03/25/2008
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Morning Sentinel staff photo
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Morning Sentinel staff photofrom the Kennebec Journal
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The long awaited event snarled traffic in both directions on the busy Wilton Road as the five-mile journey, a trip that normally takes about 12 minutes, stretched longer than an hour and a half.
Electrical and phone lines, cable TV and traffic signals all had to be lifted up and out of the way by workers who hovered around the diner inside swiveling buckets atop slow-moving trucks.
All along the route, residents and workers paused to watch. Some waved and many took photos.
The challenging part was when the "parade" reached Wilton.
Jim Nickerson, owner of Nickerson Building Movers of Kingfield, and his crew had to move the unwieldy flatbed and its 35-ton load around a sharp corner onto Cemetery Road. They backed up a slight incline and rotated it into a tight, plowed area on a piece of land owned by the new owner, Rachel Jackson-Hodsdon.
Complicating things further were the huge rock-hard snow banks on the lot. Under the permit from the Wilton Planning Board, the diner had to be 50 feet from the road.
With the trailer backed right up to the bank and angled a bit, there was just enough room.
"We just made it," said a smiling Seth Nickerson, the foreman, after measuring the distance to the street.
His father, Jim Nickerson, said moving the diner was relatively easy compared to large, old, wood-frame buildings he moves much longer distances and out-of-state. "It's another day of work," he said. "I'm just glad we could help save it."
Nickerson's crew also included Jeremy Norton, Howard Pond and Rebecca Cole.
For now, the circa-1948, stainless steel and chrome Mountain View diner that had been a landmark on Main Street since 1961 will remain in this quiet, residential neighborhood.
A permanent location has not yet been decided.
"After all we've gone through, I am so relieved to have it just sitting here. Now the work begins," said Jackson-Hodsdon, who had her 10-year-old son, Caleb, along to watch the activity.
The diner was serving three meals a day until it closed in December. Former owner Russell Wood sold the property it sat on to Bruce Carrier, the developer for the new Rite Aid. Carrier gave Wood until February to find a buyer for the diner itself.
In the following weeks, Wood hoped to find a buyer willing to pay $15,000.
Carrier eventually took ownership of the diner and sold it to Jackson-Hodsdon for a ceremonial $1.
As the weeks have passed and snowstorms and red tape delayed the move, Rite Aid's construction inched closer to the building.
Project manager for H.T. Winter, Rob Bernier, said on Monday he was glad to get the diner out of the way.
"All the utilities run right under it and we are champing at the bit," he said.
Jackson-Hodsdon said she went inside the diner last week and was pleasantly surprised to find it was not in a complete shambles, as she had feared.
"It has a really cool feeling inside. The booths and stools at the counter are still there, the stainless steel ceiling and walls are in good condition and it will look a lot better with a good cleaning," she said.
Her plan is to convert it to a restaurant that sells fresh, Maine-grown food. She is also compiling a book that will have photos, stories and recollections of former diner patrons. The project could help defray her costs, she said.
"It is amazing how many people have diner stories to tell," she said.
It cost $15,000 to move the building and she said she will have a better idea of how much it will cost to restore it when she gets inside.
Ron Greenwood, a contractor from West Farmington, helped bring the diner to Farmington in 1961 with his father, Sully, who was also a contractor. The building was bought by Ron Greenwood's father-in-law, Hugh Stewart, to add on to Stewart's Diner where people could order hamburgers smothered in onions, hot dogs and fried clams from morning until after midnight.
"It was the only place open at 2 a.m. and after the games at Hippach Field and the dances, that place would be mobbed," Greenwood said.
"You could faint and not hit the floor."
Anyone who would like to contribute a story about the diner or contact Jackson-Hodsdon may e-mail her at thefarmingtondiner@yahoo.com or write to her at Socially Important Project, P.O. Box 126, East Wilton, ME, 04234.
Betty Jespersen -- 778-6991
bjespersen@centralmaine.com
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