Miss Melissa’s Café, which turned 80 in 2007, began life in 1927 as a diner in a hotel on Market Street, run by Rufus and Melissa Wiggins.

In 1930, Rufus Wiggins got a job at Elliott’s Drugstore across the street, and soon after that, his wife Melissa opened a small dining area in the store, consisting of two tables, four stools and a counter.

According to the café’s records of those depression-era years, hot dogs & hamburgers were 5 cents, as was all the coffee you could drink; while hot meals of meat, two vegetables, a salad and drink would set you back 25 cents including tax.

In 1957, Miss Melissa’s moved back across the street to 384 Market Street, where the diner remains to this day. At the time, the location was occupied by a former Ford automobile dealership.

The couple retired in 1968 and leased the café until 1983 when the Wiggins’ son Billy took it over. Even though she stopped running the restaurant full time in 1968, Miss Melissa was a fixture at her namesake establishment; offering advice, making sure things were done properly and even doing a little cooking until her death at 94,  six years ago.

Current owner Larry Taylor, who bought the café from Billy Wiggins 2 years ago, closed the café for about a month after Christmas for a major remodeling that included converting a storage room behind the store into a large dinning room more than doubling the capacity of the café.

“This place has a long history” Taylor said “and we want to keep it going”