Major Bibliographical References (Cite the books, articles, and other sources used in preparing this form on one or more continuation sheets.) Previous documentation on file (NPS): Primary location of additional data: - preliminary determination of individual listing (36 X State Historic Preservation Office CFR 67) has been requested - Other State agency - previously listed in the National Register Federal agency - previously determined eligible by the National - Local government Register - designated a National Historic Landmark - University -Other _ recorded by Historic American Buildings Survey Name of repository: # _ recorded by Historic American Engineering Record # Route 66 Diner Name of Property 10. Geographical Data Hampden, Massachusetts County and State Acreage of Property less than one acre UTM References (Place additional UTM references on a continuation sheet) 1.
18 702110 Zone Easting 2. Zone 4666980 Northing Easting Northing Verbal Boundary Description (Describe the boundaries of the property on a continuation sheet.) Boundary Justification (Explain why the boundaries were selected on a continuation sheet.) 3. Zone Easting 4. Zone Easting - See continuation sheet Northing Northing 11. Form Prepared By name/title. Kathleen Kelly Broomer, consultant, with Betsy Friedberg, NR Director, MHC organization. Massachusetts Historical Commission date _October, 2003 street & number 220 Morrissey Boulevard _ telephone (617) 727-8470 city or town. Boston _ state MA _ zip code02125 Additional Documentation Submit the following items with the completed form: Continuation Sheets Maps A USGS map (7.5 or 15 minute series) indicating the property's location. A sketch map for historic,districts and properties having large acreage or numerous resources.
Photographs Representative black and white photographs of the property. Additional items (Check with the SHPO or FPO for any additional items) Property Owner (Complete this item at the request of the SHPO or FPO.) name Donald Rey street & number 950 Bay Street _telephone 413-737-4921 city or town Springfield _ state_MA _ zip code_01103 Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: This information is being collected for applications to the National Register of Historic Places to nominate properties for listing or determine eligibility for listing, to list properties, and to amend existing listings. Response to this request is required to obtain benefit in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended (16 U.S.C.
470 et seq.) Estimated Burden Statement: Public reporting burden for this form is estimated to average 18.1 hours per response including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the form. Direct comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this form to the Chief, Administrative Services Division, National Park Service, P.O. Box 37127, Washington, DC 20013-7127; and the Office of Management and Budget, Paperwork Reductions Project (1024-0018), Washington, DC 20503.NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 (Rev. 10-90) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet 7 1 Section number Page OMB No. 1024-0018 The Diners of Massachusetts MPS Route 66 Diner Springfield (Hampden Co.), MA 7.
Description Route 66 Diner, 943 Bay Street, Springfield (1957) (MHC# 4379), is a fine example of a post-World War II stainless steel diner in Massachusetts. The Route 66 was diner #532 manufactured by Mountain View Diners of Signac, New Jersey. The diner is located in a mixed-use area east of the city's central business district, adjacent to the former Penn Central/Boston & Albany Railroad right-of-way, now used by freight and Amtrak trains. The diner occupies a level lot and there is parking at the sides of the building. The Route 66 is seven bays wide and about two bays deep, excluding the rounded front corners. The steel-frame diner has a brick and concrete foundation, stainless steel cladding with horizontal bands in red, and a rounded hipped roof clad with rubber membrane. A parapet wall of corrugated steel encircles the diner at the roofline.
Steel also is used for decorative effect at the projecting rounded corners, in window-height panels on the end elevations, and in panels flanking the center entry (inside the entry vestibule). An entry vestibule on the façade is a common feature on stainless steel diners from the post-World War II era. Here, however, the steel and glass vestibule does not display the same stainless steel wall surface as the rest of the diner and appears to be a later addition. The doors are steel and glass systems, with an original steel door in the secondary entrance on the east (right) elevation. Windows in the diner contain fixed plate glass, and there are flared stainless steel pilasters between the windows. Rooftop signs facing oncoming traffic from the east and west read ROUTE 66 DINER, with the letters of the last word outlined in neon.
There is a one-story, concrete block annex at the rear, housing the kitchen and restrooms. A typical feature of post-World War II diners, the block likely was constructed in 1957 when the diner was installed on this site. Its presence does not compromise the integrity of the factory-built. On the interior, the manufacturer's tag survives above the main entrance, and reads MOUNTAIN VIEW DINERS, SERIAL #532, SIGNAC, NEW JERSEY. The diner has a full-length counter with staff entrances at the center and on the left (west) side. Seating consists of seventeen stools at the counter and six booths lining the front (south) wall. The cooking is done in the kitchen in the rear block, which is reached by way of a steel door behind the counter at the center of the diner. To the left (west) of the counter is the steel-door entrance to restrooms.
