White Oak Bowling Lanes

Posted on May 29, 2009 by Spencer Stewart

I stopped in here yesterday for a few games. They are celebrating their fiftieth year in business. I’ve been going to these lanes for as long as I can remember.

Duckpin lanes are disappearing all the time. Tuffy Leeman Glenmont Lanes used to be just down the road, but they closed several years back, and I’ve heard reports that the location is now being used to dump garbage.
How To Play

While there, we had a quick bite to eat at the snack bar, a half smoke, fries and a burger for dad.

Suburban Trust Bank. Founded in 1951.
Suburban Trust Building – Rockville.

Entryway mat. The bowling alley is in the basement of the shopping center

Loitering

The shopping center’s had many new facades over the years

For more, see:
Duckpin Bowling @ Boomer Twilight
“Duckpin” – a documentary

DC / MD diner trip – May 24, 2009

Posted on May 25, 2009 by Spencer Stewart

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.

The Left side of the diner- 2009

The left side of the diner – 1989

The former Howard Theater. Great rusty marquis on this one.

The now abandoned Wonderbread / Hostess Factory

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.

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!

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

A&R Auto Parts

Syd’s Drive In / Liquor

Cross Roads

Tesst theater

Hyattsville Hardware / Franklin’s

Calvert House

Silver Spring’s old Canada Dry bottling plant

A quick stop at the Silver Spring Tastee was made.

Now

Then

More old photos can be found here.

Then a side trip to Forest Glen, parts of which have deteriorated greatly since my last visit.

Dinner at the Tastee Diner in Bethesda

Then

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.

Muffler Man- Havre De Grace, MD

Posted on March 20, 2009 by Spencer Stewart

Muffler men were made between 1962 and 1976 by International Fiberglass of Venice, California. This example was repainted in fatigues during or shortly after desert storm.

911 Pulaski Hwy., Havre de Grace, MD

Aberdeen Eagle Diner- Aberdeen, Maryland

Posted on March 14, 2009 by Spencer Stewart

Exterior of the Aberdeen eagle. The corner stainless and the curved window are still visible, but that’s about it. Brick and a red mansard roof disguise the true nature of the diner.

Aberdeen Eagle- All baking done on premises. The sign states that they’re open 24 hours, something becoming rarer all the time.

The rooftop neon. Presumably original to the diner, and not added at the time of the remodel.

The interior. Very boxy- lots of hard corners, almost no curves, other than that of the counter and the scalloped edges by the menu-board. It’s leaning towards the more space-age and environmental designs yet to come, while still staying within the confines of a classic 1950s stainless model.

Spindly stools with octagonal bases. Also interesting to note the use of an entirely tile floor. With the design of this diner, I would have expected terrazzo, and not older style mosaic tile.

Blue is the overwhelming color.

You don’t see too many of this model diner; not many with interiors with this kind of styling. What I have been able to find says it’s a mid ’50s Kullman. I’ve seen Kullman dinettes with similar boxy interiors, but this is the only full-sized diner I’ve been to quite like this. It has been covered over, years ago, with tan brick, with a dining room on the right, making it less recognizable from the road, especially when compared with the New Ideal Diner, just half a mile down the road and across the street. Inside it is essentially in-tact.

Happy Day Diner

Posted on February 7, 2009 by Spencer Stewart

The Happy Day Diner, is a 1959 DeRaffele, which in recent years, has been redone in recent years with a retro, back to the ’50s theme, complete with Elvis Presley on the vestibule, an a giant smiley face. Interesting that the smiley face wasn’t designed until 1963, and not really popularized until the ’70s, but then again, none of the rest is anything you would have ever seen in a diner in the ’50s, so it kind of follows.

http://www.happydaydiner.com/

From the Happy Day Diner website:

Back to the 50’s
back on time at the happy day diner, one of the maryland’s unique diner that trully represents de 50’s, bring you back to the old happy days. while you and your family enjoys the food, you also have a chance to take a look at the classic road riders, that hang around at every saturdays nights.

elvis look foward to see you soon .

One of the first diners in Maryland, funded in 1951 and still capted at the original 50’s atmosphere.Those are just a feel of the things that makes the happy day diner, a long time neighborhood favority, pleasent dining, and great cusine. The staff at happy day diner, prides themselves in serve you and your family, and they will ensure that our visit to the restaurant is a pleasent and memorable experince. unlike another restaurant, our menu is disigned to please everyone, at any time of the day. that means you can enjoy your dinner, while our partner eat breakfast, or enjoy some of our italian dishes, that will make you forget that you are not in little italy for while, with a big difference on the price. and your partner enjoing a delicious home made chicken pot pie, that not even mama could do better.

