A graphic I created from a photo of a Divco nameplate

Along with my obsession with diners and long-time passion for the music of Tommy James & the Shondells, there is another interest that has held my attention for a good portion of my life. I am going to call it the little truck that could! I grew up in the 1950′s and 1960′s and as many of my contemporaries would remember, during that time period there was still plenty of home-delivery happening. I recall the Cushman Bakery delivery cars, usually Ford or Chevy panel station wagons. Here is an image I found of the great Cushman logo I remember from those delivery wagons…..

I  found the above image on this website…… http://diggingdowneast.blogspot.com/2010/09/those-places-thursday-cushmans-bakery.html

But most of all, I remember the many local dairies delivering milk and other dairy products to my neighborhood. Most of the milk delivery trucks were built by a concern originally known as the Detroit Industrial Vehicle Company which became more universally known as DIVCO. One of the things that made these the coolest vehicles coming down the street every day was the fact that the drivers could either sit in a seat or stand to operate the vehicle!

Back in the late 1990′s I became a member of the Divco Club of America (DCoA) check out…..  http://www.divco.org/ . My interest in Divcos was renewed by a couple of things which I explained in an article I wrote for the November 1999 edition of the DCoA newsletter, the Divco News. Here is that resurrected article…….

DIVCO MEMORIES BY LAWRENCE CULTRERA (#628)

Hot Times with a Cool Truck

Growing up in the 50′s and 60′s, I have great recollections of the many dairies delivering their wares in what seemed like an armada of Divcos throughout the metropolitan Boston area. On my street alone there had to be 3 or 4 dairies delivering to not only my family’s house but to many of my neighbors as well. I can remember Whitings (they delivered to our house), Buttrick’s Dairy, United Farmers and of course Hood’s Milk, the largest in the area! I thought these were the neatest trucks especially because the drivers could drive them standing up! I have talked with other people of my age group who have the same memories of going up to a driver on a hot summer’s day and asking for a piece of ice to cool you down. It wasn’t the same when the trucks became refrigerated, no more ice!! !

Well of course as time went by, these milk trucks started disappearing, when more and more people started buying their milk, butter and other dairy products at the supermarkets. By the late 60′s there just didn’t seem to be a great need for these home deliveries anymore. In fact, Hood was probably the last of the dairies in my area even offering home delivery and they were not using Divcos anymore but GMC or other make refrigerated trucks were and still are in service.

In 1971 I graduated from high school and was friendly with someone who happened to be a member of the Medford Auxiliary Fire Department. I was interested and decided to join. The Auxiliary Fire Dept. is an all volunteer unit that comes under the Civil Defense jurisdiction and helps the regular Fire Dept. in usually any fire situation over a second alarm. When I joined in 1971, the Auxiliary had 2 trucks at their disposal, Engine #9 was a 1950′s Ford which was more for forest fires (it did not have a large capacity pump). The second vehicle they had was Lighting Unit #22 an old Divco one of 2 donated to the city (probably from Hood Milk) for use as they were needed. I don’t know what happened to the 2nd one but the Divco that became Lighting Unit #22 was in service from 1970-73.

Medford Auxiliary Fire Department Lighting Unit # 22
photo courtesy of the archives of the late Edward Woodbridge
past Captain of the Medford Auxiliary Fire Department

It was a riot to see this thing come down the street with all it’s flashing lights and siren going, (it had the loudest siren in the city!). The truck was equipped with a large generator, at least 5kwatts and all sorts of waterproof lights with cables to light up fire scenes at night. It was used quite a bit. I rode in it to a couple of fires and at least one large parade. Unfortunately I never got to drive it! By 1973 the Auxilliary Fire Department was offered another used truck, this one was a newer Dodge Stepvan which was larger than the old Divco. The Divco was phased out of service when the new truck was being rehabbed. The last time I saw the Divco it was sitting in a junk yard in Charlestown, MA not far from the old Hood Plant! It was sad to see it there and I know it probably did not live too long after that.

I did not think too much about Divcos for many years, in fact I got deeply involved with what I like to call an ongoing personal research project on that ubiquitous American restaurant, the Diner. Since 1980 I have been documenting with photographs diners throughout the eastern US. At last count the log has over 766 entries of diners from Maine to Florida and as far west as Chicago. In my collecting of diner memorabilia I managed to get the set of 7 model diners Danbury Mint put out a few years ago, which put me on their mailing list.

Of course I was excited 2 years ago when Danbury Mint put out the Borden’s Divco Model and had to get it! This past January I got a Classic Motorbooks catalog in the mail and for the first time saw Bob Ebert and John Rienzo’s Divco book advertised. I was amazed! I quickly sent away for it and was not disappointed when it finally came. It spurred me on to become a member of the DCoA.

In reading the book, I was intrigued to find out that we even had a Divco dealership in my hometown in the 1930′s. I called John Rienzo and asked him about this fact and he got right back to me with the answer, it was called Teel Truck Sales at #4 Mystic Avenue. I personally know that this address has not existed since the late 1950′s when all the buildings in that block were tom down to make way for the new Fire & Police headquarters that was built circa 1960.

