A Westport man is giving away two vintage diners for free — here’s why
After years of holding onto a lost project, Quentin Sanford Jr. hopes someone else can bring these diners to life.
Quentin Sanford Jr. couldn’t bear to watch his dreams junked for scrap, so he found a way to salvage them. In the ’90s, Sanford and his family set out to revamp a vintage diner, and situate it off Route 88 in Westport next to their family-run Handy Hill Creamery, which Sanford had watched flourish since he was 11 years old. The Sanfords purchased Eddie’s Diner out of Quincy in 1998 from a diner museum and found another in New Jersey that was the same make and model. “We figured we could combine the two of them into one large diner,” he said. But after his family began the project, having already invested hundreds of thousands of dollars on engineering and site work, Sanford said, they found out Westport wouldn’t allow them to share the water from the certified well they used for their ice cream business with the diner. “We held onto it, hoping things would change over the years,” Sanford said. “But nothing has, other than we’re getting older.”Now, with red tape wrapping around the antique structures and overgrown brush clinging to the metal, Sanford said the town has given him 30 days to remove the diners from his property. He’s decided to take the opportunity to give them away for free to whoever can transport them. “I hope that someone can save it,” Sanford said. Phoning in help from a friend who works with Blue Collar Vintage Salvage, he set up a Facebook post introducing the situation with hopes of someone recognizing its value.
https://www.facebook.com/BlueCollarSalvage/photos/a.547356202038944/2665616873546189/?type=3&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARALMX9cMBOlDjW-AE3hD-SQxqEbXcWzpwbcLkQi_kw8HSICFBhLZLR9FJFQL40Gfw_pTTjkXABkXZodM2dFMrXccNfLTbc2jZqlnyZaF2GEEUaXMKe7SPLwcYy-_BlVhMZEeQcIZd5twSRykIKFZo0rQa1y2m4QSJuGBfY5xgDENG7sIbtibivtacGeMzR5YnJZi8A6yDG3r8DvHIXSYpovgILW82d1msrfYcewUe2hpAscuEn6VawGChbGLh4DWZiahwSSjWV1KOqyDqk5YP20EwiXVPTGwrx_KyZEp7dKN-R8FLDMydL7r0naht7pAQz4iMjMSjVSg4AlR4XatNIJWg&__xts__%5B1%5D=68.ARBLmu8DJtseJ9T4z73uG8tsc8m80a6UnNLSBMM7I-JAUXcMG6eW7lWZn8sSKOgWwUsbg26LP3nVjKYsLVXeDonUnbL-qr7dA1Evz_ku_IKrlXYddVGJ7iLMQh7rqmE320NRbtOPPkfITAsj8QAf6nVhWGBA1brnMZCFlADx_7T7QQ3gKep6_dg2-FSREBWc65EQFhn0jn50rSfIL5GHYEWEEyJ0RUMfNtozvslZWG97tJ_mngg2-wn6-lvB80iqfHdQUNh4_jMitG-4n0NLJnoGIzwhYZZeIr8LMi5HQNSTbG5qddRJP1jMikUtHbKhBiW-GLEGezB0rrYW28xDzwNigQ&__tn__=-R
“It’s like at the pet stores. You can usually get a really cheap deal on the aquarium,” Sanford said, “Then you just have [to get] the fish and the materials.”
He said if there’s a bright side to everything, it’s that the diners are ready to be loaded onto trailers and taken without demolition crews or extra fees.
Though he and his sister, Bethany Smith, will be sad to watch them leave, he said, he’ll follow the diners wherever they go next.
“Wherever it opens, I’ll be in there having breakfast,” he said. “It’s part of us.”
Sanford said he believes diners are like touchstones.
“All strata of society would come into a diner. You’d sit at the counter and all manner of conversations would be tossed around … Everyone was an expert on something,” he said. “It was kinda like a home away from home for a lot of people.”
And though he said his family believed they could bring Westport closer together with their diner, he hopes there’s still a chance for that in someone else’s hands.
“I think it would’ve worked,” Sanford said, “but it just wasn’t in the cards.”
Anyone interested in one or both of the diners should DM Blue Collar Vintage Salvage on Facebook.
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