New York Diners

Followup on Brill diner in Flushing

2012-01-29T16:01:00.000-08:00

October 3, 1930

End of January History

2012-01-29T07:20:00.001-08:00

Would love to know if this "chain" got off the ground. There was an Empire Diner in State College, PA that came in the 1950s, so who knows, maybe that was one of these? I have never seen one of these diners, or even heard of one being in business.
So keep your eye out for this company.

Saratoga & Oswego County

2012-01-12T16:18:00.000-08:00

Saratoga County below

Type of Record	Date	To	From	$	Address
chattel	08/23/29	John B Scarse	Brill	$11,900.00	lived in Saratoga in 1930, check census
assigned to	08/19/30	Herbert W. Clark	Brill
renewals	through 7/29/36	Scarse or Clark	Brill
chattel	08/24/31	John B. Scarse	Ward & Dickinson
chattel	06/27/27	E Blanche Hallock	Ward & Dickinson	$3,700.00	Ballston Spa
chattel	03/29/30	R.A. Troidl	P.J. Tierney	$3,554.00
chattel	04/27/55	Constantinos Davdas(Daudas?)	Fodero Dining Car Co.	$21,000.00	Malta
discharge	05/14/59	Constantinos Davdas	Fodero Dining Car Co.

Oswego County

Type of Record	Date	To	From	$	Address
chattel	05/14/40	Harry Johnson	General Diner Mfg	$4,200.00
renewal	May 1941	Harry Johnson	General Diner Mfg
chattel	06/25/40	Richard Nichols	General Diner Mfg	$5,700.00
chattel	03/01/41	Joseph & James Scanlon	General Diner Mfg	$3,200.00
chattel	07/01/31	Harry N Johnson et al	Ward & Dickinson	$4,100.00
renew	6/14/33 6/16/32 6/15/34	Harry N Johnson	Ward & Dickinson	$2039.07 in 1933
discharge	09/15/34	Harry N Johnson	Ward & Dickinson

quick update to chattels & conditional sales

2012-01-08T19:56:00.000-08:00

i came across information on the New york State Archives web site that notes that the indexes are Permanent records, and can not be thrown away! This is very good news, and means that I will be able to hit every county.

Ulster County Chattels and Conditional Sales

2012-01-06T21:24:00.000-08:00

Seems if you bought anything on installment, you had to file it with a clerk. The problem with New
York, it seems, is that there is inconsistency on what level of government you filed with. Look at Ward & Dickinson with their chattel mortgages, Pennsylvania was cut and dry. But New York has some filed on the city level, others on the town level, and the majority filed on the county level. Majority is better than nothing, but it should be better. To make matters worse, it seems that these are not records that are deemed permanent, so it is up to the county on whether or not they want to keep the records. Many(read most) clerks are not aware of the existence of these records, because, well, these records were obsolete before they started the job, even 40 year veterans. A few counties have records centers where old records are kept, and these records do find their way into the center typically.
I have done research in two counties so far. Warren County(Glens Falls) should have had two, if not three Ward & Dickinson chattels listed, but none were listed. Hopefully this is because they were filed on a different level of government.
Ulster County might lead me to some understanding. They have two different sets of books for chattels. My guess is that one is for Incorporated businesses and the other isn't. But this is only a guess. Ward & Dickinson was in what I am guessing is the Incorporated book. But many other diners were in the other book. Companies represented include Jerry O'Mahony(listed under J) Kullman Dining Car co. and Paterson Vehicle Co. Two companies that were absent were Bixler and Sterling(Judkins) Maybe they didn't do chattels??? Who knows? The owner of the diner could have paid in cash? They could have filed on the town or city level? tons of possibilities.
Anyways, here is what I have so far.