You can find the Happy Day Diner at:
8302 Pulaski Highway
Baltimore, MD 21237

Irene’s Update

Posted on October 17, 2008 by Spencer Stewart

Here is a shot of Irene’s taken yesterday

Versus how it used to look as the Short Stop

The exterior doesn’t look like the fluting is original, it reminds me of the replacement material used on Mel’s diner, the former Lincoln diner of Lebanon, PA.

The former Short Stop diner was also known as the Time Out Diner. It’s a 1950s kullman dinette.
Other similar models include the:
White Crystal, which has a reversed floorplan, with the corner door on the right, and the White Rose System of Linden, New Jersey.

Both of those diners, however, have canted corners, identifying them as later models. Irene’s is an earlier kullman, with flat vertical sections, and a four window front facade, instead of a five window. Earlier model Kullman dinettes retained the corner door, but had rounded windows.

Snow White Grill – Winchester, Virginia

Posted on September 29, 2008 by Spencer Stewart

The Snow White Grill in Winchester was built c. 1948. Snow White Grill was another burger chain, along the lines of Little Tavern, White Tower, or White Castle. They were in the West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland Area. Interestingly, the Snow White Grills were designed by the same architect, Luther Reason Ray, of the Structural Porcelain Enamel company, who also designed the classic Little Taverns, as well as Hot Shoppes in the same area. This explains the obvious similarities in design and materials.

The Library of Congress has records regarding Snow White Grills from:

1941 – Snow White Grill for Hansel Hurst, Queen Street and Burke Street, Martinsburg, West Virginia
1948 – Snow White Grill for Hansel Hurst, 159 Loudoun Street, Winchester, Virginia – Luther R. Ray Architect
1948 – Snow White Grill – 9 Patrick Street, Frederick, Maryland
1950 – Snow White Grill for Hansel Hurst, 239 N. Market Street, Frederick, Maryland
1952 – Snow White Grill for Hansel Hurst, South Potomac Street, Hagerstown, Maryland (Detail Shots)
1954-1955 – Snow White Grill Inc., Baltimore Street and Guilford Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland
1955-1956 -Snow White Grill, Inc., West Baltimore Street and Howard Street, Baltimore, Maryland
1959 – remodel front of building for Snow White Grills, 1513 E. Joppa Road, Towson, Maryland
1960 -Snow White Grill, 1808 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland

It’s possible that there were more.

State Diner – Baltimore, Maryland

Posted on September 17, 2008 by Spencer Stewart

It’s not much to look at on the outside.

But sure enough, inside is a classic diner, a barrel roof model. Any guesses as to the manufacturer? Unfortunately, this is the best picture I could get when we were there. My initial gut reaction would be that it’s a silk city, because of the curve at the ends, but I can’t remember seeing silk cities with that kind of vent hood or tile pattern.

Bridge Diner- Havre De Grace, Maryland

Posted on September 3, 2008 by Spencer Stewart

Here’s another one of the Maryland Diners. It’s changed a bit since it was built. Take a look at the postcard and take a look at what it looks like now.

Here’s how it looked when it was new, probably late 1930s. The tag is gone, it was probably removed or covered over when renovations were done in the 1950s. It was called the New bridge diner then. I like the awnings. A nice touch of class.

Here is is now. The original lettering reading, “Bridge Diner” is still present, though not visible in this shot because of the cars. There are holes drilled in the enamel on the left hand side, where the lettering reading “new” was originally bolted on. As you can see, the windows were redone at some point, removing the top part. A vestibule and roof were added as well, completely changing the look of the place

Inside the old Silk City

A shot showing the old mural painted on the ceiling. There is one on both end, both with similar scenes. This also shows the ’50s renovation, with boomerang formica replacing the dark wood window surrounds, a stainless bump out for lighting fixtures, and the end door delete.

The bridge diner is located at 801 Pulaski Hwy, Havre De Grace, MD

The American City Diner – Washington DC

Posted on September 1, 2008 by Spencer Stewart

I have a couple more posts of these old slide scans to go.

The American City diner was built by Kullman in 1989, and was one of the first old style diners to be built. And it really nailed the look. Just take a look at the photos. With the exception of larger dimensions, the detailing and proportions were kept essentially the same as a ’40s model. It’s beauty was in its simplicity, the design was clean and beautiful. Based on pictures of them from when they were built, this one and the Silver Diner in Rockville are my two favorites from this era of diners.

Photo is copyright Michael G. Stewart

And here’s how it looks now. An awning has been added, obscuring the roof stainless work. The roof has been painted blue and red, a signboard has been added to the vestibule. A googie-esque addition has been added to the left hand side, as has a now closed in patio seating area, entirely covering the diner to the left of the vestibule. Everything about the diner has so much added onto it that the diner that was installed in 1989 is hardly recognizable.

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Diner Hunter

Tag Archives: Maryland

White Oak Bowling Lanes

DC / MD diner trip – May 24, 2009

Muffler Man- Havre De Grace, MD

Happy Day Diner