Jack’s before being sold.
Jack’s Diner being moved from Haines Square.
The last diner to operate in Medford was Carroll’s Colonial Dining Car, a circa 1961 vintage Swingle Diner. This replaced 2 earlier diners at its location on Main Street. I recall my family going for breakfast on Easter morning after church for a couple of years when this diner was brand new. Later, after graduating from high school, Carroll’s became the go-to hang out for my friends and I for quite a few years.
A night-time photo I shot in the winter of 1982
Carroll’s Diner, from a photo I shot in 1983.
Carroll’s closed in 1986 and was demolished to make way for a new office building. More recently the Carroll family opened a new restaurant a couple of blocks away just off Medford Square called Carroll’s Bar & Grill.
Carroll’s Bar & Grill on Main Street in Medford Square.
May 5, 2012 photo by Larry Cultrera
When I started this trip 37 years ago, little did I know that it would eventually lead to me writing this blog as well as 2 books. I want to give a shout-out to all the friends I have made during this journey, chief among them, Richard J.S. Gutman, John Baeder, David Hebb and all the diner owners I have come to know personally. I wonder what the next decade or two might have in store???
November 29, 1980 is a very significant date in my life. I was visiting my pal Steve Repucci in Harrisburg, PA on the long Thanksgiving Day weekend. We had moved Steve down to Harrisburg on the previous Labor Day Weekend, which happened to be my first trip to that city and Pennsylvania as well. On the previous visit I noticed there were quite a few diners although I do not recall eating at one then. So this Thanksgiving trip was purely more of a pleasure trip. We arrived on the Friday after Thanksgiving (November 28th) and probably mellowed out after the 8 (or more) hour trip, which had been very tiring due to the heavy fog we encountered on I-81 between Scranton and Harrisburg. The next morning we drove over to the Bypass Diner which was fairly close to where Steve lived. I am not sure when I actually took this first tentative photo of the diner but am inclined to think it was after we had breakfast.
The Bypass Diner, Herr Street, Harrisburg, PA
November 29, 1980 photo by Larry Cultrera
With this one photo, I started a 36 year trek that has continued for many miles and quite a few vehicles. In the process, I have made countless friends along the way and by my estimate photographed over 860 diners! This process eventually included the creation of my long running regular column for the Society for Commercial Archeology Journal magazine (Diner Hotline) and this blog of the same name after I retired the column. The blog led me to the authoring of my two books… Classic Diners of Massachusetts and New Hampshire Diners, Classic Granite State Eateries, both published by The History Press. I am currently attempting to scan all the 35mm prints and slides of diners I shot from November of 1980 until 2008 when I stopped using 35mm film and went totally digital with the purchase of my Pentax digital SLR.
Diner Hotline Weblog 