Ulster County

Date	Sold by	Sold to	$	info	Became/Loc
10/15/32	Bert Atkins	Henry Erickson	1500	lunch car	*
05/19/36	Willwyck Holding & Trading Co.	Mary E Atkins	1300	lunch car #2037
05/13/38	Austin R Lewcombe Co.	Mary E Atkins	1165	lunch car
05/25/39	Jerry O'Mahony	Helen L Mann	3672	equipment
05/02/40	Kullman Dining Car Co	Irving Ruben	17939.46	dining car	Cy's Diner, Kingston
05/30/38	Paterson Vehicle co.	Joseph Jordan Knoth	2500	equipment
10/28/38	Paterson Vehicle Co.	Mary Jones	2500	equipment	canceled 11/20/39
04/26/39	Paterson Vehicle Co.	Henry Schipp	9500	equipment	Ellenville
??/??/41	Paterson Vehicle Co.	Ernest Gackee	3100	equipment
12/11/46	Kullman Dining Car Co.	Tony Patrick	26738.5	dining car #225	Highland
05/17/48	Kullman Dining Car Co.	Herbert Rubin	26050	dining car	discharged 5/20/49. initially near Woodstock
07/03/48	Paterson Vehicle Co.	Elmer & Angelica Lawless	18500	dining car	There was an Elmer's Diner in Phoenicia 1949.
11/02/50	Paterson Vehicle Co.	Albert Nock	19500	dining car	Colonial Diner, Kingston
07/25/30	Ward & Dickinson	Nicholas Koros + John Pappas	8800	different book, no item desc given	478 Broadway, Kingston

Only searched to 1952. Up to 1968 is available.

*Bert Atkins had rest at 318 B'Way in 1934, need to research

Ulster Co includes: Saugerties, Kingston, Ellenville, Phoenicia, Highland, New Paltz.

Flushing Queens Blurb

2012-01-01T19:50:00.000-08:00

New York City had an obscene number of diners. Any place that you had a sliver of land, they put a diner there more often than not. They didn't need parking, since New York City is a pedestrian city. Much of the land was rented, often from a gas company, but other times from a Realtor, hoping to make some money on an empty piece of land, before it becomes more valuable in a few years. Then the diner gets the boot, and they sell the land for a tidy profit.
In this article, they were nice enough to mention that it was a Brill diner.

World War II Sugar Rations

2011-12-28T15:14:00.000-08:00

From the Syracuse Journal in 1945.

Watertown & Ogdensburg, NY

2011-12-22T18:55:00.000-08:00

Alvin Jerge bought Ward & Dickinson Car #69 and it was shipped
7/7/1926 - This information was in the Ward & Dickinson ledger for diners #1-100

As you read at the bottom of this page, a few things seem a little weird. The diner did not come from East Aurora and the black marble counter does not ft in well with a Ward & Dickinson. Also, a similar restaurant for 3 years would not have been a Ward & Dickinson, so it must be
the J.J. Sharpe built diner that was in East Aurora.

The ledger also says the diner was worth $6500, not $8000.

A few more significant pieces of information. Jerge bought another Ward & Dickinson Diner, and that location had a restaurant until 1988. no clue if the diner stayed that long, but by the 1960s, the location became known as a restaurant and not a diner. The "new" diner was #51, which spent a year in Cleveland, as part of a failed chain.
Jerge sold diner #69 to an Ogdensburg party, Louis Bakery(Baking) who called the diner the Crescent Diner. Louis was assisted by Miss Mary Wert and Hoyt Mitchell.

Bakery was in the news in the following year with plans to go to Silver Creek to buy a new diner if he could get a lease on new land. As the diner never materialized, it is believed that the news was premature.

Lastly, back in Watertown, the location where Jerge had this diner originally, would see another Ward & Dickinson known as the S&B Diner. This was run by Lloyd W. Blanding & Clark L. Sherman from appx 1935 to 1962, and would only last 4 more years before being demolished for urban renewal. Lloyd came from Salamanca where he ran another diner, probably a Richardson, since 1924.

July 15, 1926 - Watertown, NY

PULLMAN DINER TO BE
OPENED AS RESTAURANT

A Pullman diner will be Installed
as a restaurant at 231 Court street
Saturday. It was announced today by
Alvin J. Jerge. proprietor of the car.
The diner arrived here this morning
from East Aurora. coming to this city
by rail.
The restaurant will be equipped
with the latest fixtures and will have
a black marble counter for service.
The car is equipped with an electric
refrigerator and other modern equipment
The value of the car is estimated
at $8,000. A similar restaurant
has been successfully operated
in East Aurora for the past 3 years.

Pearl River, NY 1958

2011-11-29T18:25:00.001-08:00

November History

2011-11-27T18:51:00.000-08:00

Way too busy with everything else.

