Syracuse NY

Part 2, New York state road-trip, May, 1985

I finally completed the scanning of slides for this post….. Part 2 of the road-trip I took from May 20th to 22nd, 1985. Part 1 was posted almost a month ago on August 28th. I will start this post where I left off… it was the afternoon of the second day of the road-trip which turned out to be nice and sunny which made it easier to shoot slides (Kodachrome). Sometime later I figured out that Ektachrome slide film was extremely better for shooting in the varying light situations I found during these extended road-trips and used that almost exclusively until I stopped shooting 35mm film in the last 6 years.

At the end of Part 1, I was documenting the J.R. Diner on Wolf Street in Syracuse. I posted the first 2 slides I shot of that particular diner. It seems I had to start a new roll of film as there were 2 more shots of this on the new roll.

J.R. Diner, 1208 Wolf St. in Syracuse, NY
May 21, 1985 photo by Larry Cultrera

After J.R. Diner, I found Mario’s Little Gem Diner over at 832 Spencer St. This was a great example of a 1950’s streamlined, L-shaped Fodero diner featuring plenty of stainless steel with red flexglass strips. Mario Biasi was now operating this diner after formerly being associated with another smaller stainless-steel Silk City diner in North Syracuse. I believe I ate dinner here that evening.

Mario’s Little Gem Diner, Syracuse, NY – May 21, 1985 photo
by Larry Cultrera

Next up was a non-streamlined Sterling diner operating as the Liberty Diner. Located at 4004 South Salina St. (Rte. 11) it looked to be in original condition from the outside (except for the porcelain steel panels being painted a brown color) . I never got to go inside this one so I don’t no what the inside was like. The sun was behind this place somewhat so I am only showing 2 of the 4 photos I shot as the other 2 were somewhat in shadow. This diner was dismantled a number of years later and the parts put into storage if I recall correctly.

Liberty Diner, Syracuse, NY – May 21, 1985 photo by Larry Cultrera

After this I ended up downtown near City Hall and found the Miss Syracuse Diner, a slightly modified Bixler diner. I got some decent shots of this one….

exterior of the Miss Syracuse Diner, 258 East Water St., Syracuse, NY
May 21, 1985 photo by Larry Cultrera

interior of the Miss Syracuse Diner, 258 East Water St., Syracuse, NY
May 21, 1985 photo by Larry Cultrera

I then ended up on Geddy St. to take these late afternoon shots of Denny’s Diner. This place was not related to the national chain of Denny’s Restaurants but it looks like they borrowed the logo somewhat for this little barrel-roofed diner covered in stucco.

Denny’s Diner, Syracuse, NY – May 21, 1985 photo by Larry Cultrera

I started out the next day having breakfast at the diner formerly run by Mario Biasi (of Mario’s Little Gem Diner) This diner was known as Mario’s Diner when Al Bellink and Don Kaplan reviewed it for their “Diners of the Northeast” book (1980, The Berkshire Travellers Press). It was operating as the Pelican Diner when I visited it on this road-trip. I understand it has since been moved to Canastota, NY since to become the Canastota Dinerant.

Pelican Diner, North Syracuse, NY – May 22, 1985 photo by Larry Cultrera

After breakfast, I left the Syracuse area and headed east. I do not recall if I traveled Rte. 5 out of Syracuse but I do know I did end up on Rte. 5 and eventually made it to Herkimer, NY. I knew from my buddy David Hebb that Herkimer was the home to the Empire Diner, a 1950’s vintage Mountain View diner. I got there at a great time of the day because the sun was shining directly on the place for some excellent post card worthy photos.

Empire Diner, corner of North Main and State Streets (Rte 5)
Herkimer, NY – May 22, 1985 photo by Larry Cultrera

After Herkimer, I consulted my road atlas and made my way toward Lake George by way of Johnstown and Gloversville, NY. Back in 1969 when I was on a weeks vacation with my family we spent most of our time in Lake George but managed to make a side trip to Cooperstown to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame. While there we stayed at the Johnstown/Gloversville Holiday Inn for one night. This was my first trip back to the area since 1969 and it was interesting to see how much I remembered as I checked out the towns while driving through. I continued on my way toward Great Scanandaga Lake and was on Rte. 30 when I came across the Dun Dozin’ Diner in Mayfield. It was a late 1930’s vintage Monarch model built by the Jerry O’Mahony Company. The exterior was intact but painted over and had a manasrd roof covering the front and sides. The interior was in remarkable condition. I did take photos of the interior but apparently had no flash for the camera which certainly would have made for better images. But I figure, the ones I got were better than nothing. This diner has since gotten enlarged and somewhat hidden (from the outside) and is now operating as the Northampton Diner. The interior is still fairly original. This diner was originally located in Glens Falls and operated under names such as Miss Glens Falls Diner and the Glen’s Diner.

Dun Dozin’ Diner, Rte. 30, Mayfield, NY
May 22, 1985 photo by Larry Cultrera

interior view of the Dun Dozin’ Diner, Rte. 30, Mayfield, NY
May 22, 1985 photo by Larry Cultrera

On to Lake George for the conclusion of this road-trip where I apparently took one shot of the Prospect Mt. Diner. It seems like I removed that particular slide from the box for whatever reason lost to memory. I would surmise that I either put it with other slides of that diner or that it was just not a good photo. I know I shot one as it would have been the last shot on a 36 exposure roll of film and the box has the name scratched out.

