Wednesday Blog Watch - White Towers

Returning home for Thanksgiving can provoke a sense of nostalgia for old childhood places.  The MIT Press recently re-released White Towers, our classic illustrated title that traces the theme and variations in the highly recognizable architecture of the White Tower hamburger chain. 
The first White Tower opened in Wichita, Kansas, in 1921, and spread throughout the United States. More about the history (with photos) can be found here and here.  Read some nostalgic memories of the Camden, NJ White Towers here.  Listen to an audio episode about White Towers on "Engines of our Ingenuity". 
Where are these buildings now?  Many have been demolished, or now house pizza shops or diners.  A satellite image from GoogleMaps captures a perfect overhead shot of this old White Tower building in Baltimore - look at the shadow of the tower and the lights.  Here's another satellite shot of an ex-White Tower (now a falafel joint) in Cambridge, MA - the building looks like this today.
Also this beautiful set of photos taken by "psychorazine" on Flickr includes the old White Tower logo and look to be in this location in Dearborn, Michigan.  And here's another nice Flickr photo showing the distinctive font used by White Tower.
Finally, as Gothamist reports,

All New York locations of nickel hamburger chain White Towers, one-time fierce competitor of White Castle, whose waitresses donned bright starched nurse’s uniforms and caps to project an aura of food safety, have all been closed since the 1970’s. There are rumors that a few old White Towers buildings still exist in the South Bronx, likely repurposed a few generations over by other businesses since the 1970’s, but with their telltale towers intact, ghosts of the restaurant world.

Comments

[john]

just doing some research and found some discrepancy on where white tower began.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Tower_Hamburgers