Walter's Hot Dog Stand, Mamaroneck New York

Date added: June 30, 2022 Categories: New York Restaurant Roadside Attraction
Facing north (2010)

In 1919 Walter Harrington and his wife Rose ran a tire vulcanizing service with gas pumps in Mamaroneck, at the foot of Mamaroneck Avenue where it crosses the Boston Post Road to enter Harbor Island. According to a 1978 interview with Pat Goldschmidt, at this time Walter had purchased an apple orchard on Quaker Ridge in New Rochelle, much to his wife's dismay. "My wife was mad at me for putting out $35, a lot of money in those days, and buying the orchard." Walter then rented space in front of Tom Skinner's Floral shop, located further south on the Boston Post Road, and opened a roadside stand to sell his apples. He also sent out bushels of his apples to be made into cider. There were no hot dogs at this location.

Deeds have yet to be checked to determine the exact location of Skinner's property but, according to the recollection of several people, it was located between Rockland Avenue and a driveway that serviced the old Central School. Indeed, Walter mentioned in his 1978 interview that "The stand was near the old school and I brought the apples over in an old Model T Ford." It is not known how long Walter remained at this spot but it was probably for only a short time. He came up with two very significant ideas to expand his business. One was to get a place where he could set up his own cider press and save the cost of having his apples processed into cider. The second was to sell hot dogs.

The origins of the hot dog are somewhat obscure and seem to be in dispute, but a sausage in a roll in the United States was certainly popular by the time of the Columbian Exposition of 1893 and also became popular at baseball games around the same time. Supposedly they were sold at Coney Island by the late 1860's, before they were called hot dogs. But the advent of the hot dog stand likely came after the advent of the automobile, so that a hot dog or other food stand could be put almost anywhere along a highway, not just in a downtown.

For his new, expanded business, Walter found a great new location further south on the Boston Post Road in an area known as Shepard's Field. He rented it for "about $50 a month" from a Mr. Peticore. There was a one-story building there (whether pre-existing or built for Walter is not known) and it was there that he set up his new cider press and, most importantly, began selling hot dogs, but not just any hot dogs. Walter engaged a meat maker and between them they came up with the unique recipe for his own hot dog, a recipe still used today. He also began the practice of splitting and grilling the dog, also a trademark still practiced. In 1925, the Mamaroneck High School opened on the Post Road and students would come down to Walter's Shepard's Field stand on the Post Road for sandwiches and hot dogs.

After adding the hot dogs, business took off. In the 1978 interview, Walter recalled that when Mr. Peticore, his landlord, died, the new property owners wanted to increase the rent so he decided to move. Gene Warrington, his son, recalls that they wanted to triple the rent. Walter decided to purchase some property of his own. He bought a piece of property just up the street past the northern boundary of Shepard's Field at the bottom of the athletic field behind the Mamaroneck School. Blueprints were drawn up for a building that would have had a residence on the second floor. The foundation was poured and ready for construction when the school board condemned the property. They wanted to build a Junior High School on the site, which they did in 1931. So Walter went looking for another site and found it on Palmer Avenue, directly across from the hill upon which stood Mamaroneck High School.

The Palmer property that Walter purchased belonged to a Mr. and Mrs. Penn. It included a three-story residence believed to have been built in the late 1880s, a barn, and two large greenhouses (it may have been a nursery business at one time). At one point or another, Walter owned much of the property on the west side of Palmer Avenue. Over time he sold off the land where townhouse condominiums and houses now stand. While the stand was being built, Walter continued to sell hot dogs from a makeshift shack which was later stored up by the house for many years until vandals demolished it.

Charles Readie, a Mamaroneck resident, recounts that, according to his 73-year old sister, their uncle, Jim Mullens of Ortiz and Mullins, Mamaroneck, was a contractor for the building. Of the Pagoda design, Walter told Goldschmidt in the 1978 interview that he had asked a Chinese friend from Connecticut to draw up plans for a building that would be both attractive and strong. Walter said, "I liked the design right away." Shortly after this Walter had the north side deck extended. He built a platform to accommodate a cider press and storage underneath it for the barrels of cider. A heater that was used in the winter to keep the temperature in the cellar from reaching freezing is still in place. There was a hopper on the platform that the apples were poured into and then they were conveyed up to the press by an elevator. Gene Warrington and his brothers were charged with removing small branches and such from the hopper. Some of the paraphernalia from that process is still in the stand.

The HERALD, a local newspaper serving Mamaroneck and Larchmont wrote about the business in the issue they published on Friday, July 30th, 1937:

HOT DOG KING OFFERS TASTY BITS OF FOOD. Walter's Stand Serves and Satisfies Many Customers.

A wise philosopher once stated 'Build a better mousetrap and the world will make a beaten path to your doorstep.' This quotation certainly proves correct as to the success of Walter's Hot Dog Stand, located on Palmer Avenue opposite the Mamaroneck High School. The fact that Walter Harrington found a better method of cooking and serving the so-called 'hot dog,' or frankfurter, has made his road stand widely known for many miles around. You don't have to take our word for this either. Just look at the many motorists patronizing his stand any evening in the week.

