june's history post.

There's some confusion in Estelle Howard's Ward & Dickinson. What is known is that Clive & Estelle Howard bought Ward & Dickinson #54 and placed it in Le Roy, NY. The story was that the diner came from nearby Perry, NY. I never believed this, but it had me wondering about Perry. I could never find proof there was a diner in Perry until recently. The Perry Record on 11/30/1932 reported that Estelle Howard was placing an all steel lunch car in town and that she had a lunch car in Le Roy for the past 7 years. It made no mention of a physical movement of the diner itself.
In 1937, Estelle got remarried and sold the diner for a total of 5 weeks. When she came back to the diner, it was announced that howard, "practically put a new exterior on the diner."
Next, in 1940, it was announced that Estelle Howard(not her married name, more mystery) was moving the diner to the junction of US 20 and NY 36 and that Estella had a hook up with Standard Oil which was putting a new station on the south-west corner. A May 1, 1940 Perry Record blurb said that the diner came from Le Roy. Though, should be believe them, because papers are often wrong, and I have found inconsistencies in their looking back column when they went from someone working at a diner to owning it, when mentioned 30 years later.
A May 16, 1940 quick blurb says, "sequel to village lunch cart story. Part of it fell off truck when it was departing," Fortunately, on June 6, 1940 there was a mention that Mrs. Theos Howard was assisting Estelle Howard in the dining car at its new location. So we know she did get the diner open at the new spot.

One other Perry, NY story comes from June 1946. Ernest Lindsay bought a lunch car and placed it in the village. He bought a lunch car from Avon, Ny where it was on the circle adjioning the East Avon Road. This should make this diner #41, owned originally by Otto Kiefer, which was known as Kief's Diner. Otto passed away around 1940, and the diner was more closed than open for the next 6 years. i have a mention somewhere that this diner was being removed sometime in the 1940s, so this would make perfect sense.

Research - I will need to check the Le Roy newspapers around when Estelle moved to Perry to see what happened to the diner, because as we all know, there was a Ward & Dickinson diner in Le Roy until 2002, last known as Conklin's. Something had bothered me about the diner, as I looked at photos. I felt like Conklins was not one of the first 100 Ward & Dickinson diners. That there was something different about the roof slope. So I may be right after all! And if I am, where did the "new" diner come from?

Side note - There was a Liberty dining car in Painted Post, NY