Only in Boston by Duncan J.D. Smith

108 Downtown & Chinatown–Leather District 49 Last of the Old Fashioned Diners MA 02111 (Chinatown–Leather District), the South Street Diner at 178 Kneeland Street T Red/Silver Line 1, 2 & 4 to South Station There was a time when the classic American diner was the country’s most popular 24-hour eating establishment. With its prefabricated architecture, affordable menu, and homely atmosphere, it attracted a broad audience from families and factory workers to barflies and lonely hearts. Despite giving way to fast food restaurants in the 1970s, those remaining have become icons of Americana. The first diners in the 1870s were little more than horse-drawn wag- ons serving lunch to shift workers. Commercial production of seated wagons commenced in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1887. As demand for seats increased so wagons gave way to prefabricated structures, which were long and narrow to facilitate delivery by truck or train. Ease of construction and affordability meant that most were owner operated. The South Street Diner at 178 Kneeland Street (Chinatown–Leather District) is Boston’s only example. It was made in 1947 at the Worces- ter Lunch Car Company (WLCC), one of several manufacturers estab- lished to supply diners to industrialised cities on the eastern seaboard. The company shipped over 650 diners from 1906 until its closure in 1957. WLCC diners were the first to be patented and the South Street Diner displays many original features, including a barrel-shaped roof and steel-framed enamel exterior panels. Inside there is a row of dining booths each furnished with leather banquettes, and running parallel across a tiled floor is a service counter lined with stools. The 25 cent children’s pony ride on the pavement outside adds to the nostalgic feel. The food and drink at the South Street Diner might as well have been patented too because it also follows a strict code: all-day break- fasts, steak and eggs, hamburgers, clubs and subs, apple pie, coffee, and 50s-style malted shakes. The clientele is really the only thing that’s changed. Labourers and factory workers have been supplanted by fam- ilies, tourists, and office staff from the converted former warehouses of the neighbouring Leather District (see no. 50). After hours the audi- ence changes to students and clubgoers winding their way home.