Vintage Discovery Monthly! Historic places to Patronize and visit!

[cowboy76]

I'd like to start a new monthly thread dealing specifically with places you have found on your travels or in your neighborhood that have Golden Era history to them, (or older). Places like the local diner or movie theater that dates back to 1937 that you and your gal frequent every friday night, and so on. To give people a vintage roadmap so that we will be able to keep these places in business, historical landmarks kept on the map!

I'd like to start this thread off with a brief story of my own from today.

We were in Hazleton, PA today to visit a friend. On our way we passed an old restaurant on the side fo the road, Byorek's Knotty Pine Restaurant. Which in all honesty I've passed by at least fifty times in my lifetime but never stopped in for a taste. Well, tonight I said we just had to stop as the bright neon sign glowing straight out of the 1950s just beconed us across the roadway! I saw it many times before but it had more of a mild 50s modern feel to it,..untill we pulled in tonight and I realized it was just updated int he 50s.

We walked in and right away my eyes were drwan to the wooden benches, very old, and the same types that were around in the late 30-early 40s. They looked like they had been there for some time too!
My wife pointed to an old menu they had framed and placed on the wall at our table. Dated back to at least the 1940s if not earlier. After ordering I and my wife noticed a small wall full of photos and certificates. We stood up to find a photo of the place on the day it opned up,.....

September 25th 1937

Yes, it had been there since 1937 and the Pork BBQ they are known for is AWESOME!!! The food was great, service exceptional and the atmosphere was a great mix of 1937 (which you can see by the interior shots from '37 that its still the way it used to be) to the updates from the mid 1950s outside!

A great time warp trip and one you'll love too! Stop on by, its roughly 20-25 minutes from the Hazleton, PA exit from the PA Turnpike. You'll have a great BBQ at a comfortable break from the busy highway!

Make it a point in your travels, to patronize these places or sad, but true, one day they wont be there to patronize at all!!

Here's a link I found showing a bit of the place:
http://christianmontone.blogspot.com/2007/09/knotty-pine.html

A Newspaper story on it:
http://www.citizensvoice.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18870606&BRD=2259&PAG=461&dept_id=571464&rfi=6

 

[cowboy76]

Wow,...no one else has anything interesting to post? No interesting places, etc.??

Hmm,....maybe I'm just reposting an idea that has already come about before??[huh]

 

[nubsnubs]

I'll contribute:

I am stationed at Edwards AFB, CA. If you are into aviation history this is the place to be. To list a few golden era moments:
- The first U.S. turbine powered airplane. The P-59 (1942)
- Rocket sled tracks for testing began in (1944)
These were later used to test captured Nazi V-2 rockets (operation
paperclip)
- Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier in the X-1 (1947)

Other notable events:
- Development and testing of the Apollo Saturn V rocket engines
- Many first flights, including the X-15 (4,520mph), Space Shuttle, and most recently the Hyper-X (6,600mph).

The thing that strikes me is the history is so accesible and yet unnoticed. On a random day I can walk up to the pit the X-1 was settled into prior to loading on the B-29 (it is in a parking lot now). I have wandered around the X-1 engine test area, the hangars that housed the P-59, the nearly forgotten test track, abandoned aircraft in the desert (b-52's, a B-58, and others). Once a year there is a party at the relics of a hotel and bar owned by Pancho Barnes, a famous golden-era aviatrix, and a hang out spot by Yeager and others.

There is a scrap yard on base that houses some interesting finds, just kinda rotting there. There is a P-51 airframe that houses a turbo-prop powerpland and beefed up wings for excess munitions. I beleive this was an early ground support aircraft, but I dont know all the details. There is also what appears to be the escape rocket section off of what looks like an old Gemeni capsule. The last time I saw it the rust was about to cause it to collapse under its own weight. I guess Gemeni because of the black corrugated metal it is made of. There are many other finds here.

I find myself wandering around all this on a weekend when the time permits. I find some peace in being in these places and thinking about all those who came before and the history in it. Should anyone ever be in the area and is interested, let me know and I may be able to share some of these places.