Some small tidbits. The Cities Service Diner that spent a year in Dansville, NY around 1939, was moved to Geneseo and the paper reports that it was an old trolley car. It looks like a Richardson dining car came to Warsaw in 1924. Hopefully I can get a better grasp on the history of this diner. Good year for locating former Richardsons as I have located three of them.
A blurb from a DeRuyter newspaper dated 11/12/1903 "Howard and Gross Swan of Linckalen own a lunch car in Cortland and recently had receipts of $100. Howard has half interest in a lunch car in Dunkirk." Also 9/27/1934 " Gold Dome Diner on Erie Blvd West and Thompson in Syracuse, burned down and was destroyed. The diner was valued at $7,500"

Ward & Dickinson News - All I could find on the Modern Diner in Wellsville coming to town is that the diner came from Le Roy in 1933, and there was just a grand opening advertisement. No article, not even a blurb announcing any information.
The W&D in Butler, PA seems to have been called the Blue Ribbon Diner. About 98% confident on this one, as two diners/lunch wagons popped up in the city directory during the time period the ledger places the diner at. The original owner(who bought the diner) was never listed as owning the diner in the it directory, and his address disappeared in the following year, and he disappeared at the same time.

Diners of the Capital Distrcit

2011-09-20T19:27:00.000-07:00

No history this month except for one bit of info I just recently learned. We will save that for last.

"Diners of the Capital District" should be out and for sale within a month of this writing, if all goes well. It has been completely written, and just needs a very small bit of editing and writing. The book will take a more in depth look at all of the diners in the Capital Region and will include a trip down the Taconic Parkway and along the New York/Vermont/Massachusetts/Connecticut border.
For the Capital Region, I have extended over to Gloversville to include the trio of diners in the Central Leatherstocking region. for the most part, I did not go south into Columbia and Greene County, except for the Taconic Parkway and a mention of the diner in Hudson.
The diner will also include a bit of history. There is a lot I do not know about many Capital District diners, so I tried to mention them all in hopes someone out there has more information.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy, send me a message, and I will have another post when the book does officially come out.

now for a quick hit of history. I recently found out that the O'Mahony(c.a. 1939) down in Columbus, Georgia was the former diner at the current location of the Farmer Boy Diner in Colonie. It spent a few years in between Amsterdam and Scotia until it was sold and moved to Georgia. Unfortunately, the diner is now the office of a used car dealership.

Dansville

2011-08-02T18:56:00.000-07:00

There were at least tow diners in Dansville. There may have been a third, Cities Service Diner, that was there for less than a year, but that can not be verified.

One of the diners in Dansville was built by Richardson. This diner became known as Mike's Diner, moving just once to make way for a Post Office. In a photograph that included the diner, it looks like someone put two Richardson diners perpendicular, or built the addition to mimic the original diner, just set perpendicular. I really can not tell which one is the original diner, it's that good at the distance the photograph is from.

The other diner was opened by Mr. Arthur Nelson of Gowanda around 1927. Arthur Nelson was running a home made diner in Gowanda from 1921, that was built by his father-in-law Peter Schneider. Sometime around 1927/1928??? that diner was replaced by a Liberty dining car(Charles Ward of Ward & Dickinson fame went off on his own) So maybe this Dansville diner was the original Schneider built diner? I won't know until I see a photograph.

July's Post

2011-07-06T17:30:00.001-07:00

Staying with the western most Finger Lakes region, I was considering either Dansville or Le Roy for my focus. To tie in to last month's post, I will go with more Le Roy info.
When newspapers mention diners, or "lunch cars" out in the middle of nowhere, and don't go in depth, it has you wondering if they are authentic diners or not. You know there had to be a few diners out at isolated country locations, sometimes near a gas station and sometimes not. So many "diner" names need not be mentioned because there is absolutely no evidence to them being authentic diners.
One of these that has me go back and forth is this May 1940 blurb, "Ralph Zingaro will soon have his new lunch car at Buck Run Gully ready for business." Every other mention of this business calls it a diner. With this diner, it is going to take a photograph to tell whether or not this is an authentic diner or not.
Mr. Bertha Stoner got mentioned in both the Dansville Breeze and the Caledonia Advertiser with her "Grove Diner" The diner was located on the highway to Batavia at a truck stop, tourist camp, cabis, showers and a bunkhouse for truck drivers, and was a honest to goodness Rochester Grills! Later the diner became known as the Bertha Stoner Diner "At the Grove."
The last advertisement I have found for this diner is 1938. Who knows how long it lasted, but one would have to imagine that the Interstate in the 1950s was probably the beginning of the end, if it was still around.
With a postcard shown to me by Art Goody, this makes two Rochester Grills I have been able to identify this past year. Art Goody, postcard collector, showed me a postcard of Lane's Diner in Rochester, NY.

addendum to June's post

2011-06-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

Estelle Howard's diner at the Junction of Rt 36 and US Rt 20 was known as the Trolley Diner by 1956. Mr. & Mrs. Robert Nelson purchased the diner from Mr. & Mrs. Dell Nichols in December of 1953. The Trolley Diner was for sale in 1965 also.

june's history post.

