A bright neon sign with chasing lights once welcomed hungry guests for turkey club specials and late night burgers.
Students at the Hazleton Area Career Center created sparks on Monday as they used welders and grinders to repair the sign from a bygone era.
The Blue Comet Diner, located at South Church and West Chestnut streets in Hazleton, closed in 2011. Students from the career center began restoring the sign this spring. When finished, the sign will be on display at the Greater Hazleton Historical Society and Museum.
The sign will join others from closed businesses in the Hazleton area, including Knotty Pine Restaurant, Empire Cleaners and the Hazleton Hotel. The museum opens about nine times a year, drawing visitors who have moved out of the area and want to relive memories from the closed establishments, said Tom Gabos, museum president.
The Blue Comet sign, which featured neon-lit lettering and a comet tail with chasing lights, became a landmark along South Church Street.
“I went quite a bit,” Gabos said. “The food was always good. It was one place that was open late.”
The first version of the Blue Comet opened at the location in 1931, followed by another diner at the same place in 1939.
An article in the Plain Speaker newspaper in 1939 noted the restaurant’s air conditioning would allow ladies to “dine in comfort.” The community grew, making it through the Great Depression and World War II. in 1957, Louis and John Pantazis and George Barthalmus opened a larger, more modern diner at the same location.
The Greater Wyoming Valley YMCA now owns the property, thanks to help from developer Rob Mericle and his family. The Mericle Family Center YMCA, located next door to the closed restaurant, will raze the diner and expand, Megan Kennedy, chair of the YMCA’s Hazleton Advisory Council and a Greater Wyoming Valley YMCA board member, said at a ribbon cutting in January.
Two miles away on Monday, students in the Hazleton Area School District’s collision repair technology class worked on sign restoration.
“Right now we're just fixing up the holes on it, welding it together, taking off the paint,” explained senior Jaythian Pena, who plans to pursue a career working on cars.
The process of restoring the sign is similar to fixing the body of a car, he said.
Shawn Yachera, collision repair technology instructor, hopes other classes can work on the project too.
The drafting department may help with templates and stencils for painting. He hopes students in the electrical program can look at the lighting.
The historical society sought donations for the work, which Yachera hopes to have complete next year.
More than 600 students attend the district’s career center. Those in the collision repair class were either too young to remember dining at the Blue Comet or didn’t live in the area before the restaurant closed.
But they’ll leave a lasting mark on restoring the city’s past.
“That sense of accomplishment will be good for them. And not only that, it's a piece of Hazleton history,” Yachera said. “They'll be able to say, ‘Oh, we did that.’”
