Tim’s Diner of Leominster, Mass.

One of my very favorite diners

Tim’s Diner, Water Street in Leominster, Mass. A circa 1950s photo showing the diner with the original name of Roy’s
Diner on the porcelain panels.
Photo Courtesy of Tim’s Diner

I first learned about Tim’s Diner when I saw an article that appeared in one of the local newspapers, possibly The Boston Globe, sometime between 1979 and 1980. I more than likely still have the news-clipping in my 5-drawer flat file but it would be a chore to dig it out. I believe it was written by Richard J.S. Gutman and the article was highlighting some classic diners in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This article had been published just prior to when I started documenting diners with my photographs.

A little background on Tim’s Diner, it is a 1949 Silk City Diner (Car No. 4921) built by the Paterson Vehicle Company of Paterson, New Jersey. It was purchased by Roy Hemenway (or Hemingway) and originally named “Roy’s Diner”. In 1953, Tim Kamataris Sr. purchased the diner from Hemenway and rechristened the business “Tim’s Diner”.

With the shooting of my first diner photo on November 29, 1980 while visiting in Harrisburg, PA, I got back home and started taking more diner photos, blanketing the Boston area, up thru the North Shore, out towards Lawrence and Lowell, into the Metro-West area as far as Worcester. By the end of July of 1981 when I started to keep a “Diner Log”, I had started venturing further afield, documenting diners in Spencer, Orange and Northampton. Now granted, my entries into the Diner Log were sporadic at first and there were quite a few that did not get properly logged with info such as dates of first photos, etc. But I know I must have visited the Fitchburg-Leominster area along the Route 2 corridor, but did not get to Tim’s Diner until early September of 1981.

It looks like I had taken a trip on Saturday September 5, 1981, starting out in Leominster where I photographed Tim’s and the Central Square Diner on the way to getting photos of the Pizza Pub in Wilbraham, Taco Villa in Amherst and Ross’ Diner in Holyoke. The first three photos I shot of Tim’s Diner were the only ones I got of the diner when it still looked the way it came from the factory….

Tim’s Diner, Water Street in Leominster, Mass.
September 5, 1981 photo by Larry Cultrera

Tim’s Diner, Water Street in Leominster, Mass.
September 5, 1981 photo by Larry Cultrera

Tim’s Diner, Water Street in Leominster, Mass.
September 5, 1981 photo by Larry Cultrera

So not long after that first visit to Tim’s, tragedy struck when a motorist veered off the road, more than likely taking the turn too wide from Mechanic Street onto Water Street and hit the front of the diner. The original factory-built entryway was destroyed along with the stainless steel facade under the front windows being damaged beyond repair. Tim Kamataris Sr. made the decision to replace the entryway and facade under all the windows along the front and right side of the diner with brick. Ironically, a second car accident hit the front wall again within a fairly short time after the damage was repaired from the first accident, this time to the right of the new entryway. This accident caused more damage with the brick facade and wall behind it being pushed in by a few inches. The stainless steel panels above the windows and the trim at the corners of the diner were left intact which In retrospect would help with the eventual restoration that happened in the last year and a half.

Tim’s Diner with brick entryway and facade after the two
accidents. 2008 Photo by Larry Cultrera

Tim’s Diner with brick entryway and facade after the two
accidents. April 18, 2009 Photo by Larry Cultrera

Sometime in the early 2000s, I became friends with Tim Kamataris Jr. when I started to frequent the diner more often, usually with my pal Steve Repucci. Tim related to me how he always lamented the fact that his dad had put the brick on the diner. He expressed that he would love to restore the diner but knew it would take a lot of money to do it correctly and he did not see how he could raise the funds to do the job.

Yours Truly with Tim Kamataris Jr. at Tim’s Diner
January 12, 2013 photo by Steve Repucci

Interior of Tim’s Diner, Steve Repucci (with hat) sitting at the counter. March 26, 2011 photo by Larry Cultrera

Interior of Tim’s Diner, Steve Repucci sitting at the counter. March 26, 2011 photo by Larry Cultrera

Interior of the back dining room at Tim’s Diner.
March 26, 2011 photo by Larry Cultrera

Interior of the back dining room at Tim’s Diner.
March 26, 2011 photo by Larry Cultrera

from left to right -Yours Truly with my brothers Don & Rick
with Tim Kamataris and his sister Gail Kamataris-Prizio in the
background. January 27, 2020 photo from Larry Cultrera

Tim’s Diner with the walls prepped awaiting the new
stainless steel panels. November 18, 2022 photo by Larry Cultrera

Within the last two years or so, Tim found out that the diner was eligible for Government grants from the city of Leominster which made it possible to finally restore the exterior of the diner to a reasonable facsimile to the way it originally looked. He had a local contractor do the prep work by removing the brick work under the windows on the front and right side of the diner. The front wall to the right of the entryway under the windows was dismantled in order to pull the steel beam back out. The tile-work on the inside of the wall was replaced although not an exact match to the originals, it still looks good and the booths located on that wall help to hide it to a degree.

