An automat is a fast-food restaurant that serves food from coin-operated vending machines. This image is of Horn & Hardart’s Automat at 818-820 Chestnut Street. This automat was the first in the United States and one of the largest of 50 automats operated by the company in the Philadelphia and New York areas in the first half of the 20th century. It opened circa 1902 and closed in 1968. After it closed, it was given to the Smithsonian Museum of American History.