Part 1, New York state road-trip, May, 1985

I was going thru some 35mm slides recently, and decided to “re-live” a solo road-trip I took from May 20th to 22nd, 1985. This trip was to take in some areas of upstate New York that I had not explored since I started documenting diners in 1980. I am going to break this into a two-part post as I am scanning 98 percent of the slides I shot on that trip.

As I recall, I started out the trip by driving state Route 2 from the Boston area out to Albany, NY. My ultimate destination was to explore out as far as Syracuse before heading back by way of my old stomping grounds of Lake George. After following Rte. 2 into NY state, I crossed the Hudson River from Troy to Watervliet. Just over the river I had always noticed an old barrel-roofed diner being used for an Off-Track Betting parlor (OTB). For those who don’t know, Off-Track Betting was a legal form of betting on horse races that was popular in NY state from 1970 to 2010. So this particular day, I finally decided to stop and take a few shots of this place, although checking out these images I can see that it was probably not the right time of the day to try and document this place. I am figuring also that the slide film I was using then was not as conducive to the varied lighting conditions I encountered during this trip. (I’m thinking I was using Ectachrome instead of Kodachrome or vice versa).

I believe this might be the remnants of a Bixler diner or even a Rochester Grill diner and was never really sure if there were 2 diners grafted together or an addition to the original building that mimicked the roof-line. Anyway, I checked Google street view when I started writing this post and it looks like the place is still there and of course it now has light gray colored siding applied to the exterior which would make it much easier to photograph then when I did in 1985.

After I left the OTB place I drove down Rte. 32 south toward Albany following the river. From what I could tell, I stopped at Jack’s Diner in Albany and grabbed something to eat. I say this because even though I had a slide, it was not logged in for this particular trip and for a good reason, this was not my first visit to this diner as it was already in my log book (October,2, 1982). I know I documented it on that previous trip but I actually went in and ate there for the first time on this one.

Again because of the time of day (the light was not great), I only took one shot of Jack’s this time around as I knew I had decent shots from the last time there and did not have to go wild. So after lunch. I left Albany and started traveling west on Rte. 7 and eventually came upon Gibby’s Diner, a tiny 1950’s Mountain View Diner in the small hamlet of Quaker Street, NY. I recall getting out of my Chevy Van with my camera to start taking photos when a family was coming out of the diner after eating there. The husband looked at me and asked…. are you one of those guys that goes around taking pictures of old diners??? I replied, I take pictures of all diners!!!! Just one of those encounters you always remember.

Gibby’s has the smallest entryway vestibule I have ever seen. I continued west on Rte. 7 until I hit the Unadilla area (You-na-dilla). As I recall, I found a campground nearby to the town and stayed the night. This allowed me to have dinner that evening as well as breakfast the next morning at the Unadilla Diner. This diner was built by the Master Diner Company and was pretty much original inside and out….. with the big exception of the added peaked roof that covered the diner and overhung the front giving the impression of a “front-porch”. This made it very difficult to photograph, especially with that wrought iron railing, so I managed to shoot as many angles as I could to document it.

After breakfast at the Unadilla on May 21, 1985, I believe I continued west on Rte. 7 until I got to Bainbridge, NY where I got onto Rte. 206 and followed it all the way to U.S. Rte. 11. I then proceeded north on Rte. 11 up to Cortland. This brings me to the reason why I decided to post this group of slides from this particular road trip. What actually spurred me on was that Mike Engle recently posted a scan of a news-clipping that showed a diner in the town of Cortland, NY on Facebook. He identified it as quite possibly the only photo of a “General” diner he had found to date.

I recognized it immediately as Frank & Mary’s Diner, one of the diners I came across on that May 1985 trip. General Diner Company (presumably from New York state) was not prolific in their output of small barrel-roofed diners, according to Mike Engle they may have built around a dozen diners. In fact this is possibly the only known example extant. I myself assumed it was an on-site built diner as I had never seen another like it in my travels.

I more than likely had a sandwich or something at this diner before I continued on. Shortly after Frank & Mary’s I located 2 other diners in Cortland. The next one I came across was a Ward & Dickenson built diner called Spiro’s Diner. It looked pretty neat although it had an addition as well as what looked like some sort of siding on the facade under the windows.

My log entry for Spiro’s tells me I did go inside but as I just had eaten at Frank & Mary’s I probably just got a soft drink to go. Heading out of town toward Syracuse on Rte. 11 I came across the third Cortland diner…. a large Sterling Diner operating as Gary’s Riverside Diner. I did not go in but did get a couple of photos of it…….

I finally made it up to Syracuse and immediately found a campground for the coming evening. Now I knew there were diners in the area but had no real idea where they were. Remember, this was before the internet and such, so I did the only thing I could do…. I asked the owners of the campground to borrow their Yellow Pages Phone Book! I went in and started writing down all the diners I found listed and went out to try to locate them, ah the dark ages of diner hunting! The first diner in Syracuse I photographed was “Cameron’s of Syracuse”, a multi-sectioned Bixler located on Wolf Street, a major north-south artery thru town.

After scanning that 3rd slide of Cameron’s, I had to get rid of a “lens flare” in the photo. It took me a couple of tries but I found the secret. I need to perfect the procedure but think it came out good considering. The last diner in this first part was right down the street…. the J.R. Diner. I thought this too was a Bixler diner but it turns out to be an even more rare Rochester Grill diner. The products of these 2 companies were very similar.

I am not sure why there was a sign on this side of the building that said “Allen’s”, maybe a previous name that did not get painted over? I just never found out. Anyway, this is the end of “Part 1” of this post, Part 2 will come along in the next month after I locate and scan the next batch of slides.

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