PAWTUCKET, R.I. (WPRI) — A popular Pawtucket diner is being recognized nationally for its historic significance.
Miss Lorraine Diner was recently added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission described the Mineral Spring Avenue diner as “a rare surviving example of a ‘semi-streamliner’ diner.”
“Rhode Islanders love their diners, and the Miss Lorraine Diner is a great example worthy of loving,” Jeffrey Emidy, interim executive director of the commission said. “The National Register listing is a fitting recognition of the award-winning rehabilitation that brought this diner back from the brink and has made it a destination in Pawtucket.”
The streamlined parlor car was manufactured in 1941 by the Worcester Lunch Car and Carriage Manufacturing Company, according to the commission.
The diner first opened in Hartford, Connecticut as Donwell’s Diner and moved twice before finally settling in Pawtucket’s Fairlawn neighborhood.
The commission said the current owner, Jonathan Savage, purchased the semi-streamliner in 2011 and spent years restoring it to its former glory.
The diner, which the commission said gets its name from its current location in the Lorraine Mills complex, officially opened for business in 2020.
Miss Lorraine Diner is the fifth Rhode Island diner to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Others include the Modern Diner in Pawtucket, West Side Diner and Central Diner in Providence, and Jigger’s Diner in East Greenwich.
