Monarch Diner
| Monarch Diner | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| National Register of Historic Places | |||
 The Owl Diner in 2013 |
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| location | Lowell , Massachusetts , United States | ||
| Coordinates | 42 ° 38 '21.7 " N , 71 ° 18' 48.3" W | ||
| Built | 1940 | ||
| architect | Worcester Lunch Car Company | ||
| Architectural style | Semi-Streamliner Diner | ||
| NRHP number | 03001207 | ||
| The NRHP added | November 28, 2003 | ||
The Owl Diner (also Four Sisters Owl Diner , former. Monarch Diner ) is a 1940-built Diner in Lowell in the state of Massachusetts of the United States . It is a rare type of "semi-streamliner" and was registered on November 28, 2003 as part of the Multiple Property Submission Diners of Massachusetts MPS under the name Monarch Diner in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
description
The Owl Diner was built in 1940 as build number # 759 by the Worcester Lunch Car Company and initially operated as the Monarch Diner in Waltham . In 1951 it was moved to its current location and expanded. It now sits on a corner lot on a busy street in Lowell town center.
The diner consists of a wooden frame construction and has a monitor roof , which, together with the bevelled, enameled side walls, is characteristic of the appearance of a semi-streamliner. It stands on a concrete foundation and is painted black with yellow and green accents. The covered entrance in the middle was not added to the new location until 1951. The diner has two extensions: the kitchen and toilets are housed in a one-story concrete building with a pent roof on the rear, while additional seating is located in another one-story extension with a flat roof on the south side. This second extension has a stone facade and was built between 1952 and 1966.
The Owl Diner owns most of the original parts of any semi-streamliner in the state of Massachusetts. Inside, the counter extends almost the entire length and offers space for 16 bar stools. Six table niches are arranged along the front, which, like the stools, are covered with PVC . The ventilation through the former upper storey windows was replaced by modern ceiling fans. The color scheme in the interior consists of black, dark yellow, orange and brown and thus largely corresponds to the color scheme of the Miss Florence Diner in Northampton .
Historical meaning
The Owl Diner is one of the very few remaining semi-streamliner diners in Massachusetts and the only one of its kind in Lowell. The Worcester Lunch Car Company had developed this type of diner as an alternative to the streamliners sold by other manufacturers from the late 1930s in order to remain competitive while still being able to retain traditional elements.
Today's Owl Diner was originally called Monarch Diner on Massachusetts Route 20 in downtown Waltham. In 1945 John DeCola was registered as manager and Louis and Murray DeCola as waitresses. The diner was one of several Monarch dinners in the Boston area at the time. In 1951 the diner was relocated to Lowell and replaced by a successor in Waltham. At Lowell it was renamed Owl Diner. Worcester Lunch Car Company records show that between 1930 and 1946 alone, at least four diner (build numbers # 727, # 749, # 759, and # 794) were built for the DeCola family. The DeCola family was obviously keen to keep their restaurants up to date, especially since today's Owl Diner was only in use for six years before it was replaced by a successor.
In 1954, the Owl Diner was one of 16 dinners in Lowell and was run by Claude J. Harvey. Arthur N. Papoulias and Nicholas C. Zoukis were the owners from 1964 through the early 1980s until it was acquired by the current owners, the Shanahan family, in 1982 and renamed the Four Sisters Owl Diner. In 1977 John Baeder's dinner was immortalized on a painting.
In 2015 the diner had to be temporarily closed due to a fire.
literature
- Kathleen Kelly Broomer, Betsy Friedberg: National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. (PDF) National Park Service , October 2003, accessed on August 4, 2016 (English, accessible via the "NR" button).
- Richard Gutman: American diner then and now . Harper Perennial, New York 1993, ISBN 978-0-06-096956-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ National Register Information System . In: National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service . Retrieved November 2, 2013.
- ↑ a b c cf. Broomer / Friedberg, p. 5.
- ↑ cf. Broomer / Friedberg, p. 6.
- ↑ a b cf. Broomer / Friedberg, p. 7.
- ↑ John Baeder: Diners . Abrams, New York 1995, ISBN 978-0-8109-2611-0 .
- ↑ Robert Mills: Fire temporarily closes Lowell landmark Owl Diner. In: lowellsun.com. Digital First Media, June 2, 2015, accessed August 4, 2016 .