2011-06-01T18:15:00.000-07:00

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

No April post

2011-05-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

Two posts because there was no April post. Things have been busy with non diner stuff, as spring rolls around, and sometimes diner research just runs hot and cold.

June 18th, I will be out in western New York, doing a book signing at the Westfield Main Diner and participating in the Erie Chautauqua Roadside Day. I may also have a book signing on June 19th at the Woodlawn Diner just south of Buffalo.

Most importantly, though, is the release of "Diners of Pennsylvania" the second edition. All of the current photos are in color! This is a must buy for all diner fans!

Link here

Diner between Canastota & Chittenango

2011-05-14T18:20:00.000-07:00

NY RT 5 - There was a diner in hiding that me and Glenn Wells spotted on a roadtrip a few years ago. We got a look inside, but it was a quick look, as there were a load of bees around the windows of the closed diner. Research popped up that placed this diner in Oneida.(see article) When I passed this place last month, two gentlemen were remodeling the place, in order to open it back up as a restaurant. The bad news is that a very quick peek inside looks like they will butcher the diner up quite bad. Hopefully some of my excellent central New York sources will report some good news about this place soon.

North Carolina

2011-03-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

The website has branched out to Ohio, Michigan and Virginia, so why not North Carolina. Check out the main page for a link to my minimalist look at diners of North Carolina. No history, just a map and the diners.
Due to the simplicity of this page, I may put up pages for some mid-west states in similar fashion, but I have not planned for any of this yet.

Another new find. - Westfield, NY

2011-03-09T18:44:00.001-08:00

We just keep on finding more and more new information. This one is mine, but so much has been found by Westfield, NY historian Marybelle Beigh. I wish there were a whole bunch more Marybelles out there! We would be able to solve nearly every diner mystery!!!

This months find actually happened yesterday! I knew of the Elk Dinor in Erie from 1929 to 1932 from the city directories. But its existence was only 4 years, and who knew if it was a real diner or where it went to. I also did not know who built the diner. But now I do! The next thing is finding out where in Westfield this diner went to. Westfield is a small village, but seemingly, there was no mention in the newspapers about this diner coming to Westfield. Also, Westfield got two more diners in the middle of 1934. Right now, though, it is looking like this could have been the Beacon Diner, which was a Ward, located on the outskirts of town, but right now, it is only speculation.

More speculation. The diner was originally called the Club diner, and W&D came out with a new model of diner called the "Club Diner" sometime in 1928-29, so it would make sense that this diner was a newly built diner and was of the "Club" model.

More Ward & Dickinsons... maybe...

2011-02-19T18:51:00.000-08:00

Flickr brought a picture of a diner which I thought to possibly be a Brill or O'Mahony Monarch styled diner.
Flickr image
Recently, someone replied with an article that contained a photo of the same diner at a different angle, which seems to put Ward & Dickinson as the leading candidate. The only thing is that there do not seem to be any green swirled glass windows in the end windows.
Other image, go to page 9
I might think Liberty from the end photo, but from the second photo, the roof curvature does not deem it a Liberty. It also can't be a Mulholland from the first photo as the end roof line had a little curve to it. Basically, from the second photo, I am leaning towards this being a Ward & Dickinson.

The second news I have comes from the Westfield, NY Historian. A Customer came in to talk to her at her ice cream shop in Westfield this week and said her parents had a diner to the west of Westfield and also has some green swirled glass from that diner. Well, green swirled glass typically says W&D, though O'Mahony and Silk City did use green swirled glass in a few of their diners. More details as they come along.

More info from Ohio

2011-01-26T18:27:00.000-08:00

Dan Brady emailed me just after Christmas. Dan has a blog dedicated to Lorain, Ohio. "Brady's Bunch of Lorain, Ohio" While talking about past businesses, he became interested in a diner that was once in Lorain, and found my web site by searching for the first owner's name.

