Diner Builder: National Glass and Mfg. Co

The National Glass & Manufacturing Company, INC was based at 212 South 9th Street, Fort Smith, Arkansas. The company was founded in 1929 by its president, William E. Stell, and built primarily showcases, restaurant fixtures and display cases. They first introduced their diner design in the mid 1940s, designed by Stell and architect Glenn Pendergrass.

The diners were built in the factory in Fort Smith, knocked down in sections and shipped to the site.  In the case of the Russellville location, it only took six days for the restaurant to open. There does not seem to have been a standard length to this company’s diners, just a standard module.Photobucket

The prototype Old South Restaurant was located at 711 South Towson Avenue, Fort Smith, AR. It was managed by R. C. Strub, formerly of Schwab’s, NYC. It was demolished in the 1970s.

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Another “Old South Restaurant” opened at 1330 East Main St, Russellville, AR on April 4, 1947. The original owner was Woody Mays. It still stands, in tact, operating under its original name. More pics can be found HERE

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The Shamrock Restaurant, located at 2719 Midland Blvd. opened in the late 1940s, but doesn’t appear to have stayed in business very long. By 1960, the building was home to the Woolbright Fixture Company. It was recently home to the Coyote Sports Bar (now closed).

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Gordon Adkins No. 1 was located at 3614 Roosevelt Road, Little Rock, AR. It later became Hank’s Catering House.
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Gordon Adkins No. 2 was located at the corner of 10th and Broadway, Little Rock, AR. It later became the Ritz Grill.
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Ben Stanley’s Cafe, located on Rt. 66 in Miami, Oklahoma opened on February 8, 1947. As with the others, its postcard advertised National Glass and Manufacturing in addition to the restaurant itself.
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Oriole Cafeterias – Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore’s Oriole Cafeterias still stand today, though you would probably never recognize them. Here they are, contrasted with original illustrations of the locations from 1947. The chain opened in 1922, with a fourth location at 22 Light Street. Going by city directories, this location didn’t last as long as others. The chain was defunct by 1975.

17 E. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD
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11 East North Avenue, Baltimore, MD
edit: The picture is of the Aurora Theatre. The Oriole stood directly to the left, a fragment of what remains of the building can be seen. It was originally the Peabody Theatre, which burned down in the early 1970s. More info.
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306 North Howard Street, Baltimore, MD
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Little Tavern Stools

Today was a big day for my Little Tavern collection. I picked up four new mugs, and eight stools. Three of the mugs are Jackson, one is Shenango. Four of the stools are from Washington No. 9 (1932, 5100 Georgia Ave NW) and four from Washington No. 15 (1936, 1200 Good Hope Rd SE).

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Haussner’s Baltimore

Haussner’s opened in 1926 and served its last meal in 1999. My matchbook from it advertises its Bavarian Rathskeller and Haussner’s Bavarian Orchestra. The restaurant was famous for its art collection, which sold at auction after the restaurant closed for ten million dollars. As luck would have it, I spent the day a block down from Haussner’s at the Maryland Traditions Folklife Festival, so I took some pictures of the building.

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Some info about a recreation of Haussner’s which appeared in Mad Men

White Coffee Pot Restaurants – Baltimore, MD

This matchbook is from the Baltimore chain of White Coffee Pot restaurants. They operated in the Baltimore area from 1932 through to 1993. At one time, they had 33 locations. They’re all gone now, but at one time, they were all over Baltimore. They’ve come up a fair bit in my Little Tavern research, but I haven’t done any dedicated research into them directly as to their full history or locations.

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Trolley Conversions- Maryland and Virginia

Some recent additions to my collection. These photos were taken in 1965. There used to be quite a few trolley conversions in the mid atlantic (and elsewhere), but they just didn’t hold up as well as factory built diners. By the time they came into service as diners, most had served a full lifetime of service on the roads, so the condition was obviously not as good as a factory built diner. It took work, money and some jerry-rigging to change them over from transportation to food service. But they could be picked up and converted on the cheap, so they were a good way to get into the business. It seems most owners traded up to a proper factory built diner, or to a on-site construction once they had earned enough money to do so, so the trolleys didn’t survive very well.

Maryland
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Virginia
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Virginia
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