CANTON − Angela Otto stood about 20 yards away from the destruction of a childhood memory and a piece of the city's past.
The employee of Towne Manor Motel recalled when she used to go to the former diner as a child for breakfast nearly a half century ago.
"I had my first Shirley Temple here," the 49-year-old Otto said of the diner site next to the motel. "Me and my mother used to come here for breakfast. I'll never forget that."
Otto smiled at her fond remembrance but also was saddened as an excavator demolished the structure at 920 Tuscarawas St. W on Tuesday afternoon. Machinery clawed away, ripping apart the steel frame and flat roof. Left behind was a gaping hole of what used to be a vintage diner that opened in 1959 as the Towne 30 Diner along the original alignment of the Lincoln Highway .
The landmark, vacant for years and operating as a restaurant sporadically in recent decades, had lost much of its charm.
"It's sad," Otto said. "It was like, 'Oh, my God, it's become more of a nuisance.' People were sleeping on the steps and things like that."
There are no plans for a new restaurant or other business. The property belongs to the owner of Towne Manor Motel at 926 Tuscarawas Street W. County auditor's records list the owner as Sai Nath Enterprise Inc. Jayprakash Patel is the agent of the corporation, which formed in 2014, according to Ohio Secretary of State business registration records.
Workers with Cottrill Wrecking, the Massillon-based business hired to raze the building, said their understanding is the diner site is going to become a parking lot. Debris will be hauled away. Dirt will fill and cover the site, with plans to pave it over.
Messages left seeking comment for the manager or owner of Towne Manor Motel were not returned Tuesday and Wednesday.
NuNu's tried to resurrect the dormant diner in 2015
The diner's history is like a jigsaw puzzle missing a piece here and there.
Sister's Soul Food and Carryout opened there in 2017 before leaving and relocating on Harrison Avenue SW.
The building apparently has been vacant since. But it still retained its retro stylings on the exterior, most notably stainless steel paneling and trim.
Other recent restaurant start-ups in the roughly 1,200-square foot building included NuNu's Diner in 2015 before it closed in 2016.
Retro style Burgers, fries and classic cars: Chloe's Diner is part restaurant, part museum
'You just felt like you were eating breakfast ... in the '50s and '60s.'
Multiple proprietors reopened the diner with high hopes before going out of business.
Somewhere along the way, the building was a bingo parlor. Then came Nick's Diner, opening as a 24-hour eatery in 2002 before closing. LA City Diner opened around 2010 before shuttering.
Joan Zaleski, 66, of Massillon, grew up in the Canton area and took her son to the restaurant about 20 years ago when it was City Diner.
Back then, it still had a luster − booths with red vinyl upholstery, a counter with 10 stools, plus ornamental chrome and mirrors. Oldies music played. Omelets were served. Gourmet burgers, including with garlic horseradish, and fresh-cut fries went for $3.50.
Zaleski and her son, Zachary Moore, would regularly stop there for breakfast on Sunday mornings after attending worship service at Basilica of St. John the Baptist.
"You just felt like you were eating breakfast in that era in the '50s and '60s," Zaleski said. "I just liked the small quaintness of it and how it was a tiny place, but it was fun to sit in there and eat, and they had good food. Bacon and eggs and the pancakes were really good."
Kullman diners have appeared on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives
The Towne Diner was a Kullman, arriving in Canton in two 11-foot wide pieces in 1958. Italian mosaic tile decoratively adorned the walls. Booths were finished in a Holstein pattern.
Food was prepared in a stainless steel kitchen. Lunch, breakfast and dinner were served, including broiled steaks. A private banquet room was coming soon, according to an old newspaper advertisement.
The diner car was of the design popularized in the 1940s and '50s, made by the Kullman Dining Car Co., which produced prefabricated diners across the country. Their work includes gems that have appeared on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives , a popular television show on the Food Network.
The company later became known as the Kullman Building Corp. , which ceased operations in 2011. Some of the diners are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Canton's Kullman diner had retained enough bygone ambience to attract a film crew to shoot a scene there, said Stark County-based filmmaker James Waters . StoneKap, a local broadcasting and media production company, headed the project in 2016, he said.
No souvenirs or tokens of yesteryear were visible in the heap of debris as the building was toppled. No relic menus or bar stools or booths. Those apparently had been removed previously. A swinging door with a circular window was still standing until being knocked down.
Mourning the loss of a diner
Comments on social media grieved the loss of another slice of Canton history. Some wished it would have been saved and reopened as another restaurant. Others said it had become a blight.
Zaleski wishes the diner could have been rescued or moved.
"I said, 'Man, if I had a lot of money, I'd redo it and reopen it,'" she said. "You always had that hope that someone with the money would take it over and just bring it back to life like it was."
Reach Ed at 330-580-8315 and ebalint@gannett.com
On X (formerly Twitter) @ebalintREP and Instagram at ed_balint
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canton history lost. 65-year-old downtown Kullman diner site demolished for parking lot
Local News
