Mayor Gets His Wish; Historic Diner is Being Torn Down

It looks like Mayor John McCormac has gotten his wish.

Mom's Diner, the classic 1950s diner on Route 1 in Avenel, is about to fall to the wrecking ball.

The diner and the neighboring Gem Motel are both being bulldozed to make way for a 4,1888 sq. ft. Wawa convenience store and gas station with six islands. On Thursday, most of the Gem Motel was gone, while the improvements added over the decades to Mom's Diner revealed the original details of the stainless steel structure.

Over the entrance was a clock, long hidden by the facade added to the roofline in an effort to modernize the exterior. The clock hands were frozen just short of 3:00. 

When the mayor first announced the Wawa incursion into Woodbridge back in November, 2011, there were diner enthusiasts who were anxious to find out if the diner was for sale. 

No help at all

The strange thing was that no one could find out who owned the diner property, in order to discover who had the rights to the diner. The mayor's office did not return phone calls or emails from prospective purchasers of the diner. Wawa did not return phone calls. Even in the convoluted tale of who owned the diner - a twisted story in itself - it was impossible to get an answer.

During the grand opening of the first of the two Wawas in Woodbridge, McCormac said he couldn't wait for the diner to be taken down.

"I want to be on the bulldozer when it happens," the mayor said during the Fros store opening that included an elaborate chicken dance.

Randy Garbin, a fan of all things diner, has been involved in diner preservation for 30 years. He started a magazine devoted to this uniquely American - and very New Jersey - eatery, first with a magazine, and now with Roadside Online, an internet site devote to diner history and preservation. 

He is genuinely sorry to see Mom's go.

Diner was 'extremely rare'

"This particular style and vintage of diner is extremely rare," Garbin said. "There are maybe a handful left in the entire country. I believe there's one left in Pennsylvania."

Garbin knew about the efforts to save Mom's Diner. He agreed that the lack of help from Town Hall, Wawa, or any of the other participants was "just weird."

"It's unfortunate, but there's a certain kind of small mindedness. Some people can't see anything of value in something old. They think what's new and modern is automatically better. They don't have the imagination or the foresight to see that preserving the past is worth the effort."

To Garbin's recollection, he doesn't believe that there is a single diner structure in New Jersey that has been accorded any historic preservation status. "It's really odd, when you consider New Jersey is known as the diner state," he said. "Other states have done it. There are 14 diners on the historic preservation list in Massachusetts."

He's sad to see Mom's go, but it's not the first time - and it probably won't be the last. 

"I've been handling this issue for a long, long time. I've watched this stuff happen. There's no explanation for it. You try to understand why," Gargin said.

"If they are dead set on doing what they're going to do, it's going to happen."

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