From a small beginning about 20 years ago, this business has constantly grown in size, and justly so, when you consider the excellent quality of the food served and the courteous attention. Of course, you may have a variety of sandwiches, delicious ice cream, soft drinks or a minute steak that is fast becoming as popular as his famous 'hot dogs.' In the Fall and Winter seasons he sells cider that is unexcelled anywhere...

Walter Harrington is well known to residents of the Village of Mamaroneck. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and has always taken an active interest in all civic affairs and is ever ready to offer his help and assistance.

Walter ran the business until the late 1950s. He had three sons. The oldest, Joseph, was not involved in the business. Gene (the youngest) came into the business full time about a year and a half after World War II ended. Arthur (Artie) came in a few years later after Walter retired to the family farm in Whaleysville, Maryland. Gene later purchased the business when Artie retired.

There has been a long tradition of customers sending postcards to Walter's from all over the world, often proclaiming how much they missed a Walter's hot dog:

After looking over these Pacific Islands and Japan, I still haven't found a real hot dog.
- U.S. Army Postal Service, 1945

Guiness and Walter's Hot Dogs would be just perfect.
- Ireland, 2001

Thanks for the best Hot Dog in the world. Las Vegas needs a few Walter's stands out here.
- Nevada, USA, 2002

From the 6th floor of the agricultural building...135 degrees...perfect weather for a marine...and for a few of your Hot Dogs.
- An Nasiriyah, Iraq, 2004

When God created paradise He must have been thinking of Hydra, Greece. BUT He forgot your Hot Dog.
- Greece, 2002

I wish I had your secret for cooking Hot Dogs over here. I will be glad when I can come home and eat properly again.
- "Riding Shotgun" over Vietnam, 1969

Stuck in a tiny hut at 12,000 feet: All we can think of is how great it would be to have a tasty world famous Walter's Hot Dog.
- Nepal, 2003

Critical acclaim has also come from the media:

The very best hot dog in the metropolitan area, probably in the world, comes from a roadside stand in Mamaroneck called Walter's. But what hot dogs! They are fantastic. And even Walter's mustard is special... - Anthony Dyas-Blue, CBS Radio, 1978

The choice is unanimous: the best Hot Dog is at Walter's. It is the undisputed best...the taste is the envy of every other...and it is served in a special homemade mustard and relish mix.
- Gannet Westchester Newspapers, 1978

There are hot dogs and there are hot dogs. But in Westchester there is only one hot dog worthy of the name and it is sold in only one place... Walter's.
- New York Times, 1979

Ranked Number One Hot Dog in the Country: Walter's is a pagoda-shaped roadside stand that has been serving incomparable hot dogs since 1919.
- Gourmet Magazine, October, 2001

Quick Bite/Mamaroneck: This Is No Street Corner Hot Dog: As Labor Day looms, we're inclined to perform a few last rites of summer, to gaze at the Big Dipper or go jump in a lake. And it just wouldn't be summer without a trip to Walter's, the landmark hot dog stand in Mamaroneck.. - New York Times, September 3, 2006

In addition to the notoriety of its hot dogs, Walter's Hot Dog Stand is an amazing example of roadside architecture. Designed to resemble a Chinese or Japanese pagoda and to attract customers driving by, Walter's was originally in a relatively sparsely settled area of the village of Mamaroneck, but close to the heavily traveled Old Boston Post Road and directly across the street from the newly opened Mamaroneck High School. Although students were not allowed off the school property at lunch time, evidently some would sneak out and patronize the stand. Also, Walter's provided employment to many students during the busy summer months. Unlike the Big Duck in Suffolk County (built 1930-31), which was designed to resemble the product that was for sale there (ducks), Walter's was just a fanciful design, with its eye-catching copper roof as well as the great food.

In Chester Lieb's book Main Street to Miracle Mile, he credits the popularization of the automobile with the new phenomenon of roadside architecture.

About the time of World War I, sharp-eyed entrepreneurs began, almost spontaneously, to see ways to profit from the motorist's freedom to halt the windshield movie and step out into the picture. Shops could be set up almost anywhere the law allowed, and a wide variety of products and services could be counted on to sell briskly in the roadside marketplace... Soon Gas stations, produce booths, hot dog stands, and tourist camps sprouted up along the nation's roadsides to capitalize on these needs. As competition increased, merchants looked for new ways to snag the market wheel. Each sign and building had to visually shout: "Slow down, pull in, and buy."

In a search of files at the New York State Historic Preservation Office, very few examples of buildings designed to resemble pagodas were found, other than small garden structures and a rather unusual former pump house in a Johnson City park that was built c. 1925 out of concrete encrusted with junk. The Wadhams Oil Company filling stations in the Midwest were built in the 1920's and designed to resemble pagodas - several of these survive. So, Walter Harrington built himself a unique building and an instant landmark, which it remains to this day. Walter Harrington retired in 1952 and his son Gene now owns the stand, with grandchildren, great-grandchildren, other family members, and students running the business.