Tony’s Barbershop, Brooklyn, NY
Diners, Cadillacs, neon signs and ice cream pastels– Leah Frances, eats, sleeps and breathes American nostalgia. She is the Canadian-born, Brooklyn-based photographer behind American Squares, my latest “where have you been all my life” instagram discovery. This is an account for bingeing on vintage Americana, predominantly stuck in the 1950s, sometimes jumping back to the 1930’s & 40s, or hopping forward to a fabulous 1970s diner now and again. A self-proclaimed observer of “the lovely and lovable world which quietly persists,” Leah was “raised on a steady diet of mid-century American cinema”. Through her lens, she seeks out the American ‘Golden Age’, and almost convinces us she’s literally found a portal to this bygone era where the modern world is still decades away and the American dream has yet to be abandoned…
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Herbert’s Typewriters, est. 1955, Bethlehem Pennsylvannia.
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Pacific North West, Vancouver WA
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Daddypops Diner in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.
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Mercury & 59 Cadillac
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Dominoes, Crown Heights, Brooklyn
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Quakertown, Pennsylvannia
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“The long-shuttered movie theater on Hellertown’s Main Street in Pennsylvania is going to reopen as a dental office and salon.”
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May’s Drive-in, celebrating 65 years, Berwick, PA
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Superior Suds, NY
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Long Island, NY
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I Kyu Noodle, formerly Foo Hong Chop Suey, Canadian Square, Victoria BC
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A.J. Lee Groc. Conf.
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Hot Tin, New Orleans, LA
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Long Island, NY
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Montauk, NJ. “We spent a lonely night at the Memory Motel, It’s on the ocean, I guess you know it well.” #therollingstones
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Hy-Way Bowl, Union, NJ
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Shore Lanes, est. 1954, Asbury Park, NJ
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The Pink Champagne Motel, opened 1957, Wildwoods, NJ
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New York City
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Duckett’s Barber Shop, Crown Heights, Brooklyn
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Travelette Hote, New Jersey
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Prime Burger, now closed, formerly at East 51st street, Manhattan
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The front bar at The White Horse Grill, established 1940, Berwick PA
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Wildwood, NJ
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Danny’s Continental Cocktail Lounge, Union, NJ
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Lee’s, Alexandria, VA
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Ocean Grove, NJ
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White Manna Diner, Autumn edition. Manufactured by Paramount Diners of Oakland, NJ in the late 1930s
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The White Horse Grill; another angle of this perfectly preserved 1940s diner. Berwick, PA.
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Broadway Diner, built 1927; Brooklyn, NY
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Easton, PA
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Boyertown, PA
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New Floridian Diner, Brooklyn NY
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Brooklyn, NY.
I don’t know about you but I’m finding all this very inspiring for an upcoming East Coast American road trip. Follow American Squares here for your daily dose of America’s memory lane.
