abandoned diner in USA Archives - Abandoned Urban Exploring & Urbex Photography https://riddimryder.com/tag/abandoned-diner-in-usa/ RiddimRyder Explores & Photographs Abandoned & Forgotten Places Thu, 08 Aug 2024 11:59:28 +0000 en-CA hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://i0.wp.com/riddimryder.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cropped-websitethumb.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 abandoned diner in USA Archives - Abandoned Urban Exploring & Urbex Photography https://riddimryder.com/tag/abandoned-diner-in-usa/ 32 32 157258030 Abandoned Rosie’s Diner https://riddimryder.com/abandoned-rosies-diner/ https://riddimryder.com/abandoned-rosies-diner/#comments Tue, 31 Mar 2020 12:00:00 +0000 https://riddimryder.com/?p=7219 While on a road trip with Freaktography, I had the opportunity to explore the Abandoned Rosie's Diner!  Built in 1946…

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While on a road trip with Freaktography, I had the opportunity to explore the Abandoned Rosie's Diner!  Built in 1946 by the Paramount Dining Car Company, Silver Dollar Diner opened its door in Little Ferry, New Jersey.  The diner was used as a filming location for many commercials most notably by the Bounty Paper Towel Company.  Both Sanka & Pepsi both filmed commercials at the diner however the real fame & notoriety came from the Bounty commercials.  Bounty loved the location so much that they filmed multiple commercials there all featuring a fictional waitress name Rosie.



It was during the 1970’s when the Bounty commercials were filmed & the simple storyline was around clumsy customers who would spill their      drinks.  Rosie the waitress would come to their aid & wipe up the mess with the paper towel stating it was the “quicker picker upper!” which is a well-known phrase to this day.  This was also when the diner was renamed to Rosie’s!



For two decades Nancy starred in the bounty commercials however after the 1970’s they were filmed in a studio rather than the original diner.  Other companies who had used the diner for advertisement included both Sony & Ethan Allen Furniture.  After not only serving the community for 45 year, the greasy spoon as it was affectionately known, was put up for sale in 1990.   Before it was put up for sale, the owner, Ralph Corrado Jr, offered the “Most Famous Diner in America” to the Smithsonian Institution however they rejected it so the diner was up for grab.



It was then that Jerry Berta, an artist who produced ceramic replicas of classic diners & had always been inspired by Rosie’s, caught wind of it being put up for sale.  Jerry had previously owned a dining car quickly purchased his inspiration & moved it to its current location in Michigan.  The diner was cut in half just a week after it closed & loaded on to flatbed trucks for the relocation.  The diner reopened in July of 1991.



In 1994 Jerry decided to expand on the diner & purchased a 1952 Silk City Car & moved it from New York to Michigan.  The he built a reproduction car onsite.   The location became known as Dinerland & featured a diner art gallery & a 3.5 acre food themed mini putt course out back!



In 2006 the diner changed hands again & was now owned by Jonelle & Randy Rosette who made some major changes to Dinerland.  The Silk City car was converted into a sports bar & the Mahoney into a seasonal ice cream shop however the mini putt never reopened.  The diner was featured in the television series Diners Drive-ins & Dives in 2006 as well as Diners Paradise.



In 2011 Rosie’s closed down with no hopes of reopening.  The property was sold at auction to the owner of a nearby Chevrolet dealership for $125,000.  Although the diner never re-opened, the man who purchased in offered tours during car shows held in the large lot out front.



In 2018 the owner was working with a nonprofit organization in hopes of restoring the diner & other buildings however it seems those plans have fallen apart.   Today the Abandoned Rosie’s Diner is in rough shape & only getting worse as water continues to make its way inside.   Floors in some areas are so bad I was unable to safely navigate around out of fearing of falling through the floor.  It’s sad to see a beautiful piece of history just rotting away like this.

**UPDATE** As of January 2024, the diner was bought by a Missouri couple who plan on moving it back to their home state where they will restore the diner!  They purchased all three diner cars & will be selling on, & keeping the other to including Rosie's & the ice cream parlor.



