Interview in Guitar International Magazine.
I had the privilege to interview singer and multi-instrumentalist Joel Plaskett for Guitar International. You’d be hard pressed to find a nicer guy to talk guitars with. Take a listen to some of his music- It’s my go-to soundtrack for road trips.
Overview of mural
Detail of Little Tavern
“The Spirit of Wheaton” 1990.
The former location of the Wheaton Little Tavern. The frame of the sign is still standing, but the insert has been replaced.
Site Plan of the corner, showing where the Wheaton Little Tavern was originally.
Info on mural and its location
The Vale-Rio diner was built in 1948 by Paramount. We took these photos before it closed, the site now the location of a Walgreens. It’s now in storage in Pennsylvania. A drawing of it was featured on poster for an early 1990s Society for Commercial Archaeology conference.
Photo source: www.agilitynut.com
Signage- backlit plastic
Pink painted roof, pink pavement
For photos of the move, look at dcsaint’s photostream on Flickr.
On my trip to take some more shots of the Herald Building, I found some more neat spots.
Time warp tunnel.
Double Decker Buses
Railroad car by Pier 21
Future site of the Halifax farmer’s market
Tugboats
CSS Acadia
Rainbow over Dartmouth
Economy Shoe Shop, The Seahorse, The Diamond and The Toothy Moose
Arcade Terrazzo
Senior Citizens 5755 Club
This building, the former home of the Chronicle Herald, is currently vacant. It was built after a 1912 fire destroyed the Dennis Building on Granville St.
The Coast says it will be torn down soon, though there are no concrete plans for what is to be built on the site.
A shame to see it go. I plan to go take more pictures before they knock her down.
This blog’s first posts were from this trip, but I never got around to posting the rest of the photos.
I took this trip shortly after graduation in early summer of 2008. We didn’t have any definite stops along the way, but managed to find some amazing old buildings. Architecturally, the area is much as it seems to have been in the early 20th century, although now many of the buildings are abandoned.
Enjoy!
East Side School
Cumberland, MD
Broken vitrolite facade
Republican Club
Abandoned house
No trespassing in the tree.
the b
Some quick and dirty sharpie sketches of Little Taverns
Do-Nut Diner – Front Royal Virginia (4″x6″)
This was originally part of the Donut Dinette chain. For more on the chain, look here.
Short Stop Diner- Wheaton, Maryland (4″x5″)
These photos were sent to me by my father, who recently took a trip with musician Barry Louis Polisar to Philadelphia to visit Nancy Heller, Professor of Art History at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia.
Some interior shots of the Melrose Diner before it gets re-done. The impending remodel was confirmed by staff at the diner.
This site has a good exterior photo.
The clock which used to hang above the Melrose counter until the mural was installed, I believe sometime in the 1970s. I bought and restored the clock after finding it listed on ebay several years ago.
Polock Johnny’s Polish Sausage- Baltimore, Maryland
Broad Street and Tasker. Tavern neon – Philadelphia
Museo Del Jamon – Ham Museum
Broad Street Diner, an old Fodero
I received this message today and thought it was best to share it as a post, rather than let it become buried in with the rest of the comments which have been posted on this blog.
In response to all that is written about the passing of Little Tavern Shops, the small size concept is dead.
However Little Tavern is not. . .We are moving ahead and will be opening New Stores in the MD-DC Area in the near future. We have retained every thing related to the past Little Taverns, from Design, Looks, Colors and Signage, including Pictures of the past & Harry F. Duncan, which will be incorporated in the Stores and Marketing.
I noticed somewhere in Your acticles about the Little Tavern Mugs. We have the Orginal One, which is being re-made and will be available for sale at reasonable Price.
James E. Cumbest Jr. T/A Little Tavern Shop LLC. 410-661-4394 Fax 410-66-4397
Reprinted with permission from Quirks. Quirks was a free, bimonthly magazine. “QUIRKS was where you’d find the silly and the sacred, the interesting and the unusual in a community right outside of our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.”
If you’d like to know more, some of their webpages are archived here.
I’m afraid the scan I have of this article, from the mid 1990s, clipped the bottom of the text off, so there’s a bit missing. Some of the facts seem a bit off as well, but I hope you enjoy it. Note the “Toddle House” sign on the Bethesda Location in the top photos. The other two are the two locations once in Silver Spring.
Once there were dozens in the country. Now, there’s only one. “Club LT,” you might have called it. For more than three generations, the Little Tavern Shops were a classic Washington hangout. Mention the name to anyone living here during their teen-age or 20-something years and the stories will pour forth about late night “death burgers” after a night on the town. The chain prided itself on dishing up food 24 hours a day to all sorts of people- businessmen, shoppers or locals just killing time. The motto “buy ’em by the bag, ” once emblazened in neon over every sho, lured the hungry to feast on the trademark tiny burgers that could be gulped down in a few bites.
The chain was started in St. Louis in 1924 by Harry F. Duncan. He moved to the Washington area several years later, settled in Silver Spring, and began opening his distinctive green-roofed restaurants. His “baby beef burgers” were a hit, and by the 1940s there were nearly 50 Little Tavern Shops in our area. . .
A few originals still remain, on New Hampshire Avenue in Northwest Washington, on Route 1 in Laurel, and on Viers Mill Road in Wheaton. For 67 cents a burger (vs. 5 cents in 1928!), you can still take home a sack, although the logo on the bag is long gone.
An authentic Little Tavern Shop is instantly recognizable. Cute and tiny, it looks like a dollhouse set amongst the big buildings of the urban landscape. . . Designed in the period just before World War II, Little Tavern restaurants were one of the first carry-out restaurants in the area.
Inside, the lights are bright, the floors and walls are tile, and the counter is Formica. No booths – the place is too small. . .
. . .have been stripped of many of their unique features, the distinctive colors painted over. However, one converted location – “Ollie’s” on Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring- has retained the charm of the original, both inside and out. It gleams with the loving attention poured into it. . .
Diner Hunter 