Since becoming a member of the DCoA, I thought more and more about the old Lighting Unit #22 and decided to see if I could obtain a photo of it. I myself had never photographed it, so I turned to the former Captain of the Auxiliary Fire Dept., Ed Woodbridge. I went and visited Ed a few months ago and went through his photo collection. I was rewarded with a decent driver’s-side view of the truck parked in a local shopping center parking lot. I estimate the shot to be 1972 or 73 because on close examination I could see an old friend, Richard Pelland in the driver’s seat. I borrowed the picture and scanned it as well as made a couple of slide copies for my collection. I don’t know if it was the only Divco ever used in a Fire fighting capacity, but it’s the only one I know of!

During the time period that I was a member of  the DCoA (1998 thru 2010), I had managed to photograph quite a few Divco trucks. I even attended a local car & truck show about 3 years ago that a number of my fellow DCoA members from Massachusetts attended with their vehicles.

Around 1998 or so when Denise and I had bought some flowers to plant at a farm stand/garden center located on Lynn Street in South Peabody, Massachusetts I was surprised to see this old Divco milk truck on the property. It obviously had not moved in years. I asked a lady who worked there (I assume she was an owner) about the old truck, she told me the reason it was there was that they still used the refrigerated back compartment of the truck for storage as the compressor was still working. So I snapped 2 shots of the old truck and we went home.

old Divco in Peabody, Mass. – photo by Larry Cultrera

old Divco in Peabody, Mass. – photo by Larry Cultrera

On the way home I started thinking of this Divco I just took the photos of and thought of another photo I took back in the early 1980′s of a building that was on the adjacent property to this same garden center we were just at. This building was very unique, it was the L.K. Newhall Filling Station, an old fashioned style of gas station that was still operating at that time. It was the type that sat hard by the sidewalk and had 2 gas pumps virtually on the street. I drove by it a lot in the 1980′s and even recall getting gas there once, just for the novelty. One day I decided to finally take one photo of this place from across the street for posterity.

L.K. Newhall’s Filling Station – circa early 1980′s photo by Larry Cultrera

To continue,  when we were driving home from picking up the plants I thought of this photo and realized that the angle of the shot as I remembered it was worth looking at again as the Divco truck should have been visible in it. Sure enough once I got home and dug up the photo, there was a small portion of the Divco peeking out from behind the filling station…

As you can see, there is the Divco truck peeking out from behind the filling station. Interestingly, the old filling station building is still there but it is no longer used. - circa 1980′s photo by Larry Cultrera

Another local Divco I knew about was owned by the late Chris Kiley of Saugus. Chris bought the used truck from a concern located in the Brockton, Mass. area (as I recall) back in the late 1980′s or early 1990′s (I’m not sure of the date he bought it). He wanted to do a minor restoration to the truck in homage to his family’s former dairy that was once located in nearby Melrose. I called him up one day and asked him if I could come over and shoot some photos of the truck and he gave me his approval!

Chris Kiley’s –  Kiley Farm Divco, photo by Larry Cultrera

Chris Kiley’s –  Kiley Farm Divco, photo by Larry Cultrera

Chris Kiley’s –  Kiley Farm Divco, photo by Larry Cultrera

Chris Kiley’s –  Kiley Farm Divco, photo by Larry Cultrera

Not long after I took those photos, Chris drove the truck in a parade that took place in Melrose……

Chris Kiley’s truck in a parade….. photo by Larry Cultrera

I was saddened to hear that Chris passed away suddenly this past year. I understand that his son and some friends got the old truck running after being in storage for a few years and it was driven in the funeral procession in his dad’s honor!

Just the other day my good friend Beth Lennon (aka, Mod-Betty) of Retro-Roadmap blog (www.retroroadmap.com) did a post on Christiansen’s Dairy of North Providence, RI and mentioned their fleet of Divco Milk Trucks in daily use, check it out here…… http://www.retroroadmap.com/2012/10/26/christiansens-milk-glass-bottles-delivered-vintage-milk-trucks-north-providence-ri/

I was also happy to read a blurb about Beth’s blog in the Travel Section of today’s Boston Sunday Globe……  http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/travel/2012/10/27/the-tip-retroroadmap-com/JJuMQfoOxevmObm8LJptAI/story.html

Congratulations Beth, you deserve it!

I went thru the archives and realized I have so many photos of Divco trucks that this post will serve as an intro to a separate page that will be accessed at the top of my blog under the header, right next to the link for my “Tommy James and the Shondells” page. I will be creating that page in the next few days in honor of the 5th Anniversary of the Diner Hotline blog, (this coming Wednesday, October 31st). Here is the link for the new Diner Hotline DIVCO page….
http://dinerhotline.wordpress.com/diner-hotlines-divco-page/

The 5 & Diner in Lincoln Plaza, Worcester, Mass.
2007 photo by Larry Cultrera

Sorry to hear that the first and only Massachusetts location of the 5 & Diner chain has closed within the last 2 weeks. The diner was opened in 2006 at a location in Lincoln Plaza in Worcester by Bob & Laurie Watson, who ended up buying the whole chain within a couple of years of the opening from Ken Higginbotham. The 5 & Diner chain of restaurants were started in 1989 by Higginbotham in Phoenix, Arizona. I wrote about this chain after meeting with Bob & Laurie back in April, see….. http://dinerhotline.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/introducing-bob-laurie-watson-owners-of-5-diner-chain-of-restaurants/

A week ago I got a message from Barry Henley asking if I had heard about the closing of Lou-Roc’s Diner in Worcester. I told him I had not and got a message back from him saying he made a call to Lou-Roc’s and they answered the phone saying they were open for business. Well as the story continues, I got a call from my brother Rick who works for a company that supplies knives/cutlery to restaurants throughout the area and he heard from the driver who takes care of the route around central Massachusetts that the 5 & Diner closed.

