Weird Island

The history of the classic American diner started right here in Rhode Island. It began as something called a Night Lunch Wagon. But over time the diner grew and changed, following trends in the workforce, the American family, and food culture to become the uniquely American restaurant we know and love today. And one of my favorite diners around is Modern Diner–which also happens to be the first diner ever listed on the National Register of Historic places. 

To Visit: 364 East Ave, Pawtucket, RI 02860

Episode Source Material: 

• If you really enjoy diners, read anything by Richard Gutman: American Diner Then and Now: Gutman, Richard JS: 9780801865367: Amazon.com: Books
• A Life Devoted to the American Diner | Arts & Culture| Smithsonian Magazine
• NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY-- NOMINATION FORM NAME LOCATION tq.
• Modern Diner – Pawtucket, Rhode Island - Gastro Obscura
• Restaurateur sues, wants shirt off Disney's rack
• RHODE ISLAND DINER SETTLES TRADEMARK SUIT WITH DISNEY – Orlando Sentinel
• Why So Many Diners Look Like Train Cars - Gastro Obscura
• Streamline Moderne - Wikipedia.
• Hidden for more than 75 years, the origins of a Chepachet diner are being revealed | WJAR
• History of Purple Cat Restaurant to be preserved by new owners | News | valleybreeze.com
• Drive I-95: Exit by Exit Info, Maps, History and Trivia
• From Hash House to Family Restaurant: The Transformation of the Diner and Post-World War II Consumer Culture
• DINER HISTORY
• Walter Scott – Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame
• Modern Diner
• HOW THE DINER GOT ITS START – Daily Press
• Diner - Wikipedia
• Where No-Frills Fast Food (the Real Thing) Was Born - The New York Times
• Rhode Island Diners – Where to Eat – Vacation Travel Info
• From Chuck Wagons to Pushcarts: The History of the Food Truck
• Food truck - Wikipedia
• TH Buckley- Come Get Your American Dream
• The Transition from Horse-Drawn to Stationary
• The Classic American Entrepreneurship
• The Original Lunch Wagons
• The Masters of the Booming Lunch Car Industry
• Appealing to the customers
• Diners of New England | Randy Garbin
• Bluefield Daily Telegraph | April 1, 1987
• Clovis News Journal | June 22, 1986
• Today's special
• Haven Brothers: Legacy of the American Diner – Food on a truck, man! - Motif
• PROVIDENCE DINER, 97, VS. CITY HALL, '87 - The New York Times
• News in Antebellum America
• Long Live the Lunch Wagon King! Worcester's Diners Prove Resilient | Mass Food & Wine
• Whence Came the Rhode Island Food Truck? | Edible Rhody
• History of the American Diner - Legendary Route 66

If you’ve been to Kennedy Plaza, you’ve probably seen the big, shiny stainless steel piece of Providence late-night culture that is Haven Brothers diner. Maybe you’ve even eaten one of their famous Murder Burgers. But did you know that Haven Brothers traces its origin back to 1893, making it one of the oldest restaurants on wheels in America? 

To Visit: 12 Dorrance St, Providence, RI 02903

Episode Source Material: 

• Haven Brothers Diner - Wikipedia
• Haven Bros
• Haven Brothers
• Providence Journal | Mark Patinkin
• Drive I-95: Exit by Exit Info, Maps, History and Trivia
• Aunt Carrie, Mother Prentice were ahead of their time | | ricentral.com
• The Cowl | November 19, 1988
• RI icon Haven Brothers gets a taste of movie fame
• A Life Devoted to the American Diner | Arts & Culture| Smithsonian Magazine
• From Hash House to Family Restaurant: The Transformation of the Diner and Post-World War II Consumer Culture
• DINER HISTORY
• Walter Scott – Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame
• Modern Diner
• HOW THE DINER GOT ITS START – Daily Press
• Diner - Wikipedia
• Where No-Frills Fast Food (the Real Thing) Was Born - The New York Times
• Rhode Island Diners – Where to Eat – Vacation Travel Info
• From Chuck Wagons to Pushcarts: The History of the Food Truck
• Food truck - Wikipedia
• TH Buckley- Come Get Your American Dream
• The Transition from Horse-Drawn to Stationary
• The Classic American Entrepreneurship
• The Original Lunch Wagons
• The Masters of the Booming Lunch Car Industry
• Appealing to the customers
• Diners of New England | Randy Garbin
• Bluefield Daily Telegraph | April 1, 1987
• Clovis News Journal | June 22, 1986
• Today's special
• Haven Brothers: Legacy of the American Diner – Food on a truck, man! - Motif
• PROVIDENCE DINER, 97, VS. CITY HALL, '87 - The New York Times
• News in Antebellum America
• Long Live the Lunch Wagon King! Worcester's Diners Prove Resilient | Mass Food & Wine
• Whence Came the Rhode Island Food Truck? | Edible Rhody

When a friend said to me, “What about an episode about that time the Wright’s Chicken Farm kids were kidnapped?” I had to know more. Today’s episode comes right from the newspaper archives, from March of 1979. 

