Driving Questions
This unit serves as an introduction to the field of Historic Preservation. Historic Preservation is often viewed as being primarily concerned with mansions, monuments, and presidential estates. This lesson allows students to expand their ideas about what buildings can be worthy of preservation to include 20th century icons like diners. It also expands the definition of the preservationist to include anyone who values historic buildings for the role they play in defining the character and image of a community.
The images which commonly come to mind when we think of Vermont’s historic landscape are of church steeples, the town green, a covered bridge, or a farm house and barn. History is always evolving, however, and these rural, pastoral images are only a part of the state’s history. At the turn of the century, Vermont experienced the same expansion of industry that swept the rest of the nation. Diners originally served the needs of Vermont’s new urban workforce. The stainless steel, sleek lines, art deco signs, and lunch counters of diners reflect this industrial history along with the mills, factories, and worker housing of the era. These elements of the built environment play just as important a role in the landscape as the more traditional images do. The built environment reflects the broad historical trends which shape communities. The ability to “read the landscape” can be a very useful tool for students of history.
The lesson plan format is based on the Vermont Framework of Standards but also draws on the National Park Service educational guide, Teaching with Historic Places. Additional materials provided for this lesson include a short handout which gives an overview of the history of diners, and an accompanying video which uses profiles of specific Vermont diners to introduce issues surrounding diner preservation. The lesson can be incorporated into pre-existing units on the Industrial Revolution, historic architecture, cultural geography or Vermont history.
The classroom activities for the unit can be divided into three components:
1. Where the Reuben Hits the Road
This short video is set to a contemporary soundtrack
and presents a road trip in which graduate students visit some of Vermont’s
diners to illustrate why they are historically significant. It provides
information on architectural features common to diners, describes how diners
contribute to a sense of community, and introduces the basic concepts
of historic preservation.
2. The History of Diners and The Diner Style
Guide
The handout provides a brief overview of the history
of diners. It identifies where and when they originated and describes
how the industry grew and how diners fit into the community. The
style guide traces the changes in design and patronage to illustrate how
diners have both reflected and adapted to changes in style and the economy.
3. Class Discussion
Teachers should initiate a brief discussion centering
on the facts and concepts introduced in the video and handout. Based
on the information provided in the materials, students should be able to
answer the following questions:
Have the students choose a historic building of primary importance in their community. In a letter to the town selectboard or an editorial for the local newspaper, the students should describe how its demolition would affect the town and explain whether it is important to preserve it.
Have the students identify a building or place that is important to them. The students should write an essay that articulates its value by describing its physical features and explaining its significance either to them or to the community. Some possibilities include: bedroom, house, backyard, school, mall, ski area.
Have the students visually document an aspect of their community or their community as a whole. Using the diner video as a model and building on the classroom discussions, student teams of 5 or 6 should work together to write and produce a short video that illustrates the local historic landscape.
Resources
Curriculum Materials
Where the Reuben Hits the Road
The video is available in the library of each Vermont
public high school. Additional copies are available for loan from the Vermont
Association for Curriculum Development and the Vermont Department of Education.
The video can also be obtained from the Regional Education Television Network,
Inc.(South Burlington) for a small duplication fee.
Diner History and Style Guide
This student handout accompanies the video and can also
be downloaded off of the following internet sites:
www.uvm.edu/~vhnet/heredu/diners/diners.html
www.floodbrook.k12.vt.us/veeone/starter.html
Bibliography
Baeder, John. Diners, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers,
New York, 1978.
Gutman, Richard J.S., and Elliott Kaufman. American Diner, Harper and Row, New York, 1979.
Gutman, Richard J.S.. American Diner: Then and Now, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 1993.
Kittel, Gerd. Diners: People and Place, Thames and Hudson, New York, 1991.
Liebs, Chester H. Main Street To Miracle Mile: American Roadside Architecture, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1995.
Roadside Magazine. Coffee Cup Publishing, Worcester, MA.
Vermont Division for Historic Preservation. Guide To Vermont Architecture, Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, USA, 1996.
Internet Resources
Chrone’s Virtual Diner (includes a list of Vermont Diners
and diner manufacturers)
www.neb.com/noren/diner/chrones.html
Miss Bellow’s Falls Diner
www.sover.net/~daxtell/bf/bfmissbf.html
Teaching With Historic Places
www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/guide.htm
UVM Historic Preservation Program
www.uvm.edu/~histpres/
Vermont Heritage Network
www.uvm.edu/~vhnet/
Vermont’s Historic Diners
www.uvm.edu/~vhnet/heredu/diners/diners.html
Diner: A pre-fabricated restaurant with counter
service, built in sections in a factory and transported to a distant site.1
Diners originated in Providence, Rhode Island in 1872,
when Walter Scott began selling sandwiches, pie, and hot coffee from the
back of a covered freight wagon.2 He operated at night; his customers were
the growing numbers of night shift industrial workers and other night people
who collected on the streets but couldn’t get anything to eat after the
restaurants closed. Scott’s business was popular and profitable from the
start. Others noticed the money-making potential of “night lunch wagons”
and the diner industry was launched. Soon there were competing businesses
operating not only in Providence but throughout the neighboring industrial
New England states.3
These early diners were horse-drawn wagons. The owners
drove through the city, making rounds of factories and bars. Whenever the
wagon stopped, crowds would gather and huddle around it to eat, sometimes
in bad weather. Entrepreneur Sam Jones noticed this pattern and he entered
the diner business with a great idea. In 1884, Jones opened a newly designed
night lunch wagon in Worcester, Massachusetts.4 His wagon was a larger
model and inside was a lunch counter with stools. His customers
could come inside and sit down to eat. His idea revolutionized the diner
industry, and soon counters and stools became diner standards.