I sent a message to my friend Shawn Fallon who was the General Manager at the 5 & Diner and he said things seemed to be going good… he received great marks in his 1-year review and within weeks was let go and a short time later the doors were closed. This news is not good especially this close to the holidays for Shawn who has a young family to support as well as  for all the other people who worked there.

It is always sad when a diner closes, be it a regular mom & pop family-run diner or an outlet of a national chain. I have even recently read articles mentioning that the Watson’s are still trying to expand the chain here on the east coast but I do recall Bob telling me that the Worcester location which was not highly visible from the street might not have been the best location.

I will be doing another version of my slide lecture based on my book… Classic Diners of Massachusetts. It will be held at the Dedham Historical Society this coming Thursday, November 15th at 7:30 pm.  The Dedham Historical Society is located just off U.S. Route 1 in downtown Dedham at 612 High Street.

Admission is free to members of the historical society and $5.00 for non-members.

The Silver Top Diner as seen in better days, 1996 photo by Larry Cultrera

The Silver Top Diner was a long-time fixture in Providence, RI until it was forced to move for the redevelopment of the property it was operating on. I was there for the last day of operation and met the owner Pat Brown. Even then, she was up against some long-odds to get the diner set-up and operating, hopefully in Pawtucket, RI. Unfortunately, the diner has languished for all these intervening years and was subsequently given an ultimatum by the city recently. Basically the diner needed to be removed from its long-time storage site or it would be demolished.

Patricia Tomasso-Brown, the owner of The Silver Top Diner, contacted me via Facebook to inform me of her current dilemma. She wrote….. Larry could you post this on your events for me, Thanks,  Pat
Fund-raiser for The Silver Top Diner, anyone knowing any place that will give gift certificates please let me know. Thank You to all who already bought a ticket! After waiting 10 years to get my business open and my diner rebuilt, on October 9, 2012 I won in court against the City of Pawtucket after a 5 day jury trial, then on October 26, 2012 a judge overturned the jury verdict and took my award & diner away.

Now I have to fight all over again. There is a Fund-raiser being held to help me with court fee’s which are high. Please spread the word to help out. Silver Top Diner Fund-raiser at Bishop Hill Tavern, 2868 Hartford Ave, Johnston, RI, Tuesday, November 27, 2012, starting at 6:00 pm until ? –  Italian style dinner and raffles, donation is $20 per ticket. I can drop them to anyone who wants them if you don’t live too far away, just let me know when I can meet you. 401-497-6169 or write savethesilvertopdiner@yahoo.com
Thank you, Pat Brown

Today, November 29th marks the day, 32 years ago I took this photo of the Bypass Diner
in Harrisburg, PA. So, as of today I have photographed approximately 830 different diners
since that fateful day. It of course ultimately lead me to do countless slide presentations as
well as many interviews for newspapers and magazines, not to mention the TV shows like
Chronicle (Channel 5, in Boston) and CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt. I cannot
ignore that this blog is a direct result as well as the publishing of my book last year
(Classic Diners of Massachusetts).

So far it has been a pretty wild ride!

The Little Depot Diner, as seen today

I just received word that the Little Depot Diner of Peabody, Mass. has had a change in ownership. This diner, Worcester Lunch Car No. 650, started its working life as Harry’s Diner in Lynn, circa 1929. It later became Cal’s Diner in Danvers for a time before settling on Railroad Ave. in Peabody around 1950. It operated under names here such as Holly’s Diner and Kurly’s Diner. It closed as Kurly’s around 1982 or 83 and was sold to Marianna Cox who operated it up to the late 1990′s as the Railroad Diner. Ms. Cox passed away and the diner was sold to Barbara Henry who kept the railroad theme but renamed it the Whistlestop Diner.

Kurly’s Diner, circa 1981

In 2008 the diner once more changed hands when it was bought by Jim & Judy Miles who renamed it yet again, this time as the Little Depot Diner. The Miles family managed to bring the diner back to a level of service and popularity it had not seen since Mort & Inez Kurland operated it (as Kurly’s).  It was even on a segment of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

In September of 2011 when my book “Classic Diners of Massachusetts” had been printed but not yet released, I heard that the diner had closed abruptly which concerned me just a little bit as it was one of the featured diners in the book. This made the info obsolete before the book had officially hit the shelves! Luckily within about 3 weeks the Miles family reopened it with extremely short operating hours, basically just serving breakfast on Saturdays and Sundays while they looked for potential buyers for the business.

I was contacted today by Peter Scanlon who informed me his son Ross and daughter-in-law Alicia took over operation of the diner and opened on November 10, 2012.  Ross and Alicia are quoted as saying “the Miles family have been great about showing them the ropes and introducing them to the regular customers”. Peter went on to say that Ross and Alicia are on their honeymoon this week but will be back open for weekends starting the December 15th. After the first of year they’ll gear up to be open 6 days for breakfast and lunch. The response has been very positive with lots of return guests.

