Know Your Neighborhood:  The Chatterbox & The Lite Bite 

North 3rd St. used to have two luncheonette style restaurants serving the people who worked in Old City, when almost no one actually lived in the neighborhood.

The Chatterbox, 234 N 3rd St was a one story box like building built in 1946 and added to in the rear in 1965.  It was torn down and the apartment (now condo) building 246 N 3rd St was built in the mid 1980's.  Nothing remains of the restaurant.

1972 view

                                                              234 N 3rd Today

The Lite Bite (263 N 3rd at Vine) closed in the 2008 after approx. 40 years serving breakfast & lunch to a changing neighborhood.  The one story building was torn down except for cast iron columns that matched those on the block and had been covered up by the wood exterior of the restaurant.  The original building was 4 stories high (matching the rest of the block) and was built around 1840.  At some point the top stories were removed and the exterior clad in wood and stucco.

1966

                                                                       2010

                                                                          2011

                                                                   2012

                                                                    Today

In 2013 a new, modern building was built, incorporating the original cast iron columns, though the builder ended the windows and doors short of the cast iron lintels, which would have made the 1840 element fit in much better with the modern building.