I will let his web site tell the story of Ward & Dickinson #93

http://danielebrady.blogspot.com/2011/01/helens-diner-dew-drop-inn.html

http://danielebrady.blogspot.com/2011/01/old-time-diners-at-loop-follow-up.html

http://danielebrady.blogspot.com/2011/01/old-time-diners-at-loop.html

his blog can be found here:
http://danielebrady.blogspot.com/

typo

2010-12-27T15:36:00.000-08:00

Great Lakes Dining Car Wagoneer - history - page

Even had a typo in my web page in the previous post.

Great Lakes Dining Car Wagoneer

2010-12-27T15:31:00.001-08:00

For regulars to my website, you know that I publish a yearly newsletter chronicling the new information that I have found. I call it the "Great Lakes Dining Car Wagoneer"
For people who are not regulars, the purpose of the newsletter is to keep people up to date on my research, and hopefully get the word out that I am actively researching diners in the Great Lakes region. The newsletter has been published since 2003, and all back issues are available online.
This year, I have dedicated almost the entire issue to Ward & Dickinson.

Check it out! This link will bring you to my history page, and from there, it is only a click away. (In case you also want to check out old issues)

http;//www.nydiners.com/history.html

Quick update - Toronto

2010-12-19T19:42:00.000-08:00

Morey's Diner in Oneida is Diner #215.
I need to do more checking on this. Diner #233 and #244 had 1930 openings.

From a Toronto, Ontario Bankruptcy newspaper clipping.
Cars #160 and 162 had a lien on them dated 5/26/28
Cars #161 and 165 had a lien on them dated 8/09/28

The problem with going by these dates is that cars #111-116 had a lien date of 7/12/26
And the Ward & Dickinson ledger says they built 117 in the middle of 1927. So something seems askew with the lien dates. Car 97 was built in Nov 1926.
Also this Grape Belt article seems to help my theory that the newspaper meant 1927
May 3, 1927 : Ward & Dickinson have taken on a larger force at their factory to finish 10 dining cars for immediate delivery to a Toronto Company.
Maybe the Toronto Company decided only to start with 5 diners????

Once I can pinpoint a date for Morey's Diner, it will help even farther with a timeline of diners.

--
The diner in East Syracuse does not have the original backbar, so no chance of a tag there, but I did send a letter to Silver Creek, because in looking at my pictures, I noticed that Steve's Diner does indeed have the original backbar.

Utica - Rochester Grills

2010-12-06T19:23:00.000-08:00

At the same time two Sterlings were coming to Utica, a Rochester Grill also arrived. Shown here is a chain of two diners. The first was a Bixler, and the second was a Rochester Grill. For people in the know, Mr. Shale's name will sound familiar.

He originally worked for Bixler and jumped to Rochester Grills when business for Bixler dried up. It is quite possible he also made furniture and pianos for the Rochester company either before or after (maybe during???) his dining car career.
Rochester Grills was not a prolific company. They were around from late 1935 through about 1940 and we know of about a dozen diners that they built. I was able to discover that two of their employees were from Livonia, NY and the local paper mentioned that this worker went on the road for Rochester Grills about six times, getting the diners in place. The only new piece of information was a Rochester Grill diner sent to New York City. Other Rochester Grills went to places in New York state like Sidney, Norwich, Johnson City, Watertown, Olean and Bradford in Pennsylvania. you can still get light fare at the diner in Bradford, as they have recently reopened the place as a place for food and gifts. "Grandma's House Tea and Gifts" can be found on facebook.

Ward & Dickinson #310 found

2010-12-06T19:11:00.001-08:00

Word has reached me from Middletown, PA that Kuppy's Diner is #310. This diner was brought into Middletown in 1938, so this makes the Chautauqua diner a little bit younger.(early 1938 or maybe 1937)
On a side note, the Westfield, NY historian(Marybelle Beigh) has been able to make contact with a gentleman who ran a diner in Sherman, NY, starting after WW2. The short story is that they found a diner stored at a baseball field in Corry, PA, and bought it and brought it up Sherman. The story gets a little strange as the diner was plopped onto tired, which naturally blew as the diner was set on them, so the diner was cut into four pieces and moved in sections to Sherman.
The historian will be meeting shortly with this gentleman to talk about the history of the diner and hopefully pick up a copy of a photograph of the diner, so I look forward to identifying the maker of the diner. Initial research shows the (verified) Mulholland which was in Corry is the front runner. That diner disappeared somewhere between 1943 & 1957(no city directories available in between these years.)

