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

No April post

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

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

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

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...

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

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/