T. H. Buckley was also a Worcester diner entrepreneur. He built a diner but soon realized that there was more money to be made in building and selling wagons than in operating them. He started the first diner manufacturing company and by 1892 his New England Lunch Wagon Company had built and sold over 75 wagons.5 At this time, successful diners were operating all over the industrial Northeast, but had not spread throughout the rest of the nation. Buckley’s diner production business concentrated on this untapped market. He personally set up diners in over 275 towns across the country.6
Diners had traditionally operated only at night. By 1912, diner owners realized that if they got off the street they could stay open longer hours, attract new and different customers, and make more money.7 They began pulling their horse-drawn wagons into empty lots after their nightly rounds in order to continue business during the day. Soon their daytime locations took on importance. People could go to the diner instead of waiting for the diner to find them. Diners parked for good; the cars had become stationary but could still be moved if needed. With more permanent locations, diners could connect to city utilities for the first time.8 As a result, business and menus could expand. Signs advertised “Open 24 Hours” or “Eat Anytime.”
Diners had originated to serve the night time workforce, a population which was typically male. This “men only” reputation followed diners as they left the streets and became 24 hour restaurants. But by the 1920s, the workforce had changed to include women, and these women were not spending their money in diners. Diner owners had to redefine their image in order for diners to make a successful transition into the twentieth century. Subtle changes like landscaping, window boxes, and frosted glass were designed to attract female customers, but many women associated the stools and counter of diners with those of bars.9 Diner owners answered this problem by installing tables down the length of the counter. Signs advertising “booth service” were explicit invitations for women to come inside. This change revolutionized the industry again, making both booths and stools diner standards.
In the 1950s, diner constituency changed again. Diner
owners wanted to capture the family business. Children now had their own
menus and were often rewarded for dragging their parents in with balloons
or candy.10 To accommodate these larger crowds, diners grew. Separate
annexes were built to house entrances, an expanded kitchen, or a larger
dining area. Patrons could still sit at the counter but the short order
cook was removed to the kitchen.11
The current resurgence of public interest and diner popularity
can be traced back to the late 19709s when Diners (John Baeder, 1978) and
American Diner (Richard Gutman, 1979) were published. The importance of
diners as an architectural form was first recognized by students of American
popular culture. Only since the 1970s have diners become the subject of
scholarly analysis by historic preservationists and historians. But diners
have survived the test of time. They have reflected changes in style and
adapted to changes in the economy. They remain popular because they
are restaurants for the people.
1 Gutman, Richard J.S., and Elliot Kaufman,
American Diner, Harper and Row, New York, 1979, 62.
2 Gutman, 2.
3 Gutman, 3.
4 Gutman, 4.
5 Gutman, 8.
6 Gutman, 8.
7 Gutman, 12.
8 Gutman, 13.
9 Gutman, 28-29.
10 Gutman, 54.
11 Gutman, 54.
1872-1918:
Diners were born into the Gilded Age. The popular style
of the period consisted of lush designs and heavy Victorian ornamentation.
Even the relatively simple wooden diners had intricate exterior paint schemes
and were decorated with pictures of landscapes, battles, or historic figures.
1919-1932:
The 1920s saw the birth of Modernism as a reaction to
the Victorian era. Function and efficiency were now prized over ornamentation.
Transportation themes reflected the new automobile culture. Dining cars
were given barrel roofs to resemble train cars. This design led to the
modern misunderstanding that diners were originally train dining cars.
Scientific advances of the time resulted in increased awareness of sanitation.
This popularized the use of tile and enameled metal surfaces in diners,
materials which gleamed and were easy to keep clean.
1933-1947:
The function and efficiency of the 1920s remained important
characteristics of diners in the 1930s and 1940s. Transportation design
themes also continued, but now diners were built to look like airplanes
and ships. The angular shapes of the past were smoothed out, rounded, and
streamlined. Diners now were aerodynamic and looked ready for flight.
1948-1962:
Shiny stainless steel was cheap and readily available
after World War II. In diners it was applied liberally to almost every
surface. The Space Age of the 1960s changed the look of diners again.
Diners now were built to resemble rockets or futuristic space ports with
zigzag rooflines and rows of blinking lights.
1963-1978:
During this time period, diners started to lose popularity.
They had become just another part of the landscape and were no longer seen
as special. Many older diners were being remodeled or covered with brick
to make them look like more traditional restaurants. Today, people
can walk past a restaurant or other business without ever knowing that
a diner lies hidden beneath the new facade.
1979-present:
Diners are enjoying popularity once again. Diners are
still being manufactured. Today people can order diner modules from catalogues.
The modules can be mixed and matched to create customized, expensive, brand
new diners. But many of the older diners are still around and in good shape
due to the high quality of their craftsmanship. People have begun to preserve
and restore them, and put the beautiful old diners back into service.
1 Gutman, Richard J.S., and Elliot Kaufman, American Diner, Harper and Row, New York, 1979, 26-27, 36-39, 50-53, 60-61, 70-73.