The Agawam Diner is a piece of industrial history located at 166 Newburyport Turnpike in Rowley, Massachusetts. The current structure was manufactured in 1954 by the Fodero Dining Car Company. It is one of only six diners in the state manufactured by that company and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
The Galanis family first opened a diner on this site in 1947, using a structure manufactured by the Worcester Lunch Car Company. At that time, the family operated three locations: Rowley, Ipswich, and Peabody. In 1954, the family purchased two Fodero diners. They sold their Worcester diner in Ipswich and replaced it with one of the Fodero diners, while the other Fodero diner was placed in Peabody.
By 1970, the Peabody and Ipswich Fodero diners closed. The Galanis family then sold the original Rowley diner and moved the Fodero diner from Ipswich to the Rowley site. The diner is named for a local Indian tribe.
Today, the diner sits on a 0.75-acre lot at the southwest corner of Newburyport Turnpike and Haverhill Street. The exterior is finished with a combination of horizontal and vertical metal banding and has rounded corners. The interior is divided so that the front half houses the dining area, which includes booths along the front wall and stools at the counter, while the rear half houses the kitchen.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Kyle McLonely
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