Here is another blast from the past, a road-trip from late in 1984 that encompassed parts of Staten Island, New York City, New Jersey and upstate New York. It seems the reason for this trip other than shooting photos of some diners was to get to the opening day of an exhibit of John Baeder paintings at the OK Harris Gallery in Soho.  According to my Log Book, that Saturday was November 10th and it looks like Steve Repucci, Dave Hebb and myself got into New York City fairly early and had some time to kill, so we grabbed the Staten Island Ferry to check out that most southern borough of NYC. I believe Dave had already done some exploring on his own there previously so he knew the lay of the land somewhat. The first diner we visited was the Victory Diner on Richmond Rd. not too far from the ferry dock.
Victory Diner, Richmond Rd., Staten Island.
November 10, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

Victory Diner, Richmond Rd., Staten Island.
November 10, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

Here is an aside about this post… what inspired me to do this particular post is the news that the Victory Diner which had been moved from the location seen here a number of years ago recently made the news again! That move happened in fact back in 2007 and I wrote about it in the last installment of the former hard-copy version of Diner Hotline that appeared in  the Fall 2007 edition of the SCA (Society for Commercial Archeology) Journal magazine.

The last owners were retiring and the spot where the diner was located was slated for redevelopment. This meant the diner was slated for a possible demolition. A group of preservationists stepped in before this could happen and had the diner relocated to the Ocean Breeze waterfornt, specifically, Midland Beach. Since the move in 2007, the diner has remained in storage behind a chain link fence. This fence only partially protected it but it has been reported that the diner has received some vandalism over the last 5 years.  But to top the whole thing off, the October 29th Super Storm Sandy virtually destroyed what was left of the diner, basically leaving the steel frame and roof.

Here is a photo from the (Dec. 4, 2012) Staten Island Advance by Jan Somma-Hammel showing what is left of the diner…….

Now back to 1984……. the next diner we saw on Staten Island was Joe’s Diner. At least that is what I have in the Log Book. I am not sure how we even knew what the name was for this place as it looked like it was not in operation anymore. It seemed to be well cared for as my photos will show and a current Google street view of the address shows the place pretty much still looks the same now as it did back then.

Joe’s Diner at 84 Lincoln Ave. on Staten Island.
November 10, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

Joe’s Diner at 84 Lincoln Ave. on Staten Island.
November 10, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

I am not sure who manufactured this diner but it looks interesting for sure!

The next diner must have been a drive-by as I only shot one photo of it. In fact I did not even have it officially in my Log Book until I was creating the data base a number of years ago. I also did not have a name or an address for the place until I scanned the slide a week ago for this blog post. There is a sign for the diner in the shot but it was hard to read the name. So I looked at the adjacent business….. Grant Tailors and did another Google search. This turned up an address. The address turned out to be 140 New Dorp Lane and from that I was able to deduce that the name of the diner was the Lane Diner!  By the way Grant Tailors is closed and out of business.

Lane Diner, 140 New Dorp Lane on Staten Island.
November 10, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

This place looks to be a modern stainless steel diner that was covered over – “Mediteraneanized”, so to speak. The dimensions are certainly right. The diner is still there and operating as a Los Lobos Mexican Restaurant as of 2012.

The next diner was the last stop on Staten Island before getting back to John Baeder’s exhibit at OK Harris was one diner Dave Hebb recalled for sure from an earlier roadtrip. This was an old 1920′s vintage barrel-roof diner known as Whoopsie’s Diner located on Jennett Ave. on Staten Island. It was closed and for sale, besides being in a little bit of rough shape but still usable. The building itself was modified at an earlier time, it seems someone decided to change the location of the entrance by “slashing” the corner of the diner.

Exterior shot of Whoopsie’s Diner, Staten Island.
November 10, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

Exterior shot of Whoopsie’s Diner, Staten Island.
November 10, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

Interior shot of Whoopsie’s Diner, Staten Island.
November 10, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

We got back to the city prior to John’s exhibit opening and I finally got to take a couple of shots of the Moondance Diner around the corner from OK Harris. I had seen this diner on earlier trips when it was operating as the Tunnel Diner, but never documented it with photos. In the intervening years it had been reopened…. resurrected as the upscale Moondance Diner.

Moondance Diner, 6th Ave., Manhattan
November 10, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

Moondance Diner, 6th Ave., Manhattan
November 10, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

Here is a sort of crappy shot of John Baeder’s painting of the Comet Diner (Hartford, CT) at the OK Harris Gallery. It was based on a slide I shot for John back then.

Shot of a John Baeder painting of the Comet Diner at OK Harris Gallery
November 10, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

After visiting with John and checking out the exhibit, we left with our ultimate destination being New Jersey. On the way out we saw a former White Tower Restaurant somewhere in lower Manhattan (I did not document the location unfortunately).

former White Tower Restaurant in lower Manhattan
November 10, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

After going thru the tunnel over to New Jersey, we somehow made it over to Springfield, NJ and the Lido Diner on Route 22, (in my opinion one of the most scary sections of highway anywhere)! The Lido Diner on the other hand was a great 1960 vintage Paramount diner that has since been demolished for a bland, boxy 7-Eleven convenience store. I had previously documented this one on one of my first trips coming home from Harrisburg, PA by way of New Jersey.

