Tag Archives: 1938

Ace Diner- Philadelphia, PA

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I ran across quite a few diner photos which I haven’t published- I’m going to try to work my way through them over the next couple of months.

I visited the Ace in 2006 with my father and Randy Garbin, of Roadside fame.
The diner is an extensively remodeled Silk City. One listing I have for it says it was built c. 1938, the other that it is from the ’40s.
Though it was remodeled extensively, which outwardly conceals its true nature, inside it is all diner.

The fresh baked bread at the Ace would alone be worth the stop.

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A picture, courtesy of Brian Butko, of the diner before it was remodeled. Please visit his website and his blog, Lincoln Highway News.

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Little Tavern Design

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The first Washington DC Little Tavern, located at 814 E Street, NW, opened its doors in 1928. It appears the site is now the home of a twelve story apartment building and a Bank of Georgetown.

Early Little Taverns seem to have had a design similar to that of 1920s White Castles and White Towers.
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By 1931, the Tudor Cottage Design had been adopted
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In 1937, it was updated with a bit more of a moderne syle
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Typical Plans and detail
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A design from 1949
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And a later, simplified design. What I’ve found on this one points to a date of construction in 1974
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This one was found in Silver Spring, Maryland until relatively recently. When it was torn down, it had been painted yellow and was operating as a Chinese restaurant.

DC / MD diner trip – May 24, 2009

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This was my first real diner trip in a while. I met up today with Mike Engle, author of Diners of New York; the man behind NYdiners.com, and roadside buff and frequent Zippy the Pinhead contributor Ed Engel at the American City Diner, and headed out from there.

The first stop of the day was the American City Diner of 5532 Connecticut Ave NW Washington, DC. It’s a late ’80s Kullman, one of the early retro-styled diners, and one of the ones that did it right. For some photos as it appeared when new, click here. Since then, it’s been added on to, with a large side addition, and a front porch which obscures everything to the left of the vestibule.
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The Left side of the diner- 2009
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The left side of the diner – 1989
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The former Howard Theater. Great rusty marquis on this one.
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The now abandoned Wonderbread / Hostess Factory

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Ran into a little excitement along the way between these two stops, but all’s well that ends well.

Northeast Academy of Dance Neon sign. Look at the detail at the left hand corner of the sign.
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We hit up the Capital City Diner, which was moved here on the 20th. Watch the video of it being moved. This Silk City, formerly of Avoca New York, has made its way to the Trinidad neighborhood of Northeast DC.
Photos at its original location and some backstory can be found at :A Real Historic Diner Coming to DC!

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This next leg of the trip had some neat neon and signage

A&R Auto Parts
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Syd’s Drive In / Liquor
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Cross Roads
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Tesst theater
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Hyattsville Hardware / Franklin’s
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Calvert House
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Silver Spring’s old Canada Dry bottling plant
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A quick stop at the Silver Spring Tastee was made.

Now
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Then
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More old photos can be found here.

Then a side trip to Forest Glen, parts of which have deteriorated greatly since my last visit.
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Dinner at the Tastee Diner in Bethesda
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Then
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And the trip’s final stop at Bethesda’s former Little Tavern. A 1990 photo of it, when it was still a Little Tavern, can be found on the Diner Hotline.

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