Another one from the collection.

Valentine’s The Universal Model Portable Steel Building, design by Gilbert.

Another vintage Valentine diner picture from my collection.  The pylon neon reads Foxy’s, but beyond that, no clues as to the location.  Any ideas?

Another one from my collection, this shot was featured in a Valentine sales portfolio. It was installed next door to the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans sometime between 1940 and 1945. The dating means it was likely made by the Hayes Equipment Manufacturing Company rather than Valentine Manufacturing There are gaps in the digitized New Orleans city directories, so for the time being that’s as close as I can narrow it down.  It’s an unusual style, art deco meets adobe, with arched doorway buttresses on either side of the main unit and decorative representations of logs at the roof line. Despite these ornamental surface decorations, the overall outline of an early Valentine is unmistakable and this one proves just how easily adaptable they were.

For decades, Little Tavern was THE post-bar late night hangout in College Park, MD. It opened in 1937 on Rt. 1 across from the University of Maryland and was tragically knocked down by the school in 2015 despite efforts to save it. For decades it was a popular college hangout, an important part of off-campus life.  Now the site is home to a couple picnic tables and bike racks.

These ads ran for the College Park Little Tavern in the early 1950s, the left one featuring the questionable spokesman “Misogynist Sam”. Will buying the little steamed, onion studded burgers at the Club LT get you no women or all the women?

A new addition to the vintage diner photo collection, the Trolley Diner. Unfortunately, I don’t know where this one was located. I bought the photo from a dealer in Maryland, where Trolley conversions were common, but vintage photos have a tendency to travel, so I can’t use that to place the image.  It’s interesting to note that in addition to seating inside the converted trolley, this one offered curb service with an outdoor menu featuring the “Willie Whopper” double decker hamburger. They also served beer. It looks like people had some particularly leaky cars in this parking lot.

Robert H. Budde was working in lunch wagons as far back as 1897 at William C. Stillman’s Night Lunch, located at 276 Main St., Middletown, CT.  He later ran lunch wagons (or just as likely the same one at multiple locations) at 157 Court Street, Middletown, CT (1911), 12 Commercial, New Britain, CT (a street which seems to have been renamed or redeveloped) 41 Arch and 43 E. Main St. New Britain, CT, (1927) 47 E. Main St., New Britain (1930), 316 Main St. New Britain, CT (1934). By the late 1930s, he’d left the lunch wagon business and switched to insurance.

Here’s another vintage shot from the collection. The Edgewood Diner being delivered to Edgewood, Maryland.

Another recent addition to my collection of vintage photographs.  This one is likely Ted’s Lunch, located at 70 Rogers Street, Manchester, NH. The diner may have been built by Wilfred Barriere

Another recent addition to my vintage diner photo collection, taken by photographer Percy Loomis Sperr c.1939. The diner was located at 6th Avenue and Greenwich Ave. For another view of this diner, scroll down this page.

Here’s a recent addition to my collection of original vintage diner photography. This was taken by photographer Percy Loomis Sperr in the 1930s. The diner was located at  1st Ave. and 31st St., Manhattan, and very little of what’s shown in this view is still standing.