We stopped in here for breakfast on Monday morning. My corned beef hash was some of the best I’ve ever had. The Worcester semi streamliner has to be my favorite model of diner, and this one is in great shape. Great food in a great building in a great location. What’s not to love?
I later found out that I missed seeing Larry Cultrera (of Diner Hotline and Classic Diners of Massachusetts fame) by a matter of a few hours that day. Funny how those things happen.
Outriders Diner was built by Kullman in 1937. It was demolished in 1999.
It was located at 9855 Washington Blvd. (Rt. 1) and Whisky Bottom Road, in North Laurel. It was attached to a bar, similar to the setup just down the road at the Tastee Diner (formerly the Laurel Diner).
The setup of the diner is interesting, with the door at the end, by the glass brick corner. The door is flanked by a glass brick “delete” panel, keeping the window grid even. The fabric awning was replaced with a metal one sometime in the 1950s, and a vestibule was added, much more in keeping with the style (lack of style?) of the addition, than the diner.
Here are some shots from a 1947 publication on Bars and Restaurants I found today in my school’s library.
BARS
Forthright disclosure in this department is definitely not in keeping, even where the service is offered in connection with a self-service restaurant. Although prominent citizens may properly assert they “have nothing to hide” in occasional temperate indulgence, they still don’t really like to do it on manifest exhibition. For this reason, the exterior of Tropical Gardens, though striving for attractiveness and compulsion in line with principles for the restaurant front, has much smaller window areas, with curtains as a rule nearly drawn, to reveal very little to the street of the activities and personages inside. Still the front should express, as Tropical Gardens attempts, particularly in the doorway, the essential nature and character of the operation, projecting all possible inducements to make the customer enter.
Front door of Tropical Gardens illustrates the principle in bar design of compulsive expression on the exterior, proclaiming but not disclosing the functions within.
Note in the photo, the “deuce” principle in Continental settee.
Decorations and murals in Tropical Gardens were designed by Winold Reiss, executed by Imperial Painting Co.; Karl Egger was the General Contractor.
Plastic-top, chrome pedistal table in Hollywood booth at Tropical Gardens. Curtain is glass fabric; floor, asphalt tile; color scheme, red, white, and mahogany.
Tropical Gardens bar front, is red leatherette with mahogany top. Seigel, Architect; Rapp, designer.
plan of Tropical Gardens.
I walked over to this one, now the Li’l Pub while I was waiting for the Library of Congress to open. The exterior, though painted, is well preserved, still even retaining its leaded glass windows. Inside appears to have been altered substantially to make it more functional as a bar.
Detailing around the door.
Sides still white
655 Pennsylvania Ave. S.E. Washington, DC 20003
Permit no. 20864 issued 11/26/1937 , architect Frank B. Proctor, Estimated Cost $5000.
I made a mini-roadtrip this morning to DC for some good old fashioned neon.
Clock Hands pointing down.
A&R Auto Parts. The neon appears it originally read something else.
1824 Bladensburg Road NE
Washington, DC 20002
http://www.aandrautoparts.com/
Ride With Safety – Yellow Cab Company.
Ohio Restaurant
1380 H St. NE
Now Closed
More pictures, including ones of the interior, can be found here.
Atlas Theater
1331 H St. NE
Built 1938
Architect John J. Zink.
S and S Shoe Repairing
1126 H St. NE
Storefront
New York Ave NE
Budget Motor Inn
1615 New York Avenue Northeast
Syd’s Drive In Liquor Store
2325 BLADENSBURG RD NE
Automatic Transmission
Former Roy Rogers?
Barn shaped building
Publick Playhouse
5445 Landover Road
Hyattsville, MD 20784
Opened 1947
Modern Dry Cleaning/ Electric Maid
Takoma Park, MD
Rayco Auto Seat Covers
7998 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
Glenmont Arcade
Formerly home to “Tuffy” Leeman’s duckpin Bowling alley. Tuffy, a pro football hall of fame member, played for the New York Giants from 1936 to 1943. The duckpin alley closed several years back.
