Diners
Restaurants commonly referred to as "diners" have held a special place in American popular culture since the 1930s. Once sleek, futuristic icons of post-war optimism, they now capture our attention as objects of nostalgia. As the precursor to fast-food restaurants, diners were one of the unique building types spawned by the burgeoning automobile society. Their very appearance—with streamlined, movement-implying shapes and bright neon lights—captured the spirit of the new mobile culture.
The diner evolved from horse-drawn night lunch wagons of the late nineteenth century. These convenient wagons served walk-up customers in downtown areas after restaurants had closed for the evening. The next generation of wagons featured indoor seating; by the turn of the century, many lunch wagons had become stationary. The early diners' forte was the quick, inexpensive meal—atmosphere was not important. The clientele consisted of night workers and late revelers. Sandwiches, hamburgers, pies, hot dogs, and breakfast fare were standard items. By the 1890s, Thomas H. Buckley was mass-producing lunch wagons and had placed them in at least 275 cities across the country. Early diners were also converted from railroad or trolley cars.
The diner that has become the object of popular affection dates to the 1930s and 1940s. The machine-influenced, Art Deco or Moderne design style that emphasized smooth curves, simplicity, and shiny surfaces was inherent in much product design of the time, but in the diner it was integrated into a total environment. Diners from the Golden Age were long and low in shape, with streamlined effects and clean surfaces, evoking a feeling of both futurism and movement. Formica, stainless steel, and Naugahyde were the most popular interior materials. Diners contained booths, but the highlight of the interior was a long, shiny counter. Meals were simple and inexpensive. The imagery of speed and progress fit perfectly with the rapidly developing mobile society, in which the automobile was reshaping the landscape and creating opportunities for new building.
In the 1950s, as more families began to eat outside the home, and the diner became more "respectable," diners expanded in size and menu. The 1960s marked a turning point for the diner, as the fast-food restaurant industry proliferated. Fast-food represented standardization, as opposed to the uniqueness of diners. You knew beforehand what was on the McDonald's menu, while every diner had a specialty and a different atmosphere. In response, many diners tried to emphasize their individuality by expanding their menus and adopting more conservative imagery. Apart from their smaller size and the word "diner," many of these diners became difficult to distinguish from standard restaurants. Booth and table service came to predominate over the traditional counter. Colonial and Mediterranean architectural styles often replaced the Art Deco model familiar from past decades.
Beginning in the 1970s, diners began to make a comeback as nostalgic reminders of a more innocent time. They also became legitimate subjects of study by architectural and popular culture scholars. In 1978 the Cooper-Hewitt branch of the Smithsonian held an exhibit on architectural packaging which looked at four popular American building types: fast-food restaurants, diners, gasoline stations, and museum-village restorations. An article by Richard Oliver and Nancy Ferguson, the curators of the exhibit, appeared in Architectural Record for February 1978 and also as a reprint catalog. Also, Barry Levinson's 1982 movie Diner helped introduce the phenomenon to a new audience. In the late 1990s, diners were still being manufactured and patronized. Many older models have been restored. Diners are the subject of books and museum exhibitions. The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, now includes a 1946 diner as part of its collection of twentieth-century cultural artifacts, in an exhibition entitled, "The Automobile in American Life." Diners have thus been recognized as unique cultural inventions which, likethe gas station and fast-food restaurant, were byproducts of the automobile revolution of the twentieth century.
An example of the diner, 1952.Further Reading:
Baeder, John. Diners. New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1978.
Gutman, Richard J. S. American Diner Then and Now. New York, Harper Collins, 1993.
Gutman, Richard J. S., and Elliott Kaufman. American Diner. New York, Harper and Row, 1979.
Oliver, Richard, and Nancy Ferguson. "Place, Product, Packaging."Architectural Record. Vol. 163, February 1978, 116-20.
Yorke, Douglas, Jr. "Stopping at Stars: The Architecture of the American Diner." Architectural Association Quarterly. Vol. 8, No. 2, 1976, 45-54.
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