Does anyone know if at any time/place (say pre-20th Century) there was in operation any kind of 24-hour shops available to the general public.
I’m guessing that train stations in major hub cities (New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Kansas City) had some businesses that were open all day, such as a diner or a newsstand.
LL Bean’s HQ store in Maine is famously open 24hrs a day. How long has this been the case? Not sure, but at least since the 70s; I suspect since the 50s or 60s.
Akk! I am a dolt. I got my centuries confused – damn you, new millennium!
I grew up in mill towns near Pittsburgh. My dad and grandfather were steelworkers.
Steel mills were one of the first industries to be run on a continuous, twenty-four hour schedule, for the simple reason that you need to keep them hot.
Shifts in the mills were organized to cover the full day. Typically, there would be a daylight shift, a four-to-twelve or swing shift and a midnight shift running until eight AM, when it all began again.
Typically, around the mills were a collection of newsstands, diners, convenience stores and bars. Even in the early days of the twentieth century, many of them did a booming business operating twenty-four hours or opening for shift changes.
Also, in the town of Clairton, Pennsylvania, the Blue Bird restaurant has operated as an “after hours” restaurant since 1924. They open every night at 9 PM and close at 4 AM.
Great food, too. If you ever go, I recommend the hot onion hamburger.
(Not really on topic, this last part. But I like to plug favorite places when I can.)