Posted on 10/26/2025 12:21:08 PM PDT by thecodont
In early May, Emily Waite stood in the center of the cavernous first floor of a concrete bunker of a building. She gestured widely across the expanse of the empty hall toward the barren southern wall. It was where the once and future home of the building’s historic lunch counter had been excavated, piece by piece, bolt by bolt, for restoration.
The particle-laden air of a construction site was scored by the clanging of metal rods spilling on the ground. Conversations from hard-hatted workers rose over the hum of idling power tools. Blue wires hung from the ceiling like icicles as the afternoon Central Valley sun peeked through the double doors on the west side of the otherwise hollowed-out fortress.
A ray of light cast itself upon a vintage sign propped up against a pillar. It read, “Visit Woolworth’s Luncheonette.”
Waite paused and nodded towards the sign. “We’ll get there soon,” she said.
That moment has arrived. It took years to restore the last Woolworth’s lunch counter in the U.S., located in downtown Bakersfield, along with the three-story building that houses it. And now the grand reopening of a historic icon is here.
‘There’s been a lot of tears’
Waite co-owns the building with her husband, Sherod, on behalf of their financial services business Moneywise Wealth Management. But the restoration of the Woolworth’s in Bakersfield is a project that many, even Waite, thought might never be completed. But nearly four years to the day that they closed on the downtown landmark, the building is revitalized and ready to be a symbolic, functioning space for all.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
For me it was a BLT on whole wheat toast.
“”” Store closed at 5pm, my last duty of the day was to mop the floor in the lunch counter area. Clocked out at 5:30. Fond memories. Sadly, those opportunities don’t seem to exist for kids, in the modern era.””
Kids today wouldn’t know how to run a mop.
“It took years to restore the last Woolworth’s lunch counter in the U.S.”
It probably took all of three weeks to build it when it was new.
Dang, when I showed her this article, she corrected me and said it wasn’t “milkshakes” I always drank, it was root beer floats...
The floats were only 25-cents, whereas the milkshakes were 35-cents...
“”she corrected me and said it wasn’t “milkshakes” I always drank, it was root beer floats...”””
Root beer floats always created the best tasting burps.
It’s going to be a fancy museum piece housed in a financial services building.
The culture and economy that supported dime stores and fountain lunch counters is no longer there.
Even our eating habits have changed. Back then, an ice cream soda or float would be considered a treat, now every fast food joint has the much bigger and more calorie-laden (think 600-700 calories) milkshake.
We had a Kresge store with such a lunch counter in our downtown. Memories.
I still have a small Haagen Daz ice cream in the freezer to go along with a diet root beer. Mother called them Black Cows and they were a distinct treat. There’s a reason we always harken back to family comfort foods.
I moved to the Bay Area in 1978 and there were at least three operating soda counters I went to! All gone now.
We shall overcome"
The so-called black national anthem is America the Beautiful.
In addition to America the Beautiful, the hymn Lift Every Voice and Sing is sometimes called the black national anthem.
The last lunch counter meal for me was grilled hot dogs and a strawberry ice cream soda.
That is true.
I remember Pranges/Boston Store cafe/lunchettes as well as some Walgreens that had a full restaurant area with tons of booths and a counter.
On the right is Liggett’s Drug Store famous for its soda fountain and lots of magazines.
“...tools and cosmetics...”
What tools ?
Thanks to vastly increased tegulations and minimum wage laws the kids CAN’T do or be hired for many of the jobs that started previous generations to become productive citizens.
As an employer for 40 years I say with some experience that many of the younger generation doesn’t know the difference between a mop and a wheelbarrow and have no desire to use either.
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