Village Diner
Called The Halfway Diner, sometimes called Village Diner or Historic Village Diner, a restaurant on North Broadway ( U.S. 9 ), one block from the intersection with New York State Route 199 in Red Hook, in Dutchess County, New York. When it was in 1988 entered in the National Register of Historic Places, it was the first dinner in New York and the fourth in the United States, which has so given the status of a cultural monument. Before the building is a historical monument panel of the State of New York.
The design reflects the chrome parts on the facade and the curved walls reflect the era in which such restaurants like dining cars were designed in railway trains. The building was located in its history previously in two other places.
Building
The diner is located in the center of a 23 m × 38 m large plot in the center of Red Hook. South of it there is a built in Queen Anne style house, north of it a small shop and on the street side of Cherry Street which is also registered in the National Register of Historic Places Elmendorph Inn. On North Broadway many houses are from the 19th century. The space in front and behind the house is used as a parking lot.
The building itself sits on a foundation of concrete blocks. The facade is rounded stainless steel and at the corners. The design is based on a steel frame. The windows are rectangular and hinged and rich high up on the walls. The glass door on the south side is centrally located. The characteristics of the construction thus reminiscent of a railway dining car.
On the roof there is a red neon sign with the word DINER. The main entrance is located not in the center of the building, but further south, because the diner has been extended over time. A rear wing was also added later and has a facade that is covered with polyvinyl chloride plates. This part takes up a part of the kitchen and extends to the west.
The interior also takes on the appearance of a dining car, because the tables are placed in boxes on the walls on the east side and west side; they are separated from each other by a single aisle. The ceiling arches over it. In the rear part there is a breakfast bar and the kitchen, here are no windows available, making this section of the structure deviates from the typical appearance of a diner.
Much of the interior is preserved in its original state, such as the tiled floor and the paneling in turquoise and black, the cream-colored painted walls and laminated counter with sixteen bar stools and a back wall that is covered in the kitchen area with corrugated metal. The original made by Seth Thomas clock still hangs on the north wall of the guest room. These facilities are more focused on the use and thus more typical of a snack bar than a lushly furnished dining car of the time. In the rear wing of the dining area is open, the tables and chairs are partially free. The doors to the toilets are in original condition.
History
Diners have evolved from their origins as horse drawn dining car at the beginning of the 20th century to stationary, but not permanently installed, restaurants that have found their place in the urban landscape of the north-eastern states. The increasing use of the automobile in the 1920s for the journey from city to city made sure that those diners were also found in the country. The manufacturer offered prefabricated structures and provided the buyer with training on the management of such restaurants. Start-ups, it was thus possible to open restaurants with less capital than was usually required.
Lou Dubois from Kingston, on the Red Hook opposite bank of the Hudson River in 1925 bought one of the best-selling prefabricated structures, a Silk City Diner from the production of the Paterson Vehicle Company, one of the then leading manufacturers such for diners. He decided to make up the restaurant at the Albany Post Road, which was previously part of the U.S. Highway 9, just north of Astor Flats, which belonged to Rhinebeck. He called it Halfway Diner because it was located about halfway between New York City and Albany. The actual point midway between the two cities along U.S. 9 is in Hyde Park, about 15 km further south. The wife of Dubois led the diner, while her husband continued driving truck for a beer distributor.
When Lou Dubois died in 1928, his family sold the diner to Bert Coons. He moved it first to its present site. As the Taconic State Parkway was completed in northern Dutchess County after the Second World War, he rejoined the diner further east on a plot of land near the site where the New York State Route 199 crossed with the new road to new of the to benefit transport habits. It is not clear whether he already changed the name of the diners in this move.
In 1957, with the completion of the Kingston- Rhinecliff Bridge was part of the traffic back to Red Hook, Coons brought the diner back to its current location. He rented it out to others and eventually sold the diner in the 1960s, after he had already grown to make it more like a traditional inn to use. A new sign at the roadside bore the new name - Village restaurant.