Episode Source Material: 

• State v. Ballard :: 1982 :: Rhode Island Supreme Court Decisions
• STATE v. BALLARD | FindLaw
• Newport Daily News Newspaper Archives, Mar 10, 1979, p. 1
• Newport Daily News Newspaper Archives, Mar 9, 1979
• Newport Daily News Newspaper Archives Aug 16, 1979
• Newport Daily News Newspaper Archives, Oct 16, 1979, p. 8
• Newport Daily News Newspaper Archives, Mar 13, 1980, p. 8
• Wright's rules the roost

Episode Description: 

On the border of Providence and Pawtucket, there’s a strange intersection. One single road changes its name from Ridge Street to Pidge Avenue. With Ridge and Pidge being just one letter apart, it always seemed like a mistake. With the help of Providence Journal reporter Paul Parker, we get to the bottom of the mystery. And uncover another one along the way. 

To Visit: 

• Intersection of Pidge Avenue and East Avenue, Pawtucket, RI
• Pidge Tavern was at 586 Pawtucket Avenue

Episode Source Material

• It's No Typo | Paul Parker | January 19, 2020 (Search “Pidge” in the Journal Archive)
• Not gone after all - The Providence Journal, 3/8/2020
• A Toll, A Tavern, and A Farm: A History of Pidge Avenue
• New York Times | Granville Standish Jr. Obituary
• Historic Taverns of Rhode Island | Robert A Geake
• Rhode Island · George Washington's Mount Vernon
• To George Washington from Nicholas Cooke, 4 April 1776
• Rochambeau | American Battlefield Trust
• Marquis de Lafayette | American Battlefield Trust
• Dexter House | preserveri
• History & Culture - Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail (US National Park Service)

Carousels are playful and whimsical, bright and colorful. They evoke memories of childhood and innocence. Here, in Rhode Island, they’re not only time capsules of happy summer moments, but museums of folk art from the golden age of the American carousel. 

To Visit: 

Looff Carousel | Crescent Park | 700 Bullocks Point Ave, Riverside, RI 02915

Looff Carousel | Slater Park | 825 Armistice Blvd, Pawtucket, RI 02861

Flying Horse Carousel | Westerly, RI 02891

Episode Source Material: 

• Rhode Island: Looff Carousel (Local Legacies
• History | Crescent Park Carousel
• Crescent Park Looff Carousel - Wikipedia
• Flying Horse Carousel - Wikipedia
• Charles ID Looff - Wikipedia
• THE CAROUSELS OF CONEY ISLAND
• Charles ID Looff Historical Marker
• Charles ID Looff - A Level Above - Pier Rats
• When the Hippodrome Was Hip: The Looff Carousel and the Era of Seaside Amusement | KCET
• Carousel of Happiness
• The Dizzy History of Carousels Begins With Knights | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine
• Carousel - Wikipedia
• Crescent Park Carousel | Preservation RI
• Crescent Park | ArtInRuins
• A Horse is a Horse: FWMoA's Looff Carousel Horse
• "Life's just a merry-go-round": Exploring carousel animals in the museum's collection | National Museum of American History
• The History of the Carousel | Origins of the Carousel
• Carousel AKA Merry Go Round – The Vintage Lens
• Carousels, Roundabouts and Merry-Go-Rounds in Art | DailyArt Magazine
• Carousel Carvers
• Around the World of Carousel Art.
• Crescent Park (defunct amusement park) - Wikipedia
• Crescent Park
• The Coney Island of the East Coast - Reporter Today
• Brass Ring
• Flying Horses Carousel - Wikipedia
• The Watch Hill Flying Horse Carousel - WESTERLY RI
• Andrew Christian and Charles W.F. Dare - Part 1
• Brooklyn Daily Eagle | July 31, 1899
• Trolley park - Wikipedia
• https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/6974427c-b4f4-49ae-8ca2-05d79c1f90b8
• Pawtucket Slater Park Looff Carousel

Sometimes when I’m researching, I waste a bunch of time researching something only slightly related to the episode topic. Like the time I read an entire book about apples while researching the Tree Root that Ate Roger Williams. Today, instead of a regular episode, for each topic I’ve covered, I’m going to share one fun or interesting fact I learned while researching that didn’t make its way into the podcast.

I've been making this podcast for a year! So instead of bringing you a normal story, I thought I'd tell you my own. 

People began eating turtle soup in the 1700s, and they kept eating it through the early 1900s. Companies like Campbell’s and Heinz made canned turtle soup (and something called mock turtle soup). And it wasn’t just available. It was a real culinary obsession. In the early days, there would be these big, elaborate parties, called Turtle Frolics, where people would get together to enjoy it. Including a notable Turtle Frolic in Newport, prepared and served by a talented chef named Cuffy Cockroach. 

