FARMINGTON – “Went perfect” was how Jim Nickerson described the approximate six-mile move for the Farmington Diner to East Wilton on Monday.

“Central Maine Power and Verizon workers had the lines ready, and we moved right along and hardly stopped,” he said of the trip from the Intervale in Farmington to Cemetery Road just off Routes 2 and 4. The diner was on its new lot before 1 p.m., he said.

State, county and Farmington police along with two Central Maine Power and two Verizon trucks and Bee Line Cable company accompanied the Nickerson Movers’ six-man crew. Power and phone lines were lifted for the 18½-foot-high structure to pass.

People stood along the road with cameras and cell phones with cameras, Nickerson said, as the building slowed traffic along the way.

The old railroad car-style eatery closed late last year after the Intervale land it sat on was sold to Rite-Aid for a new pharmacy store. The former Lewiston Diner was moved to the Intervale in the early 1960s by Hugh Stewart to replace the small wooden structure where he sold hamburgers, hot dogs and the town’s first taste of Italian sandwiches, said his daughter, Rosalie Perkins, earlier this year. His previous structure became the kitchen to the approximate 12- by 40-foot metal diner.

The move only took about an hour and went smoothly until the turn onto Cemetery Road could not be made. The movers had to back the diner up the short distance from the main road to the lot. Then, the truck did not have room to maneuver with the turn and snowbanks at the site. After taking the trailer off the truck, the truck started up a hill, reconnected with the trailer and was able to pull it forward and then back it on to the site, new owner Rachel Jackson Hodsdon said.

“It’s there and pretty much in one piece,” she said, chuckling because a couple of windows didn’t quite make it intact. The timing of the move has been in question for more than a month.

Jackson Hodsdon came forward to purchase the diner in mid-February when hopes to save it were quickly fading. Hodsdon felt it would be a shame to have it destroyed and purchased the building for $1 from Rite-Aid developer Bruce Carrier, who returned the dollar. She invested $15,000 to move it to her property in Wilton where she secured a permit to temporarily store the structure.

State Sen. Walter Gooley of Farmington stopped on his way to Augusta on Monday to join the media photo coverage of the preparations.

“It’s a changing of the guard,” he said. “Sorry to see it go.”

Rural Maine is changing, he added as he spoke of the all the folks who have stopped at the diner for coffee and breakfast over the years.

Standing in the morning cold to watch the start of the move, Randy Marchetti of Farmington said he has started the day at the diner over the past 20 years. He wasn’t happy to see it go.

Former SAD 9 bus driver Ted Dyke waited in the Park and Ride for the diner to pass. He and half a dozen other drivers would meet at 5:30 mornings for coffee and muffins to start the day before he retired, he said.

He remembered the start of the diner but didn’t remember people watching it come in like they were watching it leave Monday, he said.

A popular breakfast and meal stop for area patrons, the diner was also the scene for business transactions, according to breakfast diners last fall.

Although Hodsdon admitted Monday that she wasn’t a patron of the Farmington Diner, she hopes to use her restaurant experience to develop a community project, one that perhaps will feature local foods, she said. She has ideas but is ready to hear more.

She is asking people to send memories, stories and photos of the diner to her. Either e-mail them to: [email protected] or mail to: SIP, P.O. Box 126, East Wilton, ME 04234. She wants to compile them into a book or some other format to record the history of the diner, she said.