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1950s Diner Back in Willimantic |
By Cara Rubinsky |Associated Press Writer | February 17, 2005
HARTFORD, Conn. -- After three decades and a 120-mile roundtrip, the Windham Diner is headed home to Willimantic.
Developer Michael Haddad jumped at the chance to purchase the diner a distant relative once owned, even though he had to move it 60 miles from Waterbury to Willimantic.
"I'm an impulse buyer," Haddad said. "Willimantic has had its problems in the past, and I thought this would be a nice touch."
He paid $10,000 for the stainless steel diner and twice that amount to move it from Waterbury, where it sat shuttered for five years.
The diner was loaded onto a flatbed truck Wednesday and was expected to arrive by police escort in Willimantic early Thursday.
Its new home is in River Plaza, a strip mall Haddad owns in the heart of Willimantic. He plans to spend $50,000 renovating the 55-seat diner, which lacks kitchen equipment but is furnished with the original booths, counters and stools.
It was manufactured in 1950 and remained in Willimantic until 1971, when it was moved to Waterbury to make way for urban renewal.
Haddad owns a cafe in Chaplin, another small town in eastern Connecticut, but never considered opening a diner until he read an article about one for sale in South Windham, about 3 miles from Willimantic.
He visited the Web site for the American Diner Museum in Providence, which was marketing the South Windham Diner. But it was the Valley Diner in Waterbury that caught his eye. He was sold when he realized the family connection.
"I thought, 'My god, why would I want to buy the South Windham Diner when I can buy the original Windham Diner?"' said Haddad, 56, a lifelong Willimantic resident who had never been to the diner.
The American Diner Museum orchestrates two to three diner moves a year, but officials say most diners never return to their original towns.
"The Windham Diner never should have left Willimantic," Haddad said. "Willimantic has not had a 24-hour eating facility since the Windham Diner left."
Museum officials say they have saved 25 portable, prefabricated diners from wrecking balls over the past decade. The Valley Diner made the endangered list when the real estate company that owned the property it sat on wanted to get rid of it. The company agreed to donate the diner to the museum.
The museum's Web site advertises diners for sale all over the country. The Premium Diner in Avenal, N.J., lists for $36,000, while the tiny Ideal Diner in Wilmington, Del., can be had for $6,000.
The museum also publishes a directory of the 6,000 portable, prefabricated diners remaining in the United States.
"We're historic preservationists, and we want to make sure these diners are preserved as much as we can," said Gregg Anderson, the museum's public relations director. "They're Americana. You've got the police officer next to the doctor at a counter. It's the American gathering place. It's been that way for over a century." |
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