Ward & Dickinson #306 found

2010-11-29T09:46:00.000-08:00

Donald Kofoed was the son of the foreman for Ward & Dickinson. Berthel Kofoed was hired by Ward & Dickinson to design and build the first lunch car built by the company. He was also wise enough to order in bulk to save money. His son, Donald relates that he bought all the wheels from a wagon company who was going out of business. Donald worked for Ward & Dickinson for a couple of years after getting out of college and talked a little about the company.
One thing he mentioned is that there was an ID tag under the bread drawer on each of the diners. Well this weekend, I proved this to be true! Upon entering the Tasty Acre of Chautauqua, outside the entrance of the Chautauqua Institution, I found the owner at the diner. After talking, I noticed that the original drawers behind the counter were still there. After asking to look under them, I noticed an unassuming tag which was painted over. After some cleaning, you can notice the number 306 punched in to the tag! This diner was said to have come to the location in 1944, so there is still a lot more research to do. Did Ward & Dickinson build a new diner? If not, where did it come from and how long was it at the other location?
Hopefully there are other Ward & Dickinson diners that also have their original drawers. The only possibilities I can think of are in Oneida, NY and Middletown, PA

Sterling example

2010-10-05T18:04:00.001-07:00

No photo of the diner, but a mention of the builder. So now we know that Utica had two Sterling diners in the area. In fact, there was also a Sterling in Herkimer for some years, known as the National Diner. The National Diner was part of a chain possibly out of New Jersey, but with a regional office in Syracuse. There were four National Diners in Utica at one time and one in Rome. Litle Falls also had a National Diner from the late 1920s.
Next month, we will continue with our look at the diners of Utica with a look at a New York built diner. But probably not the company you would think that I would post about.

September-October History Post

2010-09-20T19:12:00.001-07:00

Falling behind already. This month's post comes from Utica, NY. In Utica, there was a Bixler diner that came into town in October of 1931. It is not known where this diner went after this location, as it was shortly repossessed. Utica had a Bixler that lasted into the 1950s on Genesee St., so possibly this is what became of this diner.
This diner was located at 314 LaFayette, and right across the street at 313 was the Elgin Diner. The Elgin was a ca. 1923 O'Mahony that was hooked into a larger building that also housed a bar. The diner may have been called the Wilcroft Lunch at one time also. In the late 1930s, the O'Mahoyn was replaced by a Sterling diner. the O'Mahony was incorrectly identified as an interurban trolley car, even in the 1930s.
Next time, we will look at another Utica advertisement. I will keep the manufacturer's name in suspense.

Want to buy a diner?

2010-09-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

The Rainbow Diner in Woodlawn, just south of Buffalo on NY Route 5 is for sale. We have not checked on the price of the diner, but if you're truly interested, you could call the phone number to the left. The phone number is 716-854-5943.

We also stopped at the Auburn Diner and found a very busy diner. We had not been to the diner in maybe 5 years, so it was log overdue.

August History post.

2010-08-03T14:44:00.000-07:00

One more verified Ward & Dickinson. [past]

I have known about a Ward & Dickinson existing in Palmyra due to a postcard, but knew little else. The historian did not know of this diner. Fortunately, I found this July 6, 1950 newspaper article.
I believe that this article may be the perfect article to explain the brief history of Ward & Dickinson, and why so many of these small diners do not exist today.
At one time, Ward & Dickinson diners were top of the line. They had a couple of booths, ready for that family who was on the road, and needed a place to eat. Especially people who did not like stools, but really did not want to go into a full blown restaurant, or deal with city traffic. But even by as early as 1930s, booths and tables were becoming ever increasingly popular. Downtown diners could survive with stools, but diners out on the road needed booths for those families who were traveling. The truckers and such were happy at stools, but not many families liked stools.
As the 1940s rolled around, diners were ever increasing in size, especially in width. some diners were even sold in two pieces. In some cases, this allowed for dining rooms to be added. Plus, this also meant bathrooms, something tat did not come with any Ward & Dickinsons. So by the 1940s, Wardies were being viewed as small and cramped diners. Not as many people wanted them, and they were becoming tougher to maintain and make a profit in. This article tells that story perfectly.

