Haven Brothers Diner in Providence, Rhode Island is one of the oldest restaurants on wheels in America and was founded in 1893 (although their truck says 1888) as a horse-drawn lunch wagon. [1]
Haven Brothers Diner in Providence, Rhode Island is one of the oldest restaurants on wheels in America and was founded in 1893 (although their truck says 1888) as a horse-drawn lunch wagon. [1]
In 1888, [2] Widowed immigrant Anne Philomena Haven (1842—1912) founded the diner business with the proceeds from her husband Patrick's life insurance policy. The "lunch cart" (as the family called it) was purchased in Worcester, Massachusetts, originally a horse-drawn wagon. Her daughter Catherine Gannon and Catherine's husband Dennis Gannon continued to run the diner with the help of their young sons William and John. Dennis continued to run the business until he sold it to his daughters Catherine, Anne, Tibertus, and Marian. The Haven family finally sold the business in 1953 to the Mollicone family, and later owners included Jack Ferry, and the Giusti family. [1] Every evening at 4:30, the proprietor wheels the 1949 Fred W. Morse diner car (the third wagon in the diner's history) to the corner of Dorrance and Fulton streets next to the Providence City Hall and Kennedy Plaza. [3] After it closes, the diner is wheeled away to Federal Hill.
Once in its history, Haven Brothers set up shop in a location far from Providence. On April 9, 2008 the diner was brought to Mid-town Manhattan and parked outside the NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza for the Today Show . Hosts Meredith Vieira and Matt Lauer had both worked at the NBC 10 studios in Providence two blocks from Havens Brothers time-honored location beside Providence City Hall, and each had chosen it as their favorite old-time diner. [4]
In 2011, the diner was featured on the Travel Channel's Man v. Food Nation , hosted by Adam Richman.
Rhode Island is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it is the second-most densely populated after New Jersey. It takes its name from the eponymous island, though most of its land area is on the mainland. Rhode Island borders Connecticut to the west; Massachusetts to the north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to the south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound. It also shares a small maritime border with New York. Providence is its capital and most populous city.
Portsmouth is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island. The population was 17,871 at the 2020 U.S. Census. Portsmouth is the second-oldest municipality in Rhode Island, after Providence; it was one of the four colonies which merged to form the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the others being Providence, Newport, and Warwick.
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John Brown I was an American merchant, statesman and slave trader from Providence, Rhode Island. Together with his brothers Nicholas, Joseph and Moses, John was instrumental in founding Brown University and moving it to their family's former estate in Providence.
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The Outlet Company was a corporation based in Providence, Rhode Island, which owned holdings in both retail and broadcasting. The centerpieces of the group was its flagship Providence store and WJAR radio and television, also in Providence.
Charles I. D. Looff was a German master carver and builder of hand-carved carousels and amusement rides, who immigrated to the United States of America in 1870. Looff built the first carousel at Coney Island in 1876. During his lifetime, he built over 40 carousels, several amusements parks, numerous roller coasters and Ferris wheels, and built California's famous Santa Monica Pier. He became famous for creating the unique Coney Island style of carousel carving.
The city of Providence, Rhode Island is part of a media market that includes New Bedford, Massachusetts. The area is served by several local television stations, radio stations, newspapers, and blogs based in the cities proper and the surrounding communities of Rhode Island and Bristol County, Massachusetts.
Kennedy Plaza, formerly Exchange Place, Exchange Terrace, or City Hall Park, is a rectangular public square that occupies a central portion of Downtown Providence, Rhode Island. Since the mid 19th century, the plaza has served as a civic and transportation hub.
Downtown is the central economic, political, and cultural district of the city of Providence, Rhode Island. It is bounded on the east by Canal Street and the Providence River, to the north by Smith Street, to the west by Interstate 95, and to the south by Henderson Street. The highway serves as a physical barrier between the city's commercial core and neighborhoods of Federal Hill, West End, and Upper South Providence. Most of the downtown is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Downtown Providence Historic District.
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The Village Diner, sometimes called the Halfway Diner or the Historic Village Diner, is located on North Broadway a block north of New York State Route 199, in Red Hook, New York, United States. It is a 1951 diner that has been in two other area locations during its history.
Worcester Lunch Car Company was a manufacturer of diners based in Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1906 to 1957.
The Central Diner, also called Paula's Kitchen and formerly known as The Elmwood Diner, Liberty Elm Diner, Jenn's Elmwood Diner, Ole Elmwood Diner, or Worcester Lunch Car Company Diner #806, is a historic Worcester Lunch Car Company diner at 777 Elmwood Avenue in Providence, Rhode Island.
Arthur Wellington Dennis served as Speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives from 1906 to 1907, and Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island from 1909 to 1910.
Tierney Dining Cars was an American brand of lunch wagons at the beginning of the 20th century. Its origins can be traced to 1895, when the business founder Patrick J. Tierney began to build truck-based cars modeled after railroad dining cars. This eventually resulted in a business that manufactured prefabricated diners, which was incorporated in 1922 and ceased trading in 1933.
The United Electric Railways Company (UER) was the Providence-based operator of the system of interurban streetcars, trolleybuses, and trolley freight in the state of Rhode Island in the early- to mid-twentieth century.
Quahog is a fictional city in Rhode Island that serves as the primary setting of the American animated sitcom Family Guy and other related media.The Griffin family, the Browns, the Swansons, and Glenn Quagmire live on Spooner Street, with the Griffin family residing at 31 Spooner Street. According to the season 10 episode "Tom Tucker: The Man and His Dream", the population of Quahog is 800. As revealed in the season 7 episode "Fox-y Lady", the city ZIP code is 00093. Peter's birth certificate in the season 13 episode "Quagmire's Mom" gives Peter's birth location as Newport County.