The Lido Diner on Rte. 22 in Springfield, NJ
November 10, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

The Lido Diner on Rte. 22 in Springfield, NJ
November 10, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

The Bendix Diner in Hasbrouck Heights was our last stop for the day, this time for dinner. I had been there before so I did not need to log it but I did try 3 nighttime shots… here is one of them.

The Bendix Diner at night…. Hasbrouck Heights, NJ
November 10, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

The next morning we checked out 3 New Jersey diners for photos. The first was the Arena Diner, a large Kullman circa 1940′s vintage was on the U.S. Rte. 1 truck route and was most certainly a truck stop. Closed on Sundays, this one was rough around the edges but still in operation.

Arena Diner, U.S. Routes 1 and 9 – South Kearny, NJ
November 11, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

Arena Diner, U.S. Routes 1 and 9 – South Kearny, NJ
November 11, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

After South Kearny we ran across a very old Silk City diner similar to the West Shore Diner in Lemoyne, PA. This was the Miss Jersey City Diner farther up U.S. Routes 1 & 9 in Jersey City. This place was closed and pretty much derelict…. not long for this world!

Miss Jersey City Diner, Jersey City, NJ
November 11, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

Miss Jersey City Diner, Jersey City, NJ
November 11, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

The next place we found was a complete rarity for the Garden State, a Sterling Dinette located at Newark Ave. and 6th St. in Hoboken. This is possibly the only known example of a Sterling diner in New Jersey!

Dekay’s Diner, Hoboken, NJ
November 11, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

Dekay’s Diner, Hoboken, NJ
November 11, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

A current Google street view shows an empty lot where this place used to be!

The last diner we documented for this road-trip was in North White Plains, NY, just off Route 22 near the Post Office. It was appropriately operating as the Off Broadway Diner (Rte. 22 is called Broadway here). Not sure who built this one, but my guess would be Kullman. It may also be a renovated model, who knows for sure but I believe the place is gone now.

Off Broadway Diner, North White Plains, NY
November 11, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

Off Broadway Diner, North White Plains, NY
November 11, 1984 photo by Larry Cultrera

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 95,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Well, it is the middle of winter and I am feeling sort of lazy. But I also feel neglectful to my regular readers as well so I am forcing myself to get my rear end in gear and do a quick blog post on things that are happening. Subjects I will talk about  include the planned resurrection of a diner that has not operated since the early 1970′s and been in storage for close to 27 years, news about 2 diners that are featured in my book “Classic Diners of Massachusetts”, an upcoming author event I instigated and a long-time local 5 & dime department store that is closing. Also a link to an interesting blog post about the closing of someone’s favorite diner, so, here we go…..

Former Monarch Diner gets a new lease on life

Left to right…. the former Olympia Diner of Braintree, Mass and
the former Monarch Diner of Dover, NH
December 22, 2012 photo by Larry Cultrera

I heard from Retro Road gal Beth Lennon in November via Facebook. She asked if I was interested in getting together with her and her hubby Cliff Hillis on the weekend before Christmas. She had recently made the acquaintance of  Roger Elkus and Daryl McGann, (Roger is the owner of Me & Ollie’s a small chain of Bakery/Cafe’s in the southeastern part of New Hampshire
and Daryl is his Production Manager see… http://www.meandollies.com/). They informed her of their plans for a 1950 vintage stainless steel O’Mahony diner they had acquired.

Cliff and Beth were driving up from Pheonixville, PA to visit with family in Massachusetts and New Hampshire for the holidays. Part of the itinerary included a stop at Kane’s Donuts in my hometown of Saugus on the way to a family gathering in New Hampshire. The plan was for Denise and I to meet Beth and Cliff at Kane’s and then motor up to Salisbury to meet up with Roger and Daryl at the the storage yard where the old diner they were buying has been located for a number of years.

Beth Lennon & yours truly outside Kane’s Donuts. Dec. 22, 2012 photo
by Cliff Hillis

So after a cup of coffee at Kane’s (where I introduced them to Peter Delios, whose family runs the donut shop) – as planned, it was off to Salisbury where we met Roger and Daryl. We were all surprised to find the gate to the storage yard closed, as it usually was opened. Luckily the chain that locked the 2 gates was loose enough that we could squeeze thru (a little tight for me but I made it). Roger brought a step ladder along to climb up into the diner.

Daryl McGann and Roger Elkus inside the former Monarch Diner
December 22, 2012 photo by Larry Cultrera

During our visit to the diner in Salisbury, Roger showed us where the serial number for the diner was located. It was on the stainless steel molding for the front door frame directly under the bottom hinge.

