M&G Diner was completely dismantled last week and now the last historic Harlem eatery of this nature will also be removed over in Manhattanville. A dumpster has been set up in the past couple of weeks out front of 659 West 131st Street and 12th Avenue which was more recently the West Market Diner (top photo c. 2002 by Stephen A Scheer) until about 2004. Demolition for the new Columbia Manhattanville Campus has not arrived as far west as Twelth Avenue and this Deco diner will be one of the first structures to go on that side of the campus. Our past post revealed that this was the original site of Gibb's Diner and was built back in 1921: LINK. Like the M&G situation, there is a bit of good news here since Columbia has stated they will store the Art Deco interior of the diner until one of the new building storefronts can reclaim it.
Not everything that's old is worth of preservation. I doubt it will be missed.
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