Heartfield has yet to visit me in the middle of Middle America: Columbus, OH -- the fast food hamburger capital of America.
***** Hamburger Mecca
Touring Columbus' fast food landmarks
by Melinda M. White
Cleveland may be remembered for its burning river, Cincinnati for its "radio" station, but our dear Cowtown has a higher claim to fame: it's the Hamburger Capital of America. Due to the pioneering efforts of local sons Billy Ingram, founder of White Castle, and Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's, Columbus has guaranteed a place in fast-food history.
The members of the Society of Commercial Archeology, a national organization dedicated to commercial structures, know this all too well. This year [1999] the SCA held its national convention in Columbus to see firsthand some of the burger revolution's historic landmarks.
The three-day conference, sponsored in part by the Ohio Historic Preservation Office and the Columbus Landmarks Foundation, featured lectures such as "White Castle to Wendy's: Why Ohio is a Chain Restaurant Mecca" and "America's Castles for America's Food: The Rise of the White Castle System." The crown jewel of the conference, however, was an all-day tour of historic fast food joints, gas stations and roadside motels in and around Columbus.
The tour began at the Westin Hotel where the group was staying. Filling two buses marked by "mystery tour" signs, our group headed toward the first destination, Michael's Goody Boy on High Street in the Short North. We were allowed a 10-minute photo stop to peek inside the windows and study the sign. Our lively tour guide, Nathalie Wright of the Ohio Historical Society, explained the classic diner opened in 1958.
Tour group members, many of whom had never been to Columbus before, marveled at the Goody Boy's kitschy style. One woman from California, noticing the diner's menu, asked what "Coney Islands" are. I tried to explain the beauty of the chili/hot dog combo, but she seemed puzzled.
Our next stop was a certified gas station on West Broad and a Frisch's Big Boy in the same area. The group tramped around the Big Boy statue, snapping pictures and videotaping the entire event. An older gentleman, having just finished his Big Boy experience, gawked as tourists bounded enthusiastically around the statue.
After the Big Boy, we headed east on Broad Street, following the path of the old National Road. We paused at several old motels that had been tourist havens in the pre-interstate 1950s. Although many were renamed and remodeled, a few have retained their original '50s-style signs.
On our way east we took a coffee and doughnut break at, appropriately, the White Castle Headquarters on Goodale Street. Billy Ingram's granddaughter showed us around the lobby where White Castle memorabilia like coffee cups, original hamburger boxes and advertising posters were displayed. Wright explained that although White Castle has restaurants all over the United States, it does not sell its restaurants as a franchise. The Ingram family is still involved with the everyday operations of the White Castle empire.
After we left White Castle headquarters we began our tour of central Ohio's Lustron Homes. Lustron was the name given to the enameled steel panels used to cheaply and efficiently construct many of White Castle's restaurants. In the late 1940s, White Castle began a subsidiary company dedicated to the construction of Lustron, for its restaurants and, more importantly, for a new brand of home.
Ray Luce, an expert on Lustron, told the tour that just over 2,000 Lustron homes remain nationwide. Columbus has several Lustron homes, predominately on the far east side near the location of the only Lustron factory.
In route to a Lustron home location, we stopped by the Drexel East movie theater and the Abbott Super Duper on James Road. The Super Duper features a sign with an circus elephant holding up a bag of groceries, which according to the tour book, went along with the circus-themed promotions the grocery store featured when it was built in the mid-1950s.
Commonly referred to as the Varner/McCoy Lustron, the home we toured was located on East Main Street. The outside of the home was aqua-blue, a tribute to the era in which it was built. The outside was the classic Lustron porcelain-enamel square paneling. Inside, the home was a standard gray, with built-in closets, china cabinets and dressing tables. Because the inside was also made of Lustron, nailing pictures to the wall was impossible without damaging the enamel. So, as most Lustron home owners do, all pictures and wall decorations were hung by magnets.
After a brief lunch at the beautiful Dawes Arboretum near Newark, we continued our tour at the Longaberger Basket headquarters. The building, completed in 1997, was built to resemble one of the company's trademark baskets, complete with handles and a "woven" exterior. One man from New York asked, "Why would they want their building to look like a giant basket?" I shook my head. There are some questions about Columbus that are better left unanswered.
<http://www.columbusalive.com/1999/19990902/news2.html> ***** -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>