With origins in Providence, the area’s prefabricated vintage diners were on the menu for the annual convention of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
More than 2,500 preservationists, historians, librarians and educators attended the annual event in Providence from Oct. 16 to Oct. 21. The week featured tours and informational sessions, speakers and meetings focusing on churches, schools, neighborhoods and public buildings.
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The “Preserving America’s Diners” tour was led by Daniel A. Zilka, executive director of the American Diner Museum, and was offered twice for conventioneers.
Diners originated in Providence, Zilka said, inspired by the lunch wagon invented by Walter Scott in 1892.
Until the lunch wagon, “there was literally no place to eat after 6:00 p.m.,” he said. “It was the beginning of fast food in America.”
But with a distinct difference.
“Diners tend to reflect a locality,” Zilka said. “You go to McDonald’s, it’s all the same. Diners are inherently the people of the area in terms of clientele, and their staffs as well. They’re more interesting. And, they’re uniquely American.”
At one time, thirty-two companies – many of which also constructed railway cars – built the prefabricated dining cars, Zilka said. Diners could be shipped in pieces and assembled on site, moved if a land lease ran out, or traded in for a larger model when business boomed.
Tour highlights included Pawtucket’s Modern Diner, built in 1940 and the first diner to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the shiny stainless steel and blue Silver Top Diner behind Providence Place.
Found in the most abundance in the Northeast, the diners on the tour drew praise even from those who didn’t grow up with them as a dominant part of their architectural landscape.
“They’re fascinating,” said Kate Carothers, a historic preservation specialist from Covington, Kentucky. “I really wanted to come on this tour.”
Tour participants were also taken to the American Diner Museum’s storage facility at Quonset Point to see two diners in the process of being restored.
One of them, Louis’ Diner, was built in 1933 by the Worcester Lunch Car Company and is notable historically because of its large size. At 65 feet long, it is one of only two of this length the company ever produced. Once restored, it will be part of the American Diner Museum’s display in the Heritage Harbor Museum and Library in Providence.
“What we’d like to have happen is when you walk through the door, it’s 1933 and FDR’s picture is on the wall, and Big Band music is playing,” said Zilka.
The convention’s theme, “Preserving the Spirit of Place,” was inspired by the late U.S. Sen. John H. Chafee (R-RI), who in one of his last public appearances, said that the preservation movement is about more than bricks and mortar – it is about the spirit of place. Chafee said true preservationists help save America’s heritage through actions such as revitalizing inner cities, encouraging smart growth and conserving open space.
Founded in 1949, the National Trust for Historic Preservation provides support for grassroots preservation efforts. A private non-profit organization with more than a quarter-million members, the National Trust sponsors programs such as the National Main Street Center, which has helped restore more than 1,500 historic downtowns; National Trust Community Partners, which uses preservation as a tool for providing affordable housing in older residential neighborhoods; and National Trust Study Tours and National Trust Historic Hotels of America, which promote travel to historic destinations throughout the U.S.