Episode Source Material: 

• Reminiscences of Newport - George Champlin Mason - Google Books 1884 
• A Newport Rhode Island Turtle Feast, 1767 – Afroculinaria
• Turtle Soup: From Class to Mass to Aghast - JSTOR Daily
• The Turtles of Philadelphia's Culinary Past
• Early Recollections of Newport, R.I. From the Year 1793 to 1811 | George Gibbs Channing
• One of New York's Queer Institutions | New York Times
• Foodways to Freedom: African Heritage Entrepreneurs in 18th- and 19th-Century Rhode Island – The Rhode Island Historical Society
• African Americans in Rhode Island Who Used Food to Achieve Independence - Online Review of Rhode Island History
• Encyclopedia of African American Business
• Rhode Island History | Volume 73
• Black Southern Caterers: A History of Enterprise and Culinary Good Taste
• The History of Catering in the United States | by KC Rippy | Made From Scratch Fine Catering | Medium
• A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in America
• Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
• The Negro in Rhode Island: His Past, Present, and Future
• Separate and Sometimes Equal: African Burials in Colonial Newport
• Newport's Turtle Party Slows Hectic Yule Pace - Los Angeles Times
• 1776 Season 1 Episode 4
• Colonial Dames and Good Wives | Alice Morse Earle | 1895
• 50 Years of Christmas in Newport
• An Archaeology of Manners: The Polite World of the Merchant Elite of Colonial Massachusetts | Lorinda B. R. Goodwin
• What Ever Happened to Turtle Soup?
• Turtle soup - Wikipedia
• Why Don't People Eat Turtle Soup Anymore?
• The End of Turtle Soup | History Today
• Our Taste For Turtle Soup Nearly Wiped Out Terrapins. Then Prohibition Saved Them : The Salt : NPR
• A ban on trapping the diamondback terrapin passes after advocates stick their necks out – Baltimore Sun
• How America Fell Into—and Out of—Love With Mock Turtle Soup.
• From Delicacy to Decline: A Tale of the Diamond-Backed Terrapin | Virginia DWR
• Hoboken Turtle Club | New York Times
• Journal of A Residence in America | Frances Anne Butler
• Primer 0013: So Rich and So Green: The History of Turtle Soup

In 1896, the very first auto race on an oval track took place at the Rhode Island State Fair, just one year after the first city-to-city auto race in the world took place. Cars were so new, no one knew what to call them. Horseless wagons? Motor wagons? Motocycles? Electric Traps?

Episode Source Material: 

• Left Turns In The Ocean State | Hemmings
• Scientific American Volume 75
• The Autocar: A Journal Published in the interests of the mechanically-propelled road carriage
• 1896 Novel Race
• My Home Track - Rhode Island and the late, great Narragansett Park Speedway - NASCAR Talk | NBC Sports
• Boston Sunday Globe Archives, Sep 19, 1915, p. 15
• Narragansett Park Speedway
• The First Automobile Races in America (Upd. Cranston, Rhode Island) - PreWarCar
• A Look Back On Rhode Island's Narragansett Park
• Chicago Times-Herald race - Wikipedia
• The Forgotten Car That Won America's First Auto Race | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine
• Oval track racing - Wikipedia
• Duryea Motor Wagon Company - Wikipedia
• The Duryea Motor Wagon: There's a First Time for Everything | 2020
• Time Lapse: Turrets, tents and hippies -- where, when, what's happening here?
• History of Auto Racing
• automobile racing | Britannica
• Andrew L. Riker - Wikipedia
• History of the American Automobile - Cole's Collision Center
• Racing in America
• Automobile History.
• History of the automobile - Wikipedia
• Race track - Wikipedia
• Horseracing in the US | American Experience | Official Site | PBS
• First asphalt superspeedway track | Guinness World Records(1.366%2D,%2Fh%20(76.26%20mph). 
• Riker Automobiles before they merge into Electric Vehicle Company and Columbia . . . . . .
• The day electricity led the way in the first American auto race

How did the Turk’s Head building get its name? Well, it’s actually built on the site of a colonial house and a store that had an unusual sign mounted outside--a wooden carving of an Ottoman Sultan. The store became known as "at the Sign of the Turk's Head." 

To visit: 1 Turk’s Head Place, Providence, RI 02903

Episode Source Material:

• Providence in Colonial Times | Gertrude Selwyn Kimball
• Old Providence: A Collection of Facts and Traditions Relating to Various Buildings and Sites of Historic Interest in Providence | The Merchants National Bank of Providence 1918
• Publications of the Rhode Island Historical Society | Volume V 1897
• Providence Magazine | January 1917
• The Narragansett Historical Register: Volume VI | 1888
• Turks Head Building | Wikipedia
• Turks Head Building
• Sights ~ The Turk's Head Building ~ Providence | I {heart} Rhody
• National Register of Historic Places | Custom House District
• The Legend of "Turk's Head": In Charles Dexter Ward
• Providence Architecture | Locations | Turk's Head Building
• National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomiflation Form 1. Name ci 2. Location 3. Classification 4. Owner of Property 5.
• A Walk Through Downtown Providence
• Flatiron Building - HISTORY
• A History Of Metals In Colonial America [PDF] [4c30ubrbld80]
• Ship figureheads and decoration | Royal Museums Greenwich.
• Providence besieged by Great Gale in 1815
• 1815 New England hurricane - Wikipedia
• The Great September Gale of 1815 - New England Historical Society
• Signs of the Times
• Jacob Whitman | Rhode Island, U.S., Historical Cemetery Commission Index, 1647-2008