{"nrhp_refnum":"00001340","name":"Jack's Diner","other_names":["Main Street Diner"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"901 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Woburn","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.50872594100008,"lon":-71.16043512299996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-11-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Commerce"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small stainless steel diner at 901 Main Street in Woburn, Massachusetts, built in 1952 by the Worcester Lunch Car Company as diner #834. It was originally Jack's Diner, later Stella's, and is now called Main Street Diner.","why_significant":"It is one of the first diners with a stainless steel exterior produced by the Worcester Lunch Car Company, showing the firm's postwar effort to update its traditional barrel-roof line. It is the only diner in Woburn and continues a history of diner use on the site of more than sixty years. It was found significant at the state and local levels under Criteria A and C.","narrative":"Main Street Diner, at 901 Main Street in North Woburn, Massachusetts, is a compact stainless steel diner delivered in May 1952 as Jack's Diner. Worcester Lunch Car Company built it as diner #834 and custom-fitted it to the site. Its exterior has stainless steel cladding with royal blue porcelain enamel bands, fluted pilasters, a diamond-quilted frieze and a projecting entry vestibule. Inside, wood finishes, light blue, cream and black tile, and an L-shaped counter seating roughly thirty to thirty-six people follow the older Worcester tradition. The diner matters because Worcester had long built barrel-roofed diners and began making stainless steel models in 1952 to answer competitors. This is one of the earliest of them, and the only stainless steel Worcester diner among several identified from 1952 or later in the state. It is also the only diner in Woburn and replaced an earlier diner on the site. Artist John Baeder painted it in 1975, when it was known as Stella's.","period_of_significance":"1952","architect_builder":"Worcester Lunch Car Company","architectural_style":"Other: Stainless Steel Diner","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still used as a restaurant; the interior has some replaced counter stools, countertop and booths, and a rear kitchen addition dates from about 1952.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:05.078414-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/51/7913/63791351/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/00001340.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00001340/17ef709925-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00001340/17ef709925-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"User:Magicpiano","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WoburnMA_JacksDiner.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">User:Magicpiano</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WoburnMA_JacksDiner.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63791351","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack%27s_Diner","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6110841"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/jacks-diner-00001340/"}