Silver Top Diner sold at auction for $35K

THE EXTERIOR of the Silver Top Diner, which was sold at auction for $35,000. / COURTESY RICHARD J.S. GUTMAN
THE EXTERIOR of the Silver Top Diner, which was sold at auction for $35,000. / COURTESY RICHARD J.S. GUTMAN

PAWTUCKET – The historic Silver Top Diner has been sold at auction, the winning bid of $35,000 submitted by a Rhode Island real estate agent on behalf of a client.
The client later was identified in an Associated Press article as the owner of a 1950s themed burger restaurant in North Attleboro, KC’s Classic Burger Bar.
The real estate agent, Joe Olivelli of Waterman Realty in Warwick, told people at the auction that the new owner intends to expand and plans to keep the diner in Rhode Island, according to Sue Mara, assistant director of Pawtucket’s Department of Planning and Redevelopment.
The new owner delivered an initial deposit, and has 90 days in which to close on the purchase.
The city of Pawtucket owns the diner, having acquired it after its previous owner did not comply with the terms of repaying a $100,000 city-backed loan.
The diner was built in 1938 and constructed by the Kullman Dining Car Co. of Harrison, N.J., and considered a rare example of surviving, Depression-era diners.
For years, it was located in Providence, at 13 Harris Ave. It was moved to Pawtucket when the downtown Providence site was redeveloped.
The Providence Revolving Fund, a nonprofit organization, made an unsuccessful effort to purchase the diner and return it to the capital city. Several renovated mill complexes, with large, open parking areas, had expressed interest in hosting the diner, according to Providence Revolving Fund Executive Director Clark Schoettle.
“People were interested,” he said.
The Revolving Fund had helped to restore the West Side Diner, now located at 1380 Westminster St., which was manufactured by the same company as the Silver Top.
Schoettle said he had submitted successive bids up to $30,000, which was $5,000 more than the initial limit set by his board, and also the top end of the appraisal for the diner by a noted diner historian. But the other bidder went up to $35,000 and seemed like they would have gone farther, he said.
“I’m really sad,” Schoettle said Thursday.

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