At the Melrose Diner

Melrose Diner, © 2009
DinerHistory.com file photo

Updated 1/7/2009

Our last diner stop of the night was the Melrose Diner. At one time they had a website containing a section on the diner's history. Part of their site has been cached and is still available at archive.org.

Those pages spoke of the Melrose's long history in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. Prior to their current location which opened in 1956, Dick Kubach owned a 1940 O'Mahony. His son took over this Snyder Avenue site in 1973. The diner remained in the family until mid-2007 when it was sold to Michael Petrogiannis. Petrogiannis also owns other area diners, one of them being the Mayfair Diner, which he we visited first thing Saturday morning.

Melrose is a large manufactured diner. It is consistent with diner styles and materials commonly used during the mid-1950s. Their former website made reference to it being built in 1956. What differentiates the Melrose from other diners is it's corners. Above the corner windows, Paramount employs a signature stacked design reminiscent of a "wedding cake."

As a side note, the diner's builder, Paramount Dining Cars was located in Haledon, New Jersey. About 1970 the business became Paramount Modular Concepts in Oakland. In recent years we aren't aware of any new diners they've built.


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Melrose Diner
1501 Snyder Ave.
Philadelphia, PA
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Smyrna Diner - Smyrna, DE

The Smyrna Diner is among those built during the early 1960s. One Internet site states, "The Smyrna Diner, located in Smyrna, Delaware, was installed in 1965. It replaced a smaller one which had been at the same site since 1954." (1) A picture of the previous diner may be seen here. An exterior picture of the current diner is available in martysdomain's flickr photostream.

Smyrna's rustic exterior, which may be the result of renovations, is a departure from the stainless steel and large plate glass windows as typically seen in diners. It also follows the movement away from exteriors of steel toward more environmental materials. The vestibule includes an overhang reminiscent of a folded plate roof line. Compare the diner with the former Deerhead Diner of the same era.

After thirty-six years, Sandy Margist will soon shut the lights off one last time. As is often the case, she owns the diner, but not the land upon which it sits. A new diner is being constructed a short distance down the road, near the intersection of U.S. 13, and Delaware 1. Several articles last year spoke of the diner's history, planned closing and restoration by Diversified Diners of Cleveland, Ohio. Today's article has pictures of the diner and its new location. About 9.3 miles further down the road on North Dupont Highway is the Hollywood Diner, a 1954 Fodero.

Melrose Diner
by Chris_In_Philly_'08
and appears here under
Creative Commons license

Compare the corner of the current Smyrna with another Paramount diner, the Melrose Diner of Philadelphia, PA pictured at right. The Melrose is an example of an older Paramount diner with its trademark "wedding cake" corner.

When more information about the new diner's opening becomes available we'll post it here.




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Diversified Diners
Cleveland, OH

Hollywood Diner
123 N. Dupont Hwy.
Dover, DE
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Melrose Diner
1501 Snyder Ave.
Philadelphia, PA
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Smyrna Diner
304 N. DuPont Blvd.
Smyrna, DE
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For more pictures of diners, we invite you to visit our flickr photostream here.

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