The Last Operating Woolworth’s Lunch Counter Will Be Up and Running Once Again in California

A neighborhood icon, the Bakersfield luncheonette will mix modern design touches with classic decor

The last operating Woolworth lunch counter, in Bakersfield, California.
The last operating Woolworth lunch counter, in Bakersfield, California, seen in the 1990s. Courtesy of Emily Waite

When its first lunch counter opened in New Albany, Indiana, around 1923, the F.W. Woolworth Company was already known for innovation. Founded by Frank Winfield Woolworth in New York in 1879, the retail chain sold staple items from pencils to baseballs at low prices, often just a nickel or a dime, a revolutionary concept that helped Woolworth’s expand to 5,500 five-and-dime stores nationwide at its peak. Then, the company took the concept a step further by offering shoppers an affordable meal.  

A 1939 menu featured cubed minute steak, pan gravy and buttered beets with a roll and French fries for 25 cents—about $5.68 today. Like many public spaces in the mid-1900s, some lunch counters were subject to Jim Crow laws, and thereby inadvertent political crucibles. In 1960 four Black college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, launched a sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter to protest segregation. The sit-ins spread to more than a hundred cities, and within six months, the Greensboro lunch counter—now part of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History—was desegregated. A counter stool is also on view at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. (Last month, erroneous news reports falsely claimed the lunch counter artifacts were being removed from display.)

a lunch counter on display at the American History Museum
Four stools and a section of the lunch counter from the Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth’s, where silent protests against discrimination were held, are on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. “These objects have been on view for more than 30 years, and their display is central to our mission to explore, preserve and share the complexity of our past,” said Anthea M. Hartig, the museum’s director. NMAH

Woolworth’s dominance was challenged by a boom in discount retailers, and by 1997 the company closed its 400 remaining U.S. stores. The last operating lunch counter, in Bakersfield, California, no longer owned by Woolworth, closed in 2022. However, this June, that counter in Bakersfield is reopening, serving hot meals again, after renovations by husband-and-wife owners Emily and Sherod Waite, who have installed images of historical sit-ins above the luncheonette, as well as landmark pieces by artists of color from the 1930s to today.  

a vintage Woolworth's luncheonette sign above doors
While not a part of the building’s original design, this transom, installed in the 1960s, remains a prominent architectural element in the newly renovated space because of its historical significance to the public. Courtesy Katya Cengel

The kitchen equipment is all original—and still functioning, albeit with some challenges. The Waites also reupholstered the built-in red lunch stools in the original teal-and-peach color scheme and removed the laminate floor to uncover a charming terrazzo tile. And although it isn’t original, they’re keeping the sign over the door that reads “Visit Woolworth’s Luncheonette”; added in the 1960s, it’s iconic to locals, and the Waites would not dare mess with it. 

“I think the whole community would probably hang us out to dry if we replaced it, because they love that so much,” Emily says. 

Cover image of the Smithsonian Magazine June 2025 issue

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This article is a selection from the June 2025 issue of Smithsonian magazine

Katya Cengel is a freelance writer and author based in California. Her work has appeared in New York Times Magazine, Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post among other publications.

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