Artillery Hill Diner and Sinclair Oil Filling Station and Garage, Later the El Chico Drive-In Restaurant, 1968, Photographer William Edmund Barrett, Image Courtesy Virginia Room, Fairfax County Public Library

Like many diners of the period, the Artillery Hill Diner was constructed using an old streetcar. Cross had the trolley cut in half, with each section placed about 10’ apart on a cement block foundation. The trolley halves formed the outer walls of the diner, while a structure built down the center completed the building. This configuration gave the diner extra width. Cross likely purchased the streetcar from the Arlington and Fairfax Railway.

The streetcars were manufactured by the J. G. Brill Company, headquartered in Philadelphia. Identifying features of the streetcar include the placement of the doors, rivet construction, and the style of the roof, body, and bumpers. The roof was a Brill Plain Arch Roof, invented by J. G. Brill in 1910 to be lighter and stronger than the previous roof type. The new design increased head room, allowed for a better connection with the roof-mounted ventilating systems, and made it possible to increase the window height and improve the window arrangement. The metal roof was covered with a single piece of canvas, without seams, to make the roof waterproof.[5]

Interior of Car with Brill Plain Arch Roof, 1910, Brill Magazine, Courtesy Google Books

Sometime after 1940, the original Artillery Hill Diner streetcar windows were replaced with larger picture windows. The following photo shows the diner with the type of widows that were often a feature of a Brill streetcar.

Tourist Cabins, Diner, and Filling Station, ca. 1940, Image Courtesy Dennis Hogge

Close up of Tourist Cabins, Diner, and Filling Station Showing Original Streetcar Windows, ca. 1940, Image Courtesy Dennis Hogge

Increased vehicle ownership had a detrimental effect on interurban electric railways, including the Arlington & Fairfax Railway that had a terminus at the Town of Fairfax. The Arlington & Fairfax Railway operated from 1927 until early 1937 when the company was reorganized.[6] The company was auctioned off and became the Arlington & Fairfax Auto Railroad.[7]The new company ran streetcars that could run on both rails and road. The sale and conversion to a different vehicle type may have provided Cross with an opportunity to purchase the streetcar, since the timing of the diner’s construction coincided with the sale of the railway.

The Arlington & Fairfax Railway was formed in 1927 when the Washington–Virginia Railway went bankrupt and the trolley line and streetcars were split up for sale.[8] During World War I, the Washington–Virginia Railway purchased 22 electric streetcars from the J. G. Brill Company. Most were needed to support the new rail extension to Fort Humphreys (now Fort Belvoir), which was completed in 1918.[9] The type of streetcar Cross used to construct his diner matches these streetcars. J. G. Brill Co. manufactured an identical model in 1918 for the Philadelphia Liner.[10]

Philadelphia Liner Streetcar, 1918, Brill Magazine, Courtesy Google Books

Some of the streetcars purchased by the Washington–Virginia Railway ended up in Canada in the 1940s.

Former Washington–Virginia Railway Streetcar, Image Courtesy St. Catherines Public Library

The filling station with repair garage was built after the diner. In 1938, Cross leased the land between the fort and the diner to the Sinclair Refining Company. The lease agreement noted that the beginning point of the boundary would be approximately 200’ feet from Civil War Fortress. Cross had already built the service station at the time of the lease. It was constructed of cinder block and measured 24’x26’. Well water and septic were connected to the building.[11]

Cross sold the land next to the diner, where the remnants of the fort were located, to Robert Dye in 1943. The agreement required Cross to relinquish the lease to Sinclair Oil.[12] Cross sold the diner to James and Helen Sullivan in 1944.[13] The diner was operated by Everett and Elva Simpson at least by 1946 when they filed for a fictitious name for their company, trading as “Artillery Hill Diner.”[14] In 1962, the diner was operated by Clarence Wilber and Harry Blevens as El Chico Drive In.[15] The fictitious name was renewed in 1966 when the restaurant was run by Paul Kennet Wyatt.[16]

By 1971 the diner, garage, and cabins had been demolished.[17]