The interior retains original stainless steel finishes and terrazzo tile. Behind the counter, the back bar features steel wall panels with a sunburst motif, and steel and glass cabinets. Centered over the kitchen entrance is a stainless steel-rimmed clock, mounted on a "quilted" steel surface and flanked by stylized pilasters. Both booths and the seats of the steel counter stools are upholstered in vinyl. The monitor ceiling is finished in plastic and wood laminate; ceiling fans are later additions. Tables in the booths have laminate tops. The counter is replacement laminate with a counter apron of floral-patterned sheet tile. Walls have the same floral-patterned sheet tile finish as the counter apron. The floor retains its terrazzo tile in brown and beige. Archaeological Description While no ancient Native American sites are located on the nominated property, sites may be present.
Two sites are located in the general area (within one mile). Environmental characteristics of the property represent locational criteria (soil drainage, slope, proximity to wetlands) that are favorable indicators for the presence of ancient Native American (continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 7/8 2/1 Page OMB No. 1024-0018 The Diners of Massachusetts MPS Route 66 Diner Springfield (Hampden Co.), MA sites. The diner occupies a well-drained, level lot adjacent to wetlands in the Blunt Park locale. The area lies within the Connecticut River drainage.
In general, however, the potential for the recovery of significant cultural resources, both ancient Native American and historic is low because of the small size of the nominated property (less than one-quarter acre) and impacts associated with construction of the diner and utilities on the property. The diner is located between Bay Street and the Penn Central/Boston & Albany right-of-way. No prior structures were reported on the property. (end) 8. Statement of Significance Manufactured by Mountain View Diners of Signac, New Jersey, the Route 66 Diner, Springfield (1957) is the city's last diner and one of only about six Mountain View diners remaining in Massachusetts. The Route 66 is believed to be the second-to-last diner built by Mountain View before the company ceased operations in 1957. For these reasons, the Route 66 is of exceptional significance.
Retaining integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association, Route 66 Diner meets Criteria A and C and Criteria Consideration G of the National Register at the state and local levels. The Route 66 Diner was manufactured in 1957 and shipped to the present Springfield site the same year. The 1949 Springfield directory suggests that there was no earlier diner at this Bay Street address. The diner is listed in the city's 1964 directory, at which time it was known as the New Bay Diner Restaurant. The use of the term "restaurant" in the diner's name reflected a period trend in the diner industry toward providing a family-oriented dining establishment that emphasized table and booth, rather than counter, service. By drawing families, diners could provide an alternative to, and therefore better compete with, the booming fast food chains.
In 1964, Anthony Viamare, a resident of Granby, was the president of the business corporation, and Joseph R. Gabrielle, a resident of Skyridge Lane in the Sixteen Acres section of Springfield, was the treasurer. By 1968, only Viamare is listed in the city's business directory, still as the president of the diner business. Donald A. Roy acquired the diner in 1988, and operates the business under the present name. Its name refers not to the road on which it is located, but to historic US Route 66, which began in 1926 and crosses eight states from Illinois to California. Historically, the eastern end of Bay Street in Springfield, where the Route 66 Diner is located, has been an area of mixed uses.
About the time that the diner was installed, other businesses at the eastern end of Bay Street included a dining and catering service, a scrap iron operation, an excavating contractor, an automobile dealership, a frozen foods company, a blacksmith, a mold and tool operation, a long-distance moving company, and an electronic equipment business. Bordering the diner property on the north is the old Penn Central/Boston & Albany Railroad right-of-way, now carrying The Route 66 is the last diner in Springfield. In the early 1960s, shortly after the diner's installation on Bay Street, there were three other diners in the city. Diners were located in the downtown commercial district on Taylor Street and Lyman Street. The third diner was located on Boston Road in the eastern end of the city.
(continued) NPS Form 10-900-a (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8/9/10 Page 2/1 OMB No. 1024-0018 The Diners of Massachusetts MPS Route 66 Diner Springfield (Hampden Co.), MA Mountain View Diners manufacturing facility was located on the Newark-Pompton Turnpike in Signac, New Jersey, trom 1939 to 1957. Founders of the company were Henry Strys, a building contractor, and Les Daniel, who had been a foreman for another diner builder. According to diner historian Richard Gutman, Mountain View is known for having built some very stylish and unusual diners in the years before and after World War II, and in the 1950s was the most aggressive marketer of diners in the country, outselling other manufacturers.
