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GLOVERSVILLE — A short byway now shares the name of a longstanding legacy in Fulton County.
Vine Street in Gloversville has been renamed Palace Way in honor of an eponymous, nearly century-old diner around the corner. City lawmakers approved the change Tuesday night.
The change falls on the diner’s 100th year in operation. It’s among a small group of businesses in the Gloves Cities area to hit that mark, including Rossbach Shoes and Castiglione Jewelers.
“That’s what it’s really all about,” said resolution sponsor Arthur Simonds, R-2nd Ward.
The restaurant arrived by train from Bayonne, N.J. in August of 1923. It was first owned by Albert Main for 14 years and then passed down to nephew Carlton Clute for 37 years.
Advertisements from the former Gloversville Morning Herald show the lunchbox billed as the “Largest and most sanitary in the world.” Originally 37 feet long and seven feet wide, the Palace Diner hasn’t changed much since it received a seven-foot addition in the 1940s.
Simonds remembers ordering bacon and eggs with his father at the establishment as early as 1958.
“Every place was packed and it was just one of those places on South Main Street,” said Simonds. “Workers, a lot of the construction guys were all eating there.”
It was buzzing around the clock. Now-Gloversville Mayor Vincent DeSantis would stop by with his friends in the “wee hours” of the morning during the 1960s.
“Of course, I haven’t done that in a very, very long time,” he said with a chuckle.
Gloversville and Johnstown were once teeming with diners, anchored by a hungry crowd of leatherstocking workers. As deindustrialization led to depopulation, the bustle subsided and hours were cut.
Gone is the Clute’s second Palace Diner location on North Comrie Avenue in Johnstown, which opened in 1959.
Johnstown Historian Noel Levee remembers the establishment in business around the 1980s. The arterial, he recalled, was less corporate at the time.
“I remember I was reenacting at that time when the British troops would come to Johnson Hall at camp, some of them would eat at the [Johnstown] Palace Diner because one of its signs said, ‘Meals fit for a king,'” said Levee.
Anthony Sena, a worker, took over operations at the Clute’s first location in 1974 and remained at the wheel until his 2014 death.
The Sena family has owned the Palace Diner for about 50 years. Jackie Sena took charge of the business with her sons, Richard and Tony Jr. following the death of the family patriarch in 2014.
Tony Sena Jr. on Tuesday morning said that he didn’t know about the then-proposal to rename Vine Street. None of the other partners immediately responded to a request for comment.
The proposal required some input from the Planning Board before going to the Common Council.
The city originally wanted to hold an event to celebrate the milestone anniversary, but the owners “didn’t really want anything big,” according to DeSantis.
Tyler A. McNeil can be reached at 518-395-3047 or [email protected]. Follow him on Facebook at Tyler A. McNeil, Daily Gazette or Twitter @TylerAMcNeil