Some new diners in the works

2010-07-25T18:40:00.001-07:00

Wappingers Falls - DeRaffele is currently building a diner to be located on US Rt 9w in Wappingers Falls, just south of the junction with I-84. It has been two months since we have checked in with the diner, so for all we know, it may be in Wappingers Falls by now.

Glens Falls/Queensbury - The latest is that a modular diner is hopefully coming to exit 18 of I-87 just north of Glens Falls in Queensbury.
The article can be found here.

The diner would be owned by the Pilarinos family, who also own the Ambrosia Diner in Catskill.
From the way the photos look, it would seem that DeRaffele or maybe United from Philly will build this diner.

July's History of the Month

2010-07-03T14:51:00.001-07:00

This is the first of a hopeful monthly post to keep this blog worthwhile.

The inaugural post deals with speculation. While speculation and intention do give us a really good view into what could have been, it also throws us down wrong roads. But it also reminds researchers that on occasion, newspapers are incorrect.
This June 1930 newspaper article mentions that Louis Bakery, the proprietor of the Crescent Diner in Ogdensburg had intentions to start a new and grander diner. Some background first. The Crescent Diner was a used Ward and Dickinson diner, numbered 69. The diner was built in July of 1926 and spent about 3 years doing business in Watertown, NY. So this particular diner was a basic 30 foot model. Around the time of this article was published a new Ward & Dickinson, to be known as the Miss Ogdensburg Diner was coming into Ogdensburg. This new diner was a 40 foot deluxe model. Perhaps this new diner was already in town and Bakery thought that he needed a new, larger diner in order to compete with this new diner? Or, maybe the writer had Bakery confused with someone else. Whichever is the actual story, we will never know the true story. But this article does give us a look at a northern New York town and its Ward & Dickinson diners.

We are still updating

2010-06-12T20:12:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately there are so many different places to update on NYDiners.com and offline, that every places is not being updated.
But a list of changes to the diner book can be found here. The biggest updates are that the Chuck Wagon Diner has opened and Dan's Diner in Spencertown has reopened and is doing well.
The Executive Diner in Hawthorne has has the facade around the front door "updated" probably by DeRaffele. The American Dream Diner in Orangeburg was built by the United Diner Co. of Philly in 2008 or 2009. Dean Smith has bought the Penn Yan Diner.
DeRaffele is building a new diner to be placed in Wappingers Falls. Shown here in May, the diner was in the process of being built at DeRaffele's factory in New Rochelle. Thanks goes out to Dinerhistory.com for the initial news about this diner.

Two story diner in Roslyn

2009-12-05T09:11:00.000-08:00

You can see some of the story here from Roadside Online.

I hope to visit this diner in one or two months.

Chuck Wagon Diner - photo

2009-11-24T19:53:00.000-08:00

Here is the latest picture from the Chuck Wagon Diner on US Rt 20 in Princetown. Stainless steel still needs to be added to the left side of the diner, but it is almost completely on the front of the diner now!

Out Route 20 - Our two new old diners

2009-09-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

Just want to keep everyone up to date on the former 9&20 Diner and Ketchum's Chuck Wagon Diner.

9&20 - The diner is receiving a new roof. The ceiling is fine, but the roof was sagging about 4 inches. Joe Merli and crew have put new metal ribs to hold the ceiling and a new metal I beam in the roof to keep it true. The back wall of the diner has also been replaced on the right hand side.
All in all work progresses very well.
The booths in the diner that were 1960s replacements for the originals has be replaced with the old booths from the Silver Diner from Schenectady. On the first week of October, Joe will host a chicken BBQ where people can take their meal and eat it inside of the diner. People will also be able to explore his village.

Ketchum's Chuck Wagon - Work is really going well for Tom Ketchum and crew. Much of the interior is functioning. Booths do need to be added to the interior, but there are still a few things to do before they go inside. The stools do need to also be placed in the diner. The addition and the basement look very well. They both are mostly taken care of. Currently, Tom is grading the exterior front and back parking lot and has recently added a tree near the road. The stainless steel could begin to go on the diner any time now. The walkway up to the diner is a heated walkway.
Over the summer, his crew straightened up the walls to the diner, and put in new windows. The interior is really well preserved!