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April 1996
History of Diners Manufacturing
Pressed-metal paradise:
Buffalo-made diners easy to take a shine to
By Brian A. ButkoThe Lake Erie region around Buffalo, N.Y., has produced an interesting chapter of diner history which has gone largely unnoticed. A number of diner manufacturers were located along the lake which produced a variety of the small, portable restaurants. Just as interesting is the spelling of the word diner that many of the restaurants in the area adopted -- they spell diner with an ëoí, not an ëe.í
True diners are not railroad cars, as many believe, but built in a factory specifically for use as a restaurant. Most diners were made along the east coast, but the reasons for a diner industry evolving around Lake Erie seem obvious. The cost of transporting diners was billed per mile, so it was prohibitively expensive to move diners very far from their east coast plants; but like the coast, the areas around Buffalo, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh all had industrial-based economies, spurring the same need and desire for diners. It seems natural that the companies would locate along Lake Erie, where rail lines radiated to all the surrounding areas.
In addition, the workforce at these shipping hubs easily adapted their railcar-building skills to diners. Following is a summary of what's known about these manufacturers, though local residents surely recall more about the time when diners were an important local industry.
The diner industry took a turn for the west after World War I. The Diner's News & Guide was a monthly magazine published in Buffalo by the Dinersí News Company. This was an extension of the National Association of Dining-Car Owners and Operators, an organization incorporated in Buffalo. They advised that they covered western New York and Erie, Pa.
The president was Paul J. Sterling, operator of the American Diner on East Genesee St. in Buffalo. There were six other directors elected yearly, and they met every Monday night. Members and advertisers were generally from the local area, and one issue, from 1931, mentions that their editor and national organizer, Daniel Sullivan, would soon be visiting Syracuse to start a chapter.
Oddly, the most prolific company of the region was not a member when this issue was published. Ward & Dickinson was formed in 1923 when Lee F. Dickinson and Charles Ward built a diner outdoors under a large shade tree. When completed, it was moved a short distance and became the Oak Hill Diner.
Their second diner went to Toledo, Ohio, and by 1925 the company employed 50 men, most earning about 50 cents an hour, foremen 75 cents. It took about a month to complete a diner, but others were built simultaneously. They were then trucked to the railroad depot for shipment.
The early cars were 30.5 feet long by 10.5 feet wide, and were called simply ìWardî cars according to a c.1926 sales catalog. The diners had 18 stools and came fully equipped, including an exhaust fan which completely changed the air in ìexactly 60 seconds.î The company later offered two models: a 33-foot Standard with 12 stools and two booths, and a Deluxe, which was nine feet longer and moved the kitchen from the center to the end of the car. The various interior trim was decorated in shades of green, and the diners cost about $5000 when new.
A number of Ward & Dickinson diners were used by a chain of restaurants called Moore's in Reading, Pa. They were also the prototype for a chain in a joint venture between Standard Oil of Indiana and B/G Sandwich Shops. W & D produced an experimental B/G Eating Inn which was shipped to Chicago, operating at the corner of Harper and Lake Park avenues. Many Ward and Dickinson diners are still scattered around the northeast, and they can usually be distinguished by the relatively tall windows in a monitor roof.
The prosperity of Ward & Dickinson led six other entrepreneurs in Silver Creek to try their hand at diner manufacturing. One of them was probably Harrington Bros., since they are listed as a member of the National Association of Dining Car Owners and Operators in 1931. Another in Silver Creek, Sorge Diner Mfg. Co., produced diners in the 1940s and í50s with distinctive stainless steel ceilings, but apparently only five were ever built. It was started by a Mr. Sorge who ran the Sorge Diner in nearby Dunkirk, N.Y. Ward & Dickinson out-produced all the imitators but folded by the start of WW II.
One of Ward & Dickinson's products, Steve's Diner, was donated a few years ago to the town of Silver Creek, which plans on reopening it as a museum and community center. There's a lot of work to be done, but the community is likely inspired by the company's old slogan, ìThey're built to last.î
Two other manufacturers were to the northeast, closer to Lake Ontario. The Orleans Manufacturing Co. in Albion, N.Y. (seat of Orleans County) apparently built just three diners, the only survivor being the Highland Park Diner in Rochester, built in 1948. The round end windows are most distinctive on this diner. A replica is now available as a 6-inch porcelain sculpture from the Danbury Mint.
