Art Deco and the American Diner

Art Deco always seemed to work best on small architecture like houses, blocks of flats, cinemas, train and bus depots, theatres, petrol stations and war memorials. Architects could use angular and clean lines, with stepped back facades, symmet­rical or asym­metrical massing and strong vertical accenting. They loved geometric patterns, abstracted natural forms, modern industrial symbols and ancient Mayan, Egyptian and Indigenous American themes.

That is not to say that huge buildings could not be lovely. The RCA building in Rockefeller Centre New York has fine Art Deco features but, except for the elegant motifs that decorated the entrance archway and elevator doors, who could have seen those features? The best thing about small buildings (like diners) was that the art deco architectural elements could be seen by people at ground level.

Being an Australian, I had never seen a diner. Since the Depression, small roadside diners came to symbol­ise the working-class Amer­ican who didn’t have the time or mon­ey to eat in a more posh place. But for me, they represented small architecture that was ideal for art deco treatment, inside and out.

The original style diner was long and narrow, presumably to make it possible to drive the diner along the road. This may have been a legacy from the original diners which were never intended to remain stationary. As art deco taste grew stronger across the world after the Paris Exposition of 1925, the sharper shapes of the early diners were smoothed out, rounded and stream­lined.

Salem Diner Massechusetts

In American Car Culture blog, Michael Witzel wrote a History of the American Diner. During the 1930s, prefabricated diners reached the height of roadside design when manufacturers built beautiful, stream-lined structures. JB Judkins produced a curvy model called the Sterling Streamliner and the Worcester Lunch Car Co. created a fast, angle-ended building. Eventually roadside restaurants looked very snazzy indeed. Why streamline? Because this was the design that identified with fast modes of transportation and the efficiency of the machine age. Like trains or planes, the diners looked sleek and aerodynamic.

The 11th St Diner in Miami had a style that was compatible with the local buildings in Miami Beach. Curvilinear streamlined structure, glass bricks, gleam­ing stainless steel and detailed design elements eg the repeated circular medallions and the type face for Diner, all identify this portable structure as Art Deco. Once again, modern materials were incorporated into streamline forms to symbolise speed and mobility. Rosie’s Diner in New Jersey 1932 had the all-stainless-steel exterior, dis­tinctive curved roofline, rounded glass block cor­ners and a neon sign.

Rosie's Diner (originally NJ, now Michigan)

Neon signs (invented in France in 1902) became symbols of glamour & pro­g­ress, a way of show­ing the world you were up to date. Set on vertical blades and mar­quee porches over the foot­path, neon appeared on many art deco buildings. Plus neon was a per­fect fit for the streamline moderne archit­ec­t­ural craze for sweeping curves, glass walls and chrome. These were even more important for late-night workers who, having no meal outlet, needed to find a place to be able to eat while still in their work clothes.

neon lighting on the Olympia Diner, Connecticut

Could a shop­-front restaurant be considered a diner? Tom Breneman Hollywood 1937 clearly thought so. This struct­ure was a grand example of the Streamline Moderne style diner with its sweeping curves, glass blocks, a blade with the diner’s name in bold neon and the splendid marquee porch.

Tom Breneman Hollywood

Over time the dining space became more streamlined and pleasant, copying the appearance of rail dining cars. Many had a curved barrel vault roof-line. Brand new materials were quickly adopted, like sleek and colourful Formica and glass blocks. The Daily Politics blog wrote in AMERICAN DINER that diner manufacturers smooth­ed the lines of the restaurant, cov­er­ed the wooden frame in silver and added coloured neon even inside the diner. The sleek, streamlined and silver diner had black-and-white vinyl floor and a long shiny grill for the short-order chefs to work on. Pastel colours were never seen; everything was silver with regular splashes of bold colours.

It is probable that stools would have saved space and made for speed­ier meals, but it is unlikely that women would be happy squatting on top of a stool. Thus installing tables throughout the length of the diner would make it more family-friendly. Some stools were left up against the counter, but most space was allocated to booths.

stools and booths in Wilson’s Diner, Waltham MA

A question remains. The good times and Art Deco largely ended in 1939 when WW2 started. Clearly diners of the 1950s were created long after the Deco era had ended, so why were stain­less steel, neon lights and other art deco elements retained, even though the central role of the counter may have been lost? Examine the 1950s diners in the blog called Diners, Drive-in Restaurants and other road­side stuff eg Diner Hotline’s Top 10 Massachusetts Diners. Also see the blog Diner News and History.

Pres­umably the firm connection between diners and Art Deco had been so strongly forged in the earlier decades that the emergence of a new era was no excuse to mess around with beloved diners. Four elements were important: friendly service, speed, decent-ish food and Deco decor.