BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – Located in downtown Bellows Falls, the Miss Bellows Falls Diner has been a longtime mainstay since its arrival in 1944, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Unfortunately, the landmark eatery has been closed for several years; however, the local nonprofit Rockingham For Progress (RFP) have taken matters into their own hands, and now have a plan in motion to resurrect the once-popular diner.
“In December of 2022, Charlie Hunter and Jeff Dunbar started casually discussing the possibility of reviving the diner as a community supported enterprise,” Bonnie North said in a previous Shopper interview. North is the president of the RFP group. “Charlie and I were both on the board for RFP, a nonprofit formed in 2016, and we both felt RFP was the appropriate entity to step up and make this happen.”
The nonprofit met with the former owner of the diner Brian McAllister, took a closer look at the diner, and then consulted with Brian Doyle from the Preservation Trust and renowned diner restoration expert Richard J. S. Gutman, and devised a plan to purchase the eatery. Then, in January, RFP put down a deposit and signed a purchase and sale agreement with McAllister, before the sale was made final in June.
Since then, limited fundraising has been successful, and RFP has been applying for various state and federal funds – including receiving a grant from the State of Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation – and have hired Andrew Dey Consulting to serve as project manager.
Jeff Dunbar also recently attended a two-day retreat, hosted by the Preservation Trust of Vermont and focusing on community revitalization through nonprofit ownership. “Our vision is to restore the diner car to its original glory, and keep the Miss Bellows Falls Diner as a contributing asset in our community for generations to come,” Dunbar said in a recent interview. “The project will include the restoration of the dining car itself, plus a redesign and rebuild of the kitchen, dining area, and bathroom addition, to better support the successful operation of the diner.”
In the first half of 2023, in what RFP calls “Phase 1A” of the diner fundraising program, they successfully raised $100,000 in private donations. Now in “Phase 1B,” the goal is to raise another $100,000 by year’s end; they have now reached 60% of that goal. Then, in 2024, another $50,000 in donations will be the next goal. Along with the continuation of fundraising, RFP’s focus over the next several months will include working on the conceptual design phase of the diner with Raphael Rosner of the Austin Design Cooperative, and continuing to identify and apply for further project funding through grants and other sources.
“RFP is extremely grateful for the significant local support we continue to receive,” Dunbar concluded. “We know, by necessity, that this undertaking is monumental, and that it will require the additional support of many. It is our hope that necessary additional funding can be secured through grants.”