Before McDonald's and Starbucks, Americans packed these once-beloved lunch counters

Long before fast-food counters and coffee shops became fixtures of American life, luncheonettes gave generations of Americans an inexpensive place to grab a meal — and helped change where women could eat, work and socialize in public. The casual restaurants serving simple, inexpensive meals, typically at a lunch counter, began emerging in the late 19th century. They boomed during the 1910s and 1920s and remained popular through the mid-20th century. Woolworth's, S.H. Kress, S.S. Kresge, Walgreen