Diners like Central Diner, also known as Worchester Lunch Car Company Diner #806, built in 1947, were once fixtures of Providence's business centers, industrial districts, and roadsides. Shift workers, light-night revelers, and business people would come to eat here at all hours. Today, Central Diner, now named the Liberty Elm Diner, is still serving customers and has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. The structure is a rare and well-maintained example of a distinctive 20th-century American building style. Inside, the diner has remained in good condition and largely unchanged since the day it rolled out of the Worcester Lunch Car Company factory.

Photo: Inside the Central Diner
– Courtesy Rhode Island State Historic Preservation Office/Denise, J.R. Bass

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