The company attempted to go public in June 1956, and was out of business the following year. [Gutman, 234-235] The Route 66 reportedly is the second-to-last diner built by the Mountain View company. [Garbin] Route 66 Diner is one of about six Mountain View diners surviving in Massachusetts, all of which are believed to date to the 1950s. The Route 66 appears to be the latest of these diners, and bears a strong resemblance on the exterior to the Pig & Whistle Diner, 226 North Beacon Street, in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston (1952). (end) 9. Major Bibliographical References Diner Finder Deluxe: Massachusetts. Watertown, MA: Coffee Cup Publications, 1991. Gutman, Richard J. S. American Diner Then and Now. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1993. Information provided by Randy Garbin, publisher of Roadside Magazine, September 17, 1999.
Information provided by Larry Gormally, historian in Springfield, Mass., September 24, 1999. Manufacturer's tag and menu, Route 66 Diner, Springfield, Mass. MHC inventory form for Pig and Whistle Diner, 226 No. Beacon Street, Brighton (Boston). 1978. Price & Lee's Springfield Directories, 1949, 1964, 1968, 1968. Springfield Survey Continuation Project, Vol. I: Narrative Histories for Bay and Pine Point Study Areas (prepared by Kathleen Kelly Broomer for the Springfield Preservation Trust). June 1991. (end) 10. Geographical Data Verbal Boundary Description The boundary of the nominated property is shown on the accompanying detail of the City of Springfield assessors' map Boundary Justification The boundary includes the parcel historically associated with the diner since its installation on the site in 1957.
(end) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES EVALUATION/RETURN SHEET REQUESTED ACTION: NOMINATION PROPERTY NAME : New Bay Diner Restaurant MULTIPLE NAME : Diners of Massachusetts MPS STATE & COUNTY: MASSACHUSETTS, Hampden DATE RECEIVED: DATE OF 16TH DAY: DATE OF WEEKLY LIST: 10/20/03 DATE OF PENDING LIST: 12/05/03 DATE OF 45TH DAY: REFERENCE NUMBER: 03001244 11/19/03 12/04/03 REASONS FOR REVIEW: APPEAL: N DATA PROBLEM: N LANDSCAPE: N OTHER : N PDIL: N PERIOD: REQUEST: N SAMPLE: N SLR DRAFT: N COMMENT WAIVER: N VACCEPT RETURN LESS THAN 50 YEARS: PROGRAM UNAPPROVED: NATIONAL: ABSTRACT/SUMMARY COMMENTS : N N Entered in the National Begistel RECOM./ CRITERIA REVIEWER TELEPHONE DOCUMENTATION DISCIPLINE DATE attached comments Y/N see attached SLR Y/N ROUTE 66 DINER Diners of mass.
MPS Koute 66 Diner 950 Bay Street Springfield, Hampden County, mass. KBroomer Neg: MHC September 2001 Ploto lof 2 XIII/15 *aps. degs PReates 2 lrs Coca-Cola Diners of mass. Mps Route 66 Diner 450 Bay Strett springhield, Hamyaten County, mass. KKBroomer Neg: MHC september2001 Photo 20f2 XIII /13 RECEIVED 2280 OCT 2 0 2003 NAT. REGISTER OF H NATIONAL I ACES The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Massachusetts Historical Commission October 14, 2003 Ms. Carol Shull vational Register of Historic Place Department of the Interio National Park Service 1201 Eye Street, NW, 8" floor Washington, DC 20005 Dear Ms.
Shull: Enclosed please find the following nomination form: Route 66 Diner, 950 Bay Street, Springfield (Hampden), MA (The Diners of Massachusetts MPS) The nomination has been voted eligible by the State Review Board and has been signed by the State Historic Preservation Officer. The owners of the property were notified of pending State Review Board consideration 30 to 45 days before the meeting and were afforded the opportunity to comment. Sincerely, Betry tredherg Betsy Friedberg National Register Director Massachusetts Historical Commission Enclosure CC: Kathleen Kelly Broomer, consultant Frances Gagnon, Springfield Historical Commission Donald Roy Linda Petrella, City Planner Michael Albano, Mayor, City of Springfield 220 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, Massachusetts 02125 (617) 727-8470 - Fax: (617) 727-5128 www.state.ma.us/sec/mhc
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