CANTON − Angela Otto stood about 20 yards away from the destruction of a childhood memory and a piece of the city’s past.
The employee of Towne Manor Motel recalled when she used to go to the former diner as a child for breakfast nearly a half century ago.
“I had my first Shirley Temple here,” the 49-year-old Otto said of the diner site next to the motel. “Me and my mother used to come here for breakfast. I’ll never forget that.”
Otto smiled at her fond remembrance but also was saddened as an excavator demolished the structure at 920 Tuscarawas St. W on Tuesday afternoon. Machinery clawed away, ripping apart the steel frame and flat roof. Left behind was a gaping hole of what used to be a vintage diner that opened in 1959 as the Towne 30 Diner along the original alignment of the Lincoln Highway .
The landmark, vacant for years and operating as a restaurant sporadically in recent decades, had lost much of its charm.
“It’s sad,” Otto said. “It was like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s become more of a nuisance.’ People were sleeping on the steps and things like that.”