These businessmen had to keep in mind that their business would play a role in creating a welcoming oasis for the fatigued and tired travelers at the beginning of the roadside dinner, to the easy, laid-back place where the long-haul trucker, the early-morning passenger, or the midnight tourist all could grab a hot cup of coffee and home cooked meal. America was rapidly turning into this new evolved America that was relying on this idea of flow through the country. Never before could you drive yourself to go visit California and go see the ocean whenever you chose. Businessmen of all different backgrounds and ideas saw this new approach on life, and took the diner as a way of harnessing that ideology and creating a place that was both public friendly and profitable.
To the untrained eye, all diners are alike in their appearance: stainless-steel exteriors, speckled Formica, counter service, and big neon signs. However, like cars, diners came in all shapes, styles and fashions. Before the mass production from World War II effected the diner system, Americans saw many different styles of architecture pop up all over the country that were determined by who made the diner and where it was. The Tierney diner, as seen in Figure 1, was the kick-start diner to stray away from the unattractive trolley cars that were seen in the early 1920s as an approach to diners. His trolley cars used the assembly line production and prefabricated a style that was equipped with fans, skylights, tiling and ventilation. Now, not only did people have a place to purchase food and water on-the-go, but also starting to introduce that quick and casual sit down experience that we would see start to bloom elsewhere. Furthermore, the Tierney diner introduced an advancement that had not been seen in diner architecture yet: a toilet on the inside. .
The Worcester diner, as seen in figure 2, first look of a new style came with their roofline approach.