An extreme close-up of the Serial number for the old Monarch Diner
from Dover, NH.  According to Gary Thomas’  - “Diners of the North Shore” book, the other O’Mahony the DeCola’s bought for Waltham, Mass. was Serial number 2179-50. The number “50″ denotes the year it was built.
December 22, 2012 photo by Larry Cultrera

P.S.  That other 1950 vintage O’Mahony incidentally is currently operating as the Tilt’n Diner in Tilton, NH…… LAC

Beth Lennon and Cliff Hillis inside the former Monarch Diner
December 22, 2012 photo by Larry Cultrera

Now for a little back story on this diner…. it was originally one of a chain of diners owned and operated by the DeCola brothers of Waltham, Mass. (in some cases they leased the diners to other operators) Most of the diners they ran were called the Monarch Diner. The flagship was located in Waltham with other Monarch’s in Dover, NH and Milford, NH as well as Saugus, Mass. They had other diners they ran with names like the Littleton Diner of Littleton, Mass. as well as a diner called the Paradise Diner in Lowell, Mass. (not the current one, there were 2) and another diner in either Billerica or Chelmsford (I cannot recall which or even if it was a Monarch). The diner we were in Salisbury to look at was the former Dover, NH Monarch Diner which operated at 530 Central Ave. in that southeastern New Hampshire city.

According to Will Anderson’s “More Good Old Maine” book (1995 – Will Anderson Publishing), even though the diner was owned by the DeCola’s, it was more than likely leased by at least 3 different operators until December of 1968 when it was purchased by Edward & Phyllis Neal who moved the diner to North Berwick, Maine. The Neal’s intended to utilize the diner as a flower shop initially, but after the diner was installed at the new location, they ended up leasing the diner to Lois Griffin who ran it as Lois’ Diner. The diner reportedly closed in 1973 and sat vacant until 1986 before being moved to Phyllis Neal’s property in Sanford, Maine.

I actually knew of the diner back in March of 1989 when I visited a friend who lived in the Sanford area. He used to drive by the diner’s storage location twice a day. We got to his house and he said let’s take a ride, keeping the destination as a surprise. We came around a bend in the road and there was the diner sitting up on blocks!

Fast forward to the early 2000′s when Dave Pritchard of Salisbury convinced Phyllis Neal to sell the old diner. Dave had bought up 3 other old diners and stored them on his property in Salisbury. The other 3 were the Englewood Diner, Olympian Diner and Miss Newport Diner. Pritchard had no concrete plans for any of the diners until he eventually sold the Miss Newport (now reopened as the Miss Mendon Diner) and more recently the Englewood (which is reportedly in private hands).

Roger Elkus and Daryl McGann in the last year or so were discussing the possibility of obtaining an old diner to operate in conjunction (but separate) with the Me & Ollie’s Cafes. To make a long story short, they found their way to Salisbury and Dave Pritchard. They eventually convinced Pritchard to sell them the old Monarch and hopefully before this year is out, their plan is to relocate the diner and restore it and have it operating. I will post a more detailed story about this in the next few months.

Peabody, Massachusetts’ Little Depot Diner
under new ownership

One of the diners featured in my book “Classic Diners of Massachusetts” has recently changed hands. This was not unexpected news. Right around the same time my book was being printed (September, 2011), the Miles family – owners of the diner since 2008 abruptly closed the diner. But within a month they reopened it with only weekend hours basically keeping it a viable business while searching for a new owner to operate it. Well back in November I received an email from Peter Scanlon of North Easton, Mass. who informed me his son Ross and new daughter-in-law Alicia had taken over the reigns of the 1929 vintage Worcester Lunch Car.

The Little Depot Diner in Peabody, Mass. Photo by Larry Cultrera

The Miles family stayed with them to show them the ropes for a short time. After Ross and Alicia’s wedding and honeymoon around Thanksgiving the newlyweds reopened the diner, again testing the water with only weekend hours. After the first of the year, the diner is now open 6 days a week, Tuesday thru Friday: 7:00 am – 1:30 pm, Saturday & Sunday: 7:00 am – 1:00 pm. Denise and I have been there twice since they reopened and found the food to be good quality and the service very friendly! The diner is located at 1 Railroad Avenue, just behind the Courthouse in downtown Peabody.

Peter, Ross and Alicia Scanlon @ The Little Depot Diner, Peabody, Mass.
December 15, 2012 photo by Larry Cultrera

Al Mac’s Diner of Fall River, Mass. set to reopen

Al Mac’s Diner, Fall River, Mass. Photo by Larry Cultrera

Back in late July I posted the news that Al Mac’s Diner of Fall River closed abruptly. (see… http://dinerhotline.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/news-flash-al-macs-diner-of-fall-river-mass-closes/). This was disturbing to me as this was again another featured diner in my book “Classic Diners of Massachusetts”.  Well it now looks like the diner will reopen under new ownership around February 1, 2013. I saw the news back on December 11, 2012 from The Herald News out of Fall River.
Here is the story was written by Brian Fraga……..

Dunse said his sous chef — the second in command — left his job in fine dining to come work at the new Al Mac’s. “Lot of talent here,” Dunse said. Al Mac’s has been part of Fall River’s landscape for more than a century. Its founder, Al McDermott, started the business in 1910 on a six-seat, horse-drawn wagon. The stainless steel diner on President Avenue was built in 1953. The diner was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

“We’re from Fall River. It’s Fall River people, bringing stuff back to Fall River,” said Susan Dunse, who remarked Tuesday that the interior still looks much as it did during the 1950s. “We’re bringing back the booths. People are very excited about the booths,” she said. Robert Dunse said he believes customers will return and keep the diner financially viable this time around.

“If you have good food, people will come,” he said. “If you provide a great environment where people feel comfortable and at home, and you develop personal relationships, people are going to come no matter what.”

