In 1956, Jay’s Drive-In opened as a booming business. Fifty-three years later, loyal patrons of Jay’s Sandwich Shop watched last week as one of the last remnants of the “old Harlan” came to an end.

The business had operated as Jay’s Sandwich Shop in the Wheeler Building since 1968 until the last meal was served on April 26. Former owner Margaret Downs Gregory, the widow of Jay Downs, said she was sad to hear of the shop’s closing.

“It was a good place, and I’ve got a lot of good memories there,” said Downs, who currently resides in Corbin. “I had a booming business — a great business. The people in Harlan were really, really good to me.”

Downs said she never planned on working in the restaurant business, but the idea came up when her and her late husband were working together at Bower’s.

“I was working on the ladies’ side, my husband was working on the men’s side,” said Downs. “One day he said, ‘I’m tired of folding shirts and selling shoes — we’re going to go into business for ourselves.’”

“We just went into it and started as a little hamburger place and a drive-in,” said Downs.

Jay’s Drive-In was located in Baxter near the old bridge and coal monument. They operated there until 1968, when they sold the drive-in to Ken Moody and moved into the Wheeler Building.

At that time, downtown Harlan was full of locally owned restaurants, including Ackley’s, Pop’s Cafe, Townsite, Creech Drug and Howard Drug.

“It’s different now,” said Downs. “We’ve been gone for 20 years ... (but) I still have a soft spot in my heart for Harlan.”

Jay Downs passed away in 1973, but Margaret Downs continued to operate the business herself until 1980, when she sold Jay’s Sandwich Shop to Mona Couch. The most recent owner was Ronnie Bingham, who could not be reached for comment.

Many of the restaurant’s patrons have been upset including local writer Charlotte Nolan, who said she had breakfast at Jay’s Sandwich Shop nearly every day for the last 30 years. According to Nolan, the shop was one of the last remnants of the downtown Harlan she grew up with, as well as a social hub for the people working and living in downtown today.

Businessman and Harlan council member Grady Lee was part of the shop’s loyal Sunday crowd, and said he hated to see it close.

“There’s no place quite like Jay’s,” said Lee. “It was a gathering place. You saw the same people there all the time.”

Now, Lee speculates that Jay’s morning crowd will be dispersed to several fast-food places around town, which aren’t the same to him.

“It’s a different atmosphere. People drive to get there. A lot of people that went to Jay’s had to walk,” said Lee.