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The Mark Twain Dinette, 400 N. Third Street, Hannibal, Missouri, has long been associated with a large root beer mug on a pole. Roadarch, a roadside-architecture site, reports that the Dinette joined the Frostop chain in 1963 and that a replacement mug, repainted with the Dinette's name, was installed in 2018. The restaurant, which a 2017 Hannibal.net report says opened in 1942 as a 13-seat restaurant, lists homemade root beer among its staples.
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Mark Twain Dinette mug
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Site-level location · 39.7112° N, 91.3563° W
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The story
The Mark Twain Dinette in Hannibal, Missouri, has a long association with a root beer mug sign, a legacy of the restaurant's years in the Frostop chain.
Roadarch, a roadside-architecture site, says the Dinette opened in 1942 in a Valentine diner, joined the Frostop chain in 1963 and had its first mug sign installed that year. After the Frostop relationship ended, around the 1970s, the sign was repainted with the Dinette's name. A storm destroyed that original mug around 2011. The replacement came from a closed Frostop in Monroe City, Missouri, was repainted for the Dinette and installed in 2018. Roadarch, whose page is undated, says the replacement lacks the raised foam piece around the rim that the original mugs had, and that its motor was replaced in 2020 so the mug could keep spinning.
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400 N. 3rd St., Hannibal, MO.
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