"The Cup," a long time roadside favorite in Pottstown, PA, is on the market. According to this website, you can get this "vintage vente" for around a half a million dollars.

Roadside chronicler and photographer, Debra Jane Seltzer, who has photos of the cup on her website, the Pottstown Cup is one of three such structures which were built in the area by the Levengood Dairies in the 1940s. They all still exist, in varying states of repair.

Huntington, WV
Smith's Midway Drive-In, a drive-in hot dog stand in the 400 block of West 6th Avenue first opened its doors in 1939. Wednesday, after two years of financial struggle, Midway has reopened its doors.

Smith's Midway Drive-In was first shut down in February of 2006 due to delinquent back taxes. A lawsuit was later brought against Midway for over $24,000 in employee compensation that was also delinquent.

Now, under the new ownership of Bill Ghiz and Corey Hutchinson, Midway is once again open for business. All of the financial issues were settled and Ghiz and Hutchinson acquired the building this week after leasing for a year, Hutchinson said.

The store, renamed Midway West, was filled with customers eager to once again taste a piece of Huntington history.

"We have been waiting for this place to open for two years," said Carol Crossan, 68. "My mother and I have lived across the street for 66 years. She sent me over here today to get her something. We were very sad when they first had to close."

The Business Review | Albany, NY | June 3, 2008

The former Silver Diner in downtown Schenectady will be sold to a local construction company that specializes in historic renovations, under a tentative deal outlined by city officials.

Prize Construction of Niskayuna will buy the former railroad car diner on Erie Boulevard for $1, maintain its art-deco styling and restore the interior as its new office. The company will also consider an expansion in the future so the building can be used again as a diner.

Under the deal, the Schenectady Metroplex Development Authority will loan $40,000 to Prize Construction for renovations. The Downtown Schenectady Improvement Corp. will provide up to $50,000 from its facade improvement program.

Photo by Ron Dylewski

Prize Construction will spend at least $90,000 toward renovations.

The deal is subject to approval of the City Council. The city took possession of the property several years ago through a tax foreclosure.

Metroplex Chairman Ray Gillen said it would cost more than $40,000 to demolish the diner or move the building to another site.

Ed Zemeck, president of Prize Construction, said, "We have already had the opportunity to apply our skills on two gems in the city - Proctors and the [Central Park] Rose Garden. We are pleased to work with Metroplex, DSIC and the city to make the Silver Diner once again a vibrant part of downtown Schenectady."

Built in 1936, the diner has a stainless steel exterior and contains elements of an original railroad car. The diner served scores of General Electric Co. workers who poured out of the main plant at the foot of Erie Boulevard during the company's heyday in the city. Historic preservationists have pushed for years to spare the diner from the wrecking ball.

The hard-knocks journey of Sherwood's Diner from its heyday on Foster Street in the 1950s to mothballs to a Rhode Island juvenile detention center may eventually lead back to the city.

The Worcester Historical Museum is evaluating a proposal to set up and operate the diner - once it's restored as part of training program for at-risk teens in Rhode Island - at the visitor center and history museum complex planned for the area of the junction of the Massachusetts Turnpike and the recently completed Route 146 extension into the city.

"This is a very significant offer, and we're taking it very seriously," said William D. Wallace, the museum's executive director.

The planned new museum and Worcester visitor center, part of the $300 million Route 146 project, is slated for the old Washburn & Moen factory.

Project planners and architects still must weigh in on the idea of incorporating the historic diner into the visitor center and museum, and a deal with an outside vendor would have to be worked out to operate the eatery, Mr. Wallace said.

"I think it's an exciting idea, but we're still a long way from decision time." He plans to go see the restoration effort himself tomorrow.

Sherwood's was a Foster Street fixture for two decades until it closed in 1969. In the years that followed, the diner was put in storage, moved to Auburn to become an ice cream parlor, closed again, vandalized, picked over for souvenirs, left to rot for a decade, and eventually preserved. Finally, in 1999 it was mothballed by the American Diner Museum in Providence.