In the News - Miss Williamsburg Diner

Yesterday's Gothamist is reporting the diner once known as the Miss Williamsburg Diner, a 1950's Silk City Diner, was gutted by an early morning fire. According to their article it last operated as a restaurant called 718. flickr pro imjustsayin has a series of photos a few hours later showing the extent of the damage.


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Today In Diner History. . .

Raoul Cloutier and Charles LeClerc's Colonial Diner built by the Worcester Lunch Car Company was delivered on this date in 1937. Referencing the diner's drawing* for car #733, it wasn't clear where the diner was delivered. A Google search found Elizabeth Thomsen's recollection of it being in Beverly, Massachusetts. From there we consulted the book written by Gary Thomas, "Diners of the North Shore." On page 65 there is a photograph and short history of the diner. According to Mr. Thomas, substantial fire damage resulted in the diner being demolished around 1976.


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* The original Worcester Lunch Car Company diner drawings are held in a private collection. Copies were provided to us by Randy Garbin.

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A Look Back on October 14th

10/14/1998
Compiled from Worcester Telegram & Gazette articles.

On this date vandals set fire to the diner structure in Worcester's Cristoforo Colombo park. At the time of the fire it was being used for other purposes. A few days later two youths were arrested and charged with arson.

The city moved the charred remains into storage at the Worcester airport. During December of the following year, it was reported that Preservation Worcester arranged for Michael O'Connor to acquire the diner.

Restoration of the diner is an ongoing process. flickr member dustboy4 has some pictures of the diner in his photostream. These exterior and interior photos show some of the arson damage. The Thomas Bros. Furniture website identified the structure as Worcester Diner #705. It was built by the Worcester Lunch Car Company in 1933. According to the diner drawing* in Charles Gemme's notebook, it was delivered to Salem, New Hampshire on June 14, 1933 and called the Park Diner.


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* The original Worcester Lunch Car Company diner drawings are held in a private collection. Copies were provided to us by Randy Garbin.

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Starlite Diner - North Little Rock, AR

IMG_0714
Originally uploaded by Dale Miller
and appears here under Creative
Commons license here.

A reader sent us a link to an article about the Starlite Diner. This was news to us and admittedly, we would have rather read that the diner is in new hands. Instead it seems the diner is the subject of a "suspicious" fire that broke out at 2AM Monday morning. Read the entire article here.

It was known that the diner has been for sale for a while. It was posted multiple times on a well known Internet auction website, as far back as the end of last year. Each time the auction ended unsuccessfully. We don't know if the diner was open or closed at the time of the fire. Back in April this article was written describing business was down.
Given the construction method of the Starlite, restoration shouldn't be a problem. Perhaps this would be an opportune time to bring the interior back to the days of terrazzo, Formica and tile?

flickr photo of diner exterior here.

For more pictures of diners, we invite you to visit our flickr photostream here.


Starlite Diner
250 E Military Dr.
North Little Rock, AR
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