- Brandon

 

[Gingerella72]

Here's two from Omaha, Nebraska. I no longer live in Omaha (sigh) but I'm still in the state.

#1 The Durham Western Heritage Museum is an awesome place to visit. Once a train station for the Union Pacific Railroad (whose headquarters are in Omaha, BTW), the art deco building has been transformed into a museum celebrating Omaha's history, as well as a history of train travel, among other things.

The building has remained relatively untouched and still has all of its original art deco decor and architecture, including the original soda fountain shop which is still in operation - shakes and malts are still made there the old fashioned way. Another favorite feature is four pullman railroad cars you can tour to get a feel for what train travel used to be like - original decor from mid-century still in tact.

Placed strategically around the main terminal of the building are lifesize copper statues of various people in golden era dress, including WWII soldiers, posed to look like they are milling about waiting for their train. As you approach, a sensor goes off and from hidden speakers comes the sound of their conversation and background noise of a train station. You can sit on the bench next to one, close your eyes, and pretend for a moment that you are really in 1944 listening to soldiers ship out.

Personal anecdote: Once when visiting the museum with my dad, we walked in the main doors and he stopped, looked around, and said, "Wow, I'm having a flashback here." In 1951 when he was 19, he joined the air force before he could be drafted to go to Korea. He traveled from his hometown in central Nebraska to Omaha, passing right through the old Union Station along with hundreds of other new recruits on their way to Texas for basic training. Even though he was only in that building for a few hours, if that, it had made enough of an impression on him that he remembered the details 50 years later.

http://www.dwhm.org/

#2 One other cool place to visit in Omaha is Petrow's Restaurant. The actual building and site it presently occupies dates from 1957, but the history of the owners and different incarnations of the diner go back to 1903. The diner side of the present restaurant looks like any classic diner from the mid-century, complete with lots of chrome fixtures. The restaurant side has modern decor, but with a classic golden era feel to it. The food is awesome.

http://petrows.com/

 

[Feraud]

Similar topics are found in The Steamer Trunk.

 

[cowboy76]

Similar topics are found in The Steamer Trunk.

Oh,..ok,..well I'm still relatively new here so,...

Well, then I'd say to the moderator if he feels to move it to the Steamer Trunk area of the FL, then so be it. I thought the idea of having a monthly get together for people who like to travel, etc. would be a neat little thing for everyone who might be interested.

 

[kampkatz]

Restaurants

As for retro eaterys there is a converted 1940's gas station in central Pennsylvania that has some nolstlgia. At the corner of Routes 104 and 35 in Mt. Pleasant Mills(Snyder County). The interior has about six tables and a bar with stools. Auto-shop items from the 40's and 50's decorate the place. Outside are a few tables for fair-weather dining. Burgers dominate the menu, so there is kind of a "Happy Days" atmosphere. If you happen to drive by, do stop in for some reminders of those years gone by.

 

[NoirDame]

In Lakewood, Ohio there is John's Diner, a converted box car restaurant. Good food and great prices.

Also in Lakewood, Ohio are a few vintage clothing and furniture shops: Flower Child, Chelsea's and the Cleveland Shoppe.

100th Bomb Group restaurant (I heard something about them being a chain????) near the Cleveland Hopkins Airport. Live Big Band music and dancing every Tuesday with the Dan Zola Big Band.

I'll try to suss out some more places and update.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

The Broadway Theatre in Pitman NJ. It's almost exactly the same as it was when it opened in 1926. And it's still in operation. It's also one of the few movie theatres in the WORLD that still has it's original 1927 organ - http://www.robbender.com/gallery/albums/broadway/P5234534.sized.jpg.

http://thebroadwaytheatre.org/

http://www.robbender.com/gallery/broadway

1939

Now

Not much has changed.

 

[Story]

Not much has changed.

Looks like they yanked the parking meeting.
Free spot! Woo hoo!

 

[=ritzy=]

The union station in downtown los angeles is art deco paradise...it has a bar, dinning area, the union bagle ( yum best bagles in town ) and a wonderfull patio and lounging area to just sit down and relax. Its a wonderful place to take pictures, go on a date, or just snoop around. Not to mention that the historic olvera street is just across the street from the station...