Category:Steckline's Diner, Allentown, Pennsylvania

English: Owned by Charles Steckline, an Allentown restauranteur in the 1950s and 1960s. Steckline owned and operated several restaurants in the city, one of them being the Diner at 6th and Linden Streets (601 Linden Street).

Steckline was born in Reading in 1917, and moved to Allentown in 1949. He purchased Moore's Diner diner at the northwest corner Tenth and Hamilton Street (1001 Hamilton) in March 1950. Moore's was established in the fall of 1939 on the empty lot of the razed Columbia Hotel. Steckline moved the diner to Tenth and Maple Streets (15 South Tenth Street) in May 1950 after he had built a concrete foundation and had utility service put into the new location. Park & Shop, a parking lot operator, had purchased the land which the Diner was located on. At the same time, he operated the lunch bar at the Allentown Bus Station on South Sixth Street.

Steckline bought the diner at Sixth and Linden in November 1953. He operated both locations until 1958 when he sold the Tenth Street diner to Elliot Holden, who worked for Steckline. In 1955, he remodeled the facility and expanded the dining. He took out the soda fountain and covered the aluminum exterior with wood paneling.

In March 1962, he bought the Har-Miks restaurant at 820 Hamilton, then renovated it. It became Bud's Steaks, a short-order restaurant. In 1969, Steckline sold the diner on Linden Street to Elliot Holden, who owned the former Steckline's just south of Tenth and Hamilton. In turn, Holden sold his diner at 15 South Tenth Street to Ina Yanett, who operated it as Ina's Diner until retiring in 1977. Today it's a parking lot.

Holden operated the diner at sixth and linden as Holden's Diner until 1993 when he retired. After his retirement, it went though several hands before closing for good in 1998. It was torn down in May 1999, eventually becoming an Allentown Parking Authority parking deck and a LANTA bus transfer station in 2010.

After selling the Sixth and Linden property, The next year, 1970, Steckline purchased the Hillwig's House of Cards property at 822 Hamilton, and operated both the Steak house at 820 and the card businesses at 822. In November 1972 he sold the card shop to Florence Schmidt, which was renamed Schmidt's House of Cards.

In July 1975, Charles Steckline died. After his death, the surviving family retired from the restaurant bushiness and the properties on Hamilton Street were sold.