The Summer of 2023, new replacement windows were installed but the stainless steel panels were not installed until early December. My wife Denise and I made a quick trip out on December 20, 2023 to document the diner with the completed restoration. This restoration included cladding the brick entryway with stainless steel as well.

Tim’s Diner with new stainless steel facade.
December 20, 2023 photo by Larry Cultrera

Tim’s Diner with new stainless steel facade.
December 20, 2023 photo by Larry Cultrera

Tim’s Diner with new stainless steel facade.
December 20, 2023 photo by Larry Cultrera

All in all, I am happy to say that I believe that Tim’s Diner looks much better and closer to the way it originally looked. It has been over 40 years and it was well worth the wait, a job well done!!!!

July 4th Interview – Boston Globe

I was honored to be interviewed for a piece that appeared  in the Boston Globe “G” section on July 4th. It is part of their series called the “G Force”……..

 

Medford native celebrates classic diners

G Force
July 03, 2012

WHO

Larry Cultrera

WHAT

From 1988 to 2007, the Medford native wrote a column about diners for the Society for Commercial Archeology Journal. Since then, he has maintained
his Diner Hotline blog, and last year, he published “Classic Diners of Massachusetts” (The History Press), which goes into its third printing this month.

Q. You write that your journey started in 1980, and you have since visited and photographed more than 820 diners. What spurred your interest?

A. I’ve had an interest in diners since I was a little kid, but it wasn’t until 1979 or 1980 that I became aware they were disappearing. I was also getting into 35mm photography around that time and [diners] fed my different sensibilities: my love of history in particular. The history grabbed me.

Q. What about the history?

A. I knew that diners were built in factories; they weren’t generally built on-site. It wasn’t until 1980 that some books were starting to come out. First, John Baeder, the photo-realist artist, brought out “Diners” in 1978 and it featured his paintings and drawings. And in 1979 Richard Gutman brought out “American Diner,” which was the precursor to a book he brought out in the ’90s called “American Diner: Then & Now,” which has since become the bible for diner history. Once I started reading the history and figuring out there’s all these different manufacturers that used to build diners and some that still do at that point in time, you start identifying the different manufacturers by the different styles, details they put into their products.
So it was like how a classic car buff could look at a certain car and say, “Oh, that’s a 1957 Chevy Bel Air and it’s modified in this manner.’’ A diner buff can say, “That’s a 1948 Jerry O’Mahoney and it’s been altered by doing this or that ” or “most of it’s original.”                

Q. Are New England diners different from diners elsewhere?

A. What really differentiates northern New England diners from southern New England diners, say, Connecticut, or even Long Island, N.Y., or Pennsylvania diners, is the fact that after 1960, especially by 1965, we weren’t getting any new diners up here, whereas the diners down in New York, southern Connecticut, were continually being upgraded. Owners go back to the factories and have new diners built, generally bigger than what they had. Up here, you could call them conservative-style diners, because they were just very small. And they managed to hold on, still dwindling little by little over the years. We still have the greatest collection of early- to mid-20th century diners anywhere.

Q. Does interest in diners ebb and flow or are they destined to eventually become extinct?

A. It sort of goes in spurts. By the late ’70s, diners were really starting to die out, especially around here. But with the books that came out, there came a resurgence. Right now, you don’t see too much happening around here except there’s a chain called the 5 and Diner that started out in the southwest, Phoenix. In about 2006, a family from Massachusetts decided to buy a franchise of the 5 and Diner and they opened it in Worcester, where the history of diner-building started. And within two years, they bought the whole chain.

Q. Which local diners are your favorites?

A. The Capitol Diner in Lynn, which has been run by the same family since the late ’30s, and the Salem Diner. Even though its current owners are fairly new to the diner, they’ve been in the restaurant business for many years and they are continuing the tradition at the Salem Diner and have rejuvenated
that place.

Q. In your photo, you’re wearing a shirt from Tim’s Diner in Leominster. What’s the story?

A. It’s a great diner and one of my favorites, primarily open only in the mornings. It’s one of the diners I wish I lived closer to because I’d be there a lot more often. The family that’s been running it has been running it since the early ’50s. It was originally known as Roy’s Diner. They’re famous for their fish chowder. The locals can’t wait for Fridays. It goes right out the door.

Interviewed by Glenn Yoder