The other company was at 30 Main Street right in Rochester, but some years earlier ñ it was called Rochester Grills. Two diner models were offered in the 1920s and í30s: 10-foot by 30-foot for $5350, or 10-foot by 40-foot for $500 more. One of their products was the Country Club Diner in Rochester.
Following Route 20 west to Ohio, the Bixler Manufacturing Co. was in Norwalk. Bixler was reportedly owned by New York piano magnate George Foster, who opened the diner concern in a former piano factory (likely done in by radio sales); the sales office remained in New York City. Diners came from the factory at 50 Newton St. during the mid-1930s, and a few still exist, as does the factory building. Bixlers were so wide that they were shipped in sections. The barrel-shaped roofs of Bixler cars had distinctive overhangs on the ends. The location of another manufacturer, Galion Dining Car Co., is unknown, but a town named Galion sits 35 miles south of Norwalk, reportedly the only town in the country with that name.
In Cleveland, diners were made by the G.C. Kuhlman Car Co., a subsidiary of the J.G. Brill Co. of Philadelphia. Brill switched from trolleys to diners between 1927 and 1932; doors on both ends of their façades gave the Brill Steel diners a streetcar look.
Back in New York, the details are sketchy on some other companies. Liberty Dining Car Co. was located in the Buffalo suburb of Clarence during the 1930s. Seguin Bros., in the Buffalo suburb of North Tonawanda, is listed as a member of the dining car group in 1931, so perhaps they too produced diners. A manufacturer called Monitor Car Co. may have also produced diners in the region.
Finally, in Dunkirk, N.Y., was the Mulholland Co., again members of the dining car group. Originally builders of carriages and automobile bodies, they switched to diners around 1920 at their factory at 220 Buffalo Street. Mulholland sent a diner to Union City, Pa., in 1926. It looks like a regular diner, but before 1950 they began remodeling and one of the first changes was to the name. For over 40 years now, this diner has been called a ìdinor.î
A peculiar variant
The dinor spelling is peculiar to the Erie area. Of 18 diners listed in the 1940 Erie city directory, 15 of them used the dinor spelling. Eighteen years later little had changed ñ of the 19 diners in the 1958 directory, 17 were dinors. One of them was Russí Dinor, a factory-built diner still there today but remodeled The 1960 directory saw a paring down of both figures, and by 1968 there were but 10 diners, and only half of those dinors.
No one knows where the spelling originated. Some theorize it differentiated the building from the patron. Others believe it may be an ethnic variant. Most likely, it started as one owner's advertising gimmick and caught on. Whatever the source, period postcards show that not all dinors were diners.
The odd spelling didn't spread far from Erie -- available city directories indicate that Cleveland never saw the spelling nor did Buffalo -- but nearby small towns quickly adopted the spelling. One was in Conneaut, Ohio, and in Pennsylvania, there were dinors in Eldred, Franklin, Meadville, Warren (a postcard shows it as a W & D), and another town named Conneaut. Today, only a few dinors remain -- the two previously mentioned (Russís in Erie and the Union City Dinor), plus ones in Bradford, Greenville, and some near Erie.
Just west of Erie is the Girard Dinor: I asked where the odd spelling came from and was told, as if it were obvious, that it was named after their famous specialty, the Dinor-saur Burger! They also swear their place is an old railcar, but it's obviously a real diner.
East of Erie, in Lawrence Park, a new owner is revitalizing the Park Dinor, a 1948 Silk City. The paint scheme has been redone in red, white, and blue, and the pink interior has been cleaned. They've also replaced the plastic sign, but don't worry -- the ìoî will stay.
One of the few diners (or dinors) that's actually an old trolley car is the Crossroads Dinor in Edinboro, Pa., just south of Erie. It has served food since it was decommissioned in 1929. It recently changed owners, bringing about some sprucing up and a new sign. They sell dinor t-shirts, too, showing their place as a trolley.
The dinor spelling didn't spread far, but did manage to migrate 100 miles south to Weirton, W.V., where a twice-remodelled diner sports the ìoî spelling. Like the other dinors, folks here one have no idea where the spelling came from.
So diner fans can enjoy a double treat when traveling near Lake Erie ñ a variety of diners made around the lake, and a spelling peculiar to the area. And in some instances, both at the same place.
Brian Butko is editorial assistant at the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania.