Melrose Diner Collection
name: label: Creator
content: Kubach, Richard
label: Creator
content: Ellsworth, Scott, Dr.
label: Creator
content: National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Community Life
label: Creator
content: Melrose Diner
label: Names
content: Jerry O'Mahony Company
place: label: Place
content: Philadelphia (Pa.) -- Restaurants
label: Place
content: New Jersey -- Restaurants
topic: label: Topic
content: Restaurateurs
label: Topic
content: Truck drivers
label: Topic
content: Truck stops
label: Topic
content: Restaurants -- 1940-1980 -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
label: Topic
content: Diners -- 1940-1979 -- Philadelphia (Pa.)
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The material in this collection was primarily collected or created by Scott Ellsworth under contract with the National Museum of American History in 1987, as part of a project that originally envisioned the acquisition and display of the Melrose Diner by the Museum.
creator: label: Creator
content: Kubach, Richard
label: Creator
content: Ellsworth, Scott, Dr.
label: Creator
content: National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Community Life
label: Creator
content: Melrose Diner
setName: label: See more items in
content: Melrose Diner Collection
abstract: label: Summary
content: Correspondence, advertisements, accounting records, and 19 audio tape interviews documenting the history and operation of Melrose Diner in Philadelphia, Pa.; interviews conducted by oral historian Scott Ellsworth, 1987; and notes written by him.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: The Melrose Diner (the second structure by that name) was built by the Jerry O'Mahony Company of Bayonne, New Jersey and placed in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at 1610 W. Passyunk Street.  Constructed to the plans of owner Richard Kubach, a 33 year old German immigrant, the diner opened for business March 18, 1940.  Kubach had been the owner of the predecessor diner at the same address which he had bought five years earlier and had quickly developed into a successful business.

The new diner with 54 seats had more than twice the capacity of its predecessor, cost $15,000 (less a 10% discount to Kubach for his planning) and was supplemented by a kitchen, bakery and storeroom.  Under Kubach's skilled and enlightened management, the new diner rapidly acquired  a reputation for excellent food and good service.  It became a community fixture, open 24 hours a day and attracting industrial workers and merchants from the area as well as families and young people in the evenings.

In 1956, Kubach opened a third diner a few blocks from the original site and closed the older building.  It remained vacant until 1959, when Jim D'Andrea, a construction foreman, bought the structure and moved it across the Delaware River to a site in Washington Township, Mercer County in New Jersey.  This location on Route 130, a main highway between Philadelphia and New York, proved to be a good one for truckers as customers for the diner.  D'Andrea and his son Gene leased the diner successively to more than a dozen different individuals in less than 20 years.  Under this variety of managers and different names (although long term patrons continued to call it the Melrose) the diner physically deteriorated; a fire in 1979 finally ended its serviceable life.  D'Andrea boarded it up in the early 1980s.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1.5 Cubic feet (5 boxes
)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1938-1988
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: Notes and oral history interviews created by Scott Ellsworth for the Archives Center. Diner records transferred to the Archives Center June 1993 from the Division of Community Life (now Division of Cultural and Community Life).
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0489
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Oral history
label: Type
content: Audiotapes
label: Type
content: Interviews
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Collection arranged into three series. 

Series 1: History of Melrose Diner and Scott Ellsworth Notes

Series 2:  Melrose Diner records, 1959-1983

Series 3: Audio tape interviews withowners and employees of Melrose Diner, 1987.
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Collection processed by Don Darroch, October 6, 1994.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Oral history
label: Genre/Form
content: Audiotapes
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection consists of material collected by contract researcher Scott Ellsworth during a 1987 historical study of the Melrose Diner.  It includes correspondence with Kubach and D'Andrea and with lessees when D'Andrea was the owner; with former employees and patrons; and with the manufacturer of the diner, the O'Mahony company.  There are also menus and flyers advertising the diner, as well as payrolls and other accounting documents relating to its operation.  Nineteen audio tapes of interviews Ellsworth conducted with Kubach, D'Andrea and others are also part of the collection.  In addition, there is a history of the Melrose Diner based on his recorded interviews.