It looks like the Laurel diner (now the Tastee) goes back quite a ways. I’ve found newspaper records of it going back to 1934, when three men an a woman tried to kidnap one of the waiters. The Laurel diner has also had a liquor license going back as far as September of 1939.
I’m fairly confident this is a drawing of the actual diner and not just period clip art. Assuming that’s the case, can anyone make an id or at least a guess as to manufacturer, if it dates from a 1934 or a bit before?
1934
1939
Halifax’s original Midtown Tavern was torn down recently to make way for new development. From a sign inside the building, it looks like there are plans in the works to build the “Midtown Towers” on this location. The website of the designers describes it as the “Midtown Hotel” The site is directly across the street from the former location of the Chronicle Herald Building, which was razed at approximately the same time. The Midtown Tavern moved down the street to 1744 Grafton. The midtown has been in operation since 1949. The building dated from the 1860s.
Midtown Tavern @ Beerblog
It appears I’ve been scooped. Halifax History.
I found another matchbook view of the Laurel Diner, which I believe shows an older diner which the current Comac replaced. If you have any wild guesses as to builder or date of the diner from the matchbook, please throw them out there.
Frustratingly, it’s just a drawing on the matchbook, but it seems too specific to be stock art, and I haven’t seen the design on any other matchbooks, so I’m going to assume it’s at least fairly representative of what was there.
Note the doors at both ends. The rooftop sign advertises it as both a diner and a bar.
Matchbook design is mostly the same, but diner is different and it’s billed as the “New” Laurel diner
Postcards showing the early 1950s Comac which later became part of the Tastee Diner Chain. I wish I could find an actual photograph to confirm the earlier diner.
Photos we took in 2006, during the installation of the then newly restored Tom Sawyer Diner. In the two and a half years since these pictures were taken, the Tom Sawyer housed a diner, a party bar, a Asian/ Mediterranean fusion restaurant called Konnichiwa, and a Mexican cantina.
The Tom Sawyer, a 1962 DeRaffele was originally located in Allentown, PA.
There are plans to replace the diner with an 18 story business complex.
Business owners take high-rise-development plan in stride
Konnichiwa
Sawyers Cantina
Tom Sawyer Diner- RIP 2006-2008
Queen’s Diner, the first unit by new diner manufacturer, Prairie City Diners, opened its doors in early December, 2008. Full Story on the Red Deer Advocate
From the Prairie City Diners Website:
Here’s the first one of an exciting new chain of diner restaurants opening in Alberta, Canada. Made by ”Prairie City Diners“, this is a Shaw International and Medallion Structures joint venture. Each restaurant will have a different name, and this first one will be called ”Queen’s Diner“, named after the business park in which it is located. According to owners Scott Shaw of Shaw International and Jim Landin, of Medallion Structures, plans for the first 10 diners are already underway! Interest in this new product is high, so the sky is the limit! Built from the ground up, the diner itself has been patterned after the 1940-1950 silk city diners with round corners and roof lines.
Not all within this new chain will be diners. Some are bar cars and some ice-cream shops, but they are all in the diner style! What is so great about this new diner is that it is easy to move, they are built solid and can be moved anywhere. This first one shown below was moved from Medallion’s Shop 50 miles from Red Deer, using nothing more than a bed truck and trailer. Scott and Jim wanted to build a good product, and the result is that the diners have turned out better than they could have imagined! If you’re in the market for a ”real Diner” restaurant that is easy to move and is also turn key, look no further! They can even be sent to other countries around the world!
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A red model.
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Interiors:
some more pictures are found here: BarsandBooths.com, who provided furniture, laminates, banding and accessories for the new diner
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I love that these are not the over the top caricature that so many manufacturers have been building in recent years. In concept and size, theses seem much truer to golden age diners. The design is clean and modern, but follows closely the lines of the classics. A late ’30s O’Mahony or a ’40s- early ’50s silk city is bought to mind.
It’s interesting to note that these are not being manufactured out New Jersey or Massachusetts, but out of Alberta, Canada, a province with no history of “real” diners.
Diner Hunter 