Lord’s Department Store of Medfield, Mass. set to close

Lord’s Department Store, 446 Main St. (Rte. 109) in Medfield, Mass.
January 13, 2013 Photo by Larry Cultrera

Back on January 4th, I got a message from Beth Lennon who was concerned about a local landmark…. Lord’s Department Store, a long-time fixture in the small town of Medfield, Massachusetts. She had heard that the store is set to close its doors at the end of February and was concerned about the great neon sign that was mounted on the building.I was somewhat familiar with it most like from Beth’s posts about it on her Retro Roadmap blog, see…. (http://www.retroroadmap.com/). So after I was aware of this news I did a little research and this is what I found out……

Started as a small “5 and 10 cent” store in 1940, the place was opened by Raymond Lord, a former employee of Kresge’s 5 and 10 cent stores out of New York City. The story goes that Mr. Lord had used some faulty marketing research that was done by the Kresge organization on likely towns that might support a 5 an 10 cent store. It seems Medfield had a population of around 4500 which seemed perfect. So Mr Lord left Kresge’s to open his own store in the seemingly bustling community of Medfield. He opened his store in an existing storefront down the street from the current store and was surprised to see that there was hardly any business for the first week.

He ended up talking with an employee of the local U.S. Post Office and asked the man where are all the people that are supposed to be living here? He told him that he had heard the population was around 4500 and the man said yes, that was possibly true, except for one thing, about 3000 of  those people were locked up in the State Hospital! So much for marketing research circa 1940!

Well Mr. Lord stuck it out and pretty much from day one, he had the able help of William Kelly, a local lad who was an extremely hard worker. Mr. Kelly had the people skills and strong work ethic that appealed to Lord who eventually gave the young Kelly more and more responsibility. After Kelly returned from service during WWII, he was made the manager of the store.

In the early 1950′s Bill Kelly took over the day to day operations as a partner to Ray Lord. By the late 50′s the store moved to it’s current location and eventually Kelly bought the business. It has been run by Bill and more recently his son Tom and daughter Nancy Kelly-Lavin. Bill passed away this past May and Tom and Nancy by the end of the year decided that they would close the store and sell the property.

The store has become the heart and soul of the downtown area, everyone who lives in the vicinity has great memories of the store which had a little bit of everything. It was open 7 days a week, 365 days a year. It featured a lunch counter/soda fountain and recently was operated as Ruthie’s Diner.

Ruthie’s Diner inside Lord’s Department Store
January 13, 2013 photo by Larry Cultrera

Denise and I took a ride down this past Sunday Jan. 13th and had a cup of coffee at the lunch counter. We also walked around the store and as we were leaving, we met Nancy Kelly-Lavin.  We had a nice conversation with her as she related some stories to us. We wished her well and went on our way. The latest word is that there is a possibility the classic neon sign may be kept on the building by the new owner, giving the towns people a little piece of mind that their downtown might still have a bit of their local landmark for generations to come.

Eulogy for the Harvest Diner, by Michael R. Fisher

My friend Rich Wilhelm of Phoenixville, PA (a neighbor and friend of Beth Lennon and Cliff Hillis) sent me a link to a blog post his nephew Michael Fisher wrote lamenting the closong of his local diner. I read the piece and asked Michael permission to  re-post it here……

After nineteen years in business, my diner is closing.

Like all residents of suburban South Jersey, I have (sadly, as of this coming Sunday, had) a go-to diner. And while many of my SoJerz brethren may have thought of the local diner as little more than a necessary stop on the way home from the bar on a woozy Saturday night, the Harvest has meant much more to me.

Whether playing its role as hangout, employer, home away from home or whathaveyou, the Harvest was always a welcoming, reliable beacon of 24-hour light thrusting upward from the middle of the disenchanted-and-we-like-it-that-way Jersey suburbs. See, I’m a city kid; the general artlessness of the ‘burbs, taken (not incorrectly) by its devoted residents as the signature of comfort and stability, has always turned me off in a Springsteenesque “it’s a death trap/it’s a suicide rap” kind of way, albeit less melodramatically. But the diner was always necessary. Its policy of being open all night encouraged coffee talk, which is still the highest form of human interaction, save perhaps tantric sex. Nobody in their twenties lives at home if things are going well for them, so the 24-hour diner became the haven of late-night plotting and dreaming and decompressing as we faced the future armed only with coffee and cigarettes and the nametags given us by our retail jobs. That is, until we lost those jobs and started working at the diner.

It sounds like that diner could have been any diner, and maybe it was after all just happenstance that made the Harvest our diner, but that doesn’t matter. It was ours, and it was special. It was owned by the Savvas, the nicest family of Cypriot-Americans you’d ever hope to meet; people who offered me work–twice–when the doors of the rest of the world slammed in my face; people who were never shy about helping their friends. I worked there off and on for three years, and while nobody’s saying that waiting tables is next to godliness, I can say that you’d be hard-pressed to find a better work environment, and that’s the rarest of compliments when it comes to Jersey diners.

(As a point of comparison, I once worked at another diner, which shall remain nameless. On my fourth day of employment, after being harassed from the first minute about keeping up with their post-Steinbrenner wardrobe and grooming requirements, I showed up for a shift with sideburns that reached about two-thirds of the way to my ear lobes. My manager instructed me to go home, trim the sideburns down to where they met my hairline, then come back to work and finish my shift. I went home, but I did not return, and I have not set foot in that diner since.)

