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″)
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.
By 1931, the Tudor Cottage Design had been adopted
In 1937, it was updated with a bit more of a moderne syle
Typical Plans and detail
A design from 1949
And a later, simplified design. What I’ve found on this one points to a date of construction in 1974
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.
This is right down by the movie theater I usually go to in the Kentlands, though I never seem to have a camera with me. On site “diner” built in the ’90s. Strips of stainless around the base, and as you can see, a very diner-like interior.
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.
In light of recent news, I thought it was best to take some photos of the Rockville MD Silver Diner, their original and current flagship location. It was one of the first old-style diners and was built by Kullman.
I went through some my dad’s slide archives and turned up a few more Little Tavern shots.
Little Tavern- Laurel, MD
now
The sign of this one has been rescued and restored.
Little Tavern- Silver Spring, MD
Little Tavern – Silver Spring, MD
Little Tavern- Route 1, Alexandria, VA
Little Tavern – Georgetown, Washinton D.C.
that’s him on the right.
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
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 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
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.
Diner Hunter 
