Valentine diners keep serving history
HUTCHINSON — The old Valentine diner has seen better days.
It sits hidden beside a tree row at Loda Center — a spot in the road just south of Arlington in Reno County. The windows are boarded and a rope across the drive wards off trespassers.
Back in the 1940s, its first owners served up hamburgers and fries in Kingman. But somewhere along the way, the business closed, and eventually the structure ended up parked at the deserted farmstead.
It's just one of the nearly 100 Valentine diners that still grace the state — many of them shells of what they once were. Many of the diners are rusted and dilapidated, as fast-food restaurants have mostly replaced this piece of culinary Americana.
Still, several dozen of the eateries are still open for business, doing what Wichita businessman Arthur Valentine intended: to allow residents to be self-employed.
In fact, his handiwork can still be found all over the U.S. —little metal buildings with stainless-steel lunch counters and barstool seating.
"This really is a great Kansas story," said Blair Tarr, a museum curator for the Kansas State Historical Society who is documenting Valentine diners in Kansas and surrounding states. "Arthur really wanted to let people be their own bosses and, for the most part, he did that and still is doing that."
The Ablah Co. first constructed the portable lunch rooms in the 1920s, and Valentine was one of their salesmen, according to the historical society.
Valentine opened a few of his own restaurants using Ablah's structures, including the Shamrock Lunch, which in 1933 was located at 201 N. Main in Hutchinson, Tarr said. In 1939, the business was listed in the Polk Directory at 14 W. Second Ave.
At the end of the 1930s, when the Ablah family wanted out of the business, Valentine decided to continue the business under his own name, Tarr said.
From 1938 to 1971, more than 2,000 Valentine diner units were manufactured. Many were for restaurants. After Prohibition, he also made structures into liquor stores.
"Valentine sent his buildings everywhere," Tarr said. "He sent them into the 48 contiguous states, and a dozen of the buildings made it to England."
Valentine died in 1954 and the business was sold.
However, by the mid-1970s, competition brought on by developing burger chains and urban growth caused the tiny restaurants to fade.
Several Valentines still operate as diners in Kansas, including in Wichita, Dighton, Eureka, Meade and Norwich.
Owners of some old diners and liquor stores have transformed the buildings into other businesses. In Hutchinson, a Valentine that opened at 2310 N. Main as a liquor store around 1950 is now a payday loan establishment.
"Actually, people are taking more notice of the buildings, and some people are trying to restore them," Tarr said. "Some are trying to operate out of them."
Yet, he said, the business is one that is "kind of lost in time."
"It doesn't pay to operate in a building that size anymore," he said, noting many Valentine diners might only seat 10 or 12 people around the counter.
That was the case for Bob and Elsie Haberman, who purchased a Valentine diner in 1968 in their hometown of Meade, running it for 32 years before they retired.
"When we first bought it, it was just a drive-up unit with a place for 12 cars to park under an awning," Bob Haberman said, adding they had to close the business in the winter to stay afloat.
In 1974, they built onto the diner, adding a dining room and a game room. Only one wall of the building is original, and it still has the small wall safe that is a trademark of Valentines. Operators would put a percentage of each day's profits into the safe and a Valentine representative would make regular rounds to remove the payment from each diner.
He said his daughters, Cindy and Linda, took over Bob's Drive-in a decade ago. Now Linda is running it.
"It's a popular hangout," he said. "It's right on Highway 54."
They still serve up the usual 1950s-era cuisine, such as burgers, fries, corn dogs, onion rings and ice cream, he said.
Another Valentine operates in Anthony. Holly Weiss said she started leasing Spinners Diner a month ago.
Decades before, the diner was called the Green Spot, according to the historical society. It was becoming a worn-out structure when a family began renovations and reopened the diner in 2003.
The diner has gone through a couple of owners since then, Weiss said. Now she is trying the Valentine business, serving meals from breakfast through supper on the stainless steel counters.
She is learning about Valentines as she goes.
"It's interesting to listen to the older people who come in and talk about Valentines," she said.
This story was originally published July 1, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Valentine diners keep serving history."