With the closing of the Harvest Diner, the Chekhovian drama of our lives as confirmed (if reluctant) townies comes to a crashing climax. Our hangout spot is deserting us just as our precious youth is doing the same. It may seem overwrought, but the whole point of the Harvest, far beyond being a place to get breakfast at any hour, was to be the great, comforting constant in the lives of its beloved regulars. We all have stories in which the Harvest plays a key part; having been a fixture there for some ten years, I probably have more than most. Inside jokes were born there; strangers discovered mutual interests and became friends within its green-and-yellow booths. The Harvest was the trusty nightwatchman of our past, and as long as it stood, our past was safe and our youth preserved. Now that it is saying goodbye, we are shaken into an understanding of our mortality. If the Harvest and all of those wonderful times there can just vanish, so, then, can we.

As this is happening, I am twenty-six years old. I have a 9-to-5 job and student loan payments. I am looking at homes in other towns. I am preparing to leave my old neighborhood, and though wherever I go will not be far, the closing of the Harvest is a cold reminder that life is changing. Of course, not all moments of transition carry the kind of Last Picture Show gloom that I’ve been insinuating. I’m sure the changes in my life will spur growth, maturity, independence, responsibility–all those sacred middle-class values. One day I may even be able to behave like a proper adult. I will be fine, and my friends will be fine. But the Harvest, sadly, will not be there to go back to.

Good luck to my friends, the Savva family, and all those currently employed at Harvest. And thank you.

Here’s a link to the original blog post…. http://michaelroyfisher.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/euology-for-the-harvest-diner/

On a further note, I read in the last couple of days that the diner will close but eventually reopen in the spring with a new name and a new look by the owners of the Sage Diner of Mt. Laurel, NJ…. LAC

Author Event slated for Bestsellers Cafe in Medford, Mass.
January 27, 2013

I arranged an Author Event with Rob Dilman owner of the newly reopened Bestsellers Cafe in Medford, Mass. (the city I grew up in). I have gotten together a small group of local authors to participate. With the exception of myself all the other authors have published books about Medford either thru Arcadia Publishing (Images of America books) and/or from my publisher, The History Press. The other authors include Anthony Mitchell Sammarco, author of “Medford” (Arcadia) as well as countless other titles from the Greater Boston area. Barbara Kerr who authored “Medford in the Victorian Era” for Arcadia and “Glimpses of Medford” for The History Press. Dee Morris authored “Medford, A Brief History” for The History Press (among other local titles) and Patricia Saunders who wrote “Medford – Then & Now” for Arcadia.

We will all be signing copies of our books as well as speaking about them. The event will take place at Bestsellers cafe, 24 High Street, Medford, Mass. on Jan. 27th, Sunday afternoon, 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Check out Bestsellers Cafe’s website for directions, etc…..
http://www.bestsellers-cafe.com/event

I was talking with Bill Nichols of the Rosebud Diner of Somerville, Mass. within the last 2 weeks and he informed me that the diner was going to be sold he estimated sometime in March. He also said not to advertise it and I of course told him I would not. Well with a piece published from the Somerville Patch this morning (http://somerville.patch.com/articles/rosebud-diner-to-get-new-owner-updated-look-and-food) it looks like the cat is actually out of the bag. Here is the piece written by Chris Orchard…

Rosebud Diner to Get New Owner, Updated Look and Food

Restauranteur Marty Bloom, who founded Vinny Testa’s, plans revamp the restaurant into something more contemporary while leaving the historic diner’s exterior untouched.

Marty Bloom, a local restaurateur who founded Vinny Testa’s and owns Mission Oak Grill in Newburyport, is close to cementing a deal to purchase Davis Square’s Rosebud Diner, according to Bloom, who attended a Somerville Licensing Commission meeting Wednesday night.

Bloom said the completed sale would likely become final sometime in late March or early April. He was at the Licensing Commission meeting to request the transfer of Rosebud’s alcohol, victualer and entertainment licenses to his company, a request the commission approved.

Bloom said he plans to leave the exterior of the diner untouched. “It’s iconic,” he told the commission, saying, “I have talked to the historic commission in depth” about the local landmark.

However, he plans to renovate the interior of the diner and the restaurant space behind the diner. He also plans to revamp the menu, he said.

“We’re going to be doing a big upgrade on it,” he told the commission, saying he wants to merge the diner and the restaurant area into one space, change the floor plan and update the kitchen and bathrooms. He’ll probably put in a new bar and stage, he said.

As for the menu, Bloom said he plans to serve food that’s “a little newer” and “contemporary.”

“Updating the classics,” he called it.

He cautioned that “this all could change” as plans for the diner evolve into something more definitive. Initially the restaurant would just see “minor renovations,” he said.

Rosebud would likely close for some time while renovations take place, Bloom said.

News of the sale comes about six months after reports surfaced that something was going on with the diner. In June, Somerville Scout had a conversation with Bill Nichols, son of Rosebud’s owner, Gally Nichols. The younger Nichols told the magazine his father was planning to close the diner. Gally Nichols later said the story was a rumor.