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]]> https://riddimryder.com/abandoned-rosies-diner/feed/ 12 7219 Abandoned Guterl Specialty Steel/Simonds Saw & Steel https://riddimryder.com/abandoned-guterl-specialty-steel-simonds-saw-steel/ https://riddimryder.com/abandoned-guterl-specialty-steel-simonds-saw-steel/#comments Sat, 28 Dec 2019 23:00:00 +0000 https://riddimryder.com/?p=5892 I love big abandoned industry & Abandoned Guterl Specialty Steel was definitely big EPIC! in August of 2019 I explored…

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I love big abandoned industry & Abandoned Guterl Specialty Steel was definitely big EPIC!

in August of 2019 I explored the Abandoned Guterl Specialty Steel/Simonds Saw Mill.  I headed across the boarder into the United States with several locations to explore as well the plan of sleeping inside an abandoned insane asylum!  One of the locations on our list was an abandoned steel mill which we had known about for many years but never took the time to actually get over there & explore it.   That was about to change!



The plant dates back to the early 1900`s when operations moved from Chicago to Lockport where the plant would be powered cheap electricity being produced by nearby Niagara Falls.  The first steel produced at the new plant was in January of 1911.  11 years later the company changed its name to Simonds Saw and Steel Company & had approximately 2,200 employees.  After just 25 years they stopped producing saws all together.



Between 1946 & 1956 the plant rolled two radioactive materials, uranium & thorium, on a nine-acre portion of the 70-acre site for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. The company rolled uranium billets into rods that were shipped off-site via rail cars. Some 25 million & 35 million pounds of natural uranium metal & approximately 30,000 to 40,000 of thorium metal were processed at the site, according to an Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) fact sheet.



The production of uranium metal for fabrication into slugs for fueling Hanford production reactors. Simonds also rolled thorium metal whose most likely use was irradiation in Hanford reactors for the weapons program.



During all operations from 1948 through 1956, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was responsible for providing radiological monitoring & safety guidance and assistance. Residue from the operation was returned to the AEC or NLO. The DOE’s Niagara Falls Storage Site (formerly Lake Ontario Ordnance Works) was used for interim storage of the materials between processing operations and use. Protective measures employed at the site included the use of hoods & dust collection equipment over the 16-inch rolling mill stands, & catch pans in the mill pits to collect material from each rolling operation. The mill area was vacuumed after every batch of 16 ingots, & the shipping area was vacuumed daily.



Area decontamination was performed, clean steel plates placed over the area, and a second radiological survey was performed in December 1958 to verify decontamination was effective. In October 1976, at the request of DOE Headquarters, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) performed another radiological survey to determine the status of the property relative to current radiological release guidelines. The ORNL survey revealed that most of the residual contamination remaining from the uranium and thorium rolling operations was confined to the areas inside & immediately outside of Buildings 6 & 8.



In August 1982, GSSC filed for Chapter 11 (bankruptcy) protection & in March 1984 Allegheny International (now known as Allegheny Ludlum Corporation) bought out the assets of the GSSC. The purchase by Allegheny Ludlum Corporation included the entire site with the exception of two regions, classified as the excised property and the landfill. The excised property is approximately 3.6 hectares (ha [ 9 acres]), consists of a chain-link fenced area which surrounds all of the buildings that existed during the rolling operations from 1948 through 1956, and includes the adjacent exterior land areas. The landfill region was originally owned and used by Simonds Saw & Steel Company from 1962 to 1978, and was subsequently owned and used by GSSC from 1978 to 1980. The landfill area was used for the disposal of slag, baghouse flue dust, foundry sand, waste oils and greases, and miscellaneous plant rubbish. The landfill is not lined or covered, and although its surface has been regraded, ponding occurs and surface runoff is uncontrolled. The landfill region is currently a New York State superfund site.



Since 2012, ACE has been monitoring the groundwater below the site, groundwater seeping into the Erie Canal and canal surface water. Since the groundwater there is not potable, the ACE stated, there is no risk to human health.  Although some groundwater seeps into the Erie Canal have shown uranium levels slightly exceeding the (maximum contaminant levels, the uranium would be significantly diluted by waters of the canal,” reads the ACE fact sheet. “Even at that undiluted level, it should not have an adverse impact to someone using the water for recreational (not drinking water) purposes.  Although, potential lifetime cancer risks & yearly radiological dose rates received by someone trespassing in Building 8 (for 4 hours a week for 6 months out of the year for 10 years) could exceed acceptable targets, the actual radiological doses received by the Corps & contractor investigators in that building were below health and safety monitoring detection limits,” an ACE fact sheet said.



Today the plant sits rotting away & in terrible shape.  Fences have fallen down & it`s not uncommon to see several deer while on the grounds & even inside the buildings.  There are numerous class actions for former workers to receive compensation for both asbestos & radiation related diseases & although the plant is contaminated, it posed no risk to my health.   There are plans to cleanup the site sometime starting in 2020.   This was really an amazing explore that held quite a bit on interesting history.



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