Peabody, MA
The Foster Street Diner will hit the road on a flatbed truck this week, bound for the American Diner Museum in Providence.

Workers arrived yesterday to begin removing the structure from its foundation. The diner will be headed south later in the week.

"If we don't work on it ourselves, we'll find a new home for it," said Daniel Zilka, acting museum director.

The 80-year-old diner is part of a dying breed of Worcester Lunch Cars built as rail car replicas between 1907 to 1960, Zilka said. The lunch car company started with serial number 200, and Foster Street Diner's number is 598.

The Peabody structure was originally purchased by Charles Burnham, who placed it at 178 Main St. near the Salem line. Burnham bought a near duplicate numbered 609 and had it placed in Lynn, said Zilka, who has Worcester Lunch Car Co. records at the museum.

Zilka and other diner enthusiasts want to preserve the Peabody lunch car and find it a new owner.

"Enough is there with the original counter, the original windows, that we thought it was worth saving," he said. "These are so ephemeral because these are wood-frame structures."

Property owner Brian Lightbown of next door Inline Auto Body said he likes to eat at diners but doesn't share devotees' enthusiasm for the structures.

He initially tried to sell the diner through online auctions but received no offers. Lightbown, who purchased the property in October, is donating the structure to the museum, which is assuming the removal and transportation costs.

"I think it's a good idea," he said of the preservation project. "They don't build them like that anymore."

Lightbown will have more parking space for his primary business once the diner's moved.

Gary Thomas of Beverly wrote the book "Diners of the North Shore" in 2002 and learned about the closing of the Peabody diner in the paper. He said the Foster Street Diner was moved to its present location in 1939.

Thomas contacted Lightbown to discuss preservation.

"He seemed intent on saving it if he could, which is very nice of him because a lot of people don't share that attitude," the author said.

Off it goes

In this case, however, preservation means hauling it away.

Zilka said the museum's contractors will lift up the lunch car, take off anything that's not original and transport it to Providence. The removal cost depends on size and distance. In all, it will take about three days, start to finish.

He has worked on about 30 similar removals.

"Our main interest is seeing the diners saved," Zilka said.

Thomas has helped move about seven such diners. He will be on hand Monday as the diner is being prepared for its move.

For restaurant owner Peggy Davis, news of the Foster Street Diner's removal is bittersweet. The family closed the restaurant May 4.

"I feel sad because we were there for 18 years," she said.

She and her husband wanted to purchase their part of the property from the previous owner but to no avail.

"We really had a good business down there," she said. "It's just a shame."

Customers continue to call them, asking when they'll reopen in another location. But the Davis family has struggled to find a new storefront.

"We're kind of floundering around, trying to figure out what to do," she said.

The former diner owner had hoped the city might take an interest because of the historic value of the structure and its 80-year tie to the community. Davis said family members may show up during the removal to see how it goes.

Originally published online here: http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_176000251.html?keyword=topstory