When he opened the restaurant, Horace “Whitey” Prevatte had no idea the success heading his way. More than 50 years later, Whitey’s has served its last cup of coffee, and Prevatte will have to find a new way to spend his day.

“It’s always been a fun place,” said Prevatte. “When I wake up in the morning, I can’t wait to get in here.”

Prevatte, who along with his sons Brian and Mike, have decided to tear down the historic restaurant. The family also owned the El-Berta Motor Inn next to Whitey’s, and a few years ago razed that facility. The family will build a Walgreens drug store on the lot at Market Street and Kerr Avenue.

The impetus for the decision stems from traffic. After years of study, the state Department of Transportation decided that expansion of Kerr Avenue is necessary. To expand the road, Prevatte explained, the DOT plans on putting road through half of the Whitey’s dining room.

Construction on the site will begin in January, and the Prevattes hope the Walgreens will open by September 2011. The Prevatte family will sign a minimum of a 25-year lease on the two-acre lot with the drug store giant.

Whitey Prevatte decided to open the restaurant after working as a dining-car steward for the railroad in the 1940s and early 1950s. In April 1953,working his customary route from New York to Miami, the train burst into wreckage in Dillon, S.C., in a tragic accident in which nine train employees were killed.

“Nine people died and a lot were injured, and I didn’t have a scratch on me. Not a scratch,” Whitey said.

After that, he decided his time on the railroads was through. Prevatte opened Whitey’s restaurant shortly thereafter and hasn’t looked back. Over time, the family has extended its holding to hotels, real estate and shopping centers.

Mike Prevatte said there were discussions of making Whitey’s a historic landmark, though the restaurant was deemed not to meet the necessary architectural criteria. The script Whitey’s sign standing above the restaurant may not meet historical criteria, though many people were spotted getting a picture with the nostalgic sign as the background. In a way this could prove a more accurate determination of historic criteria than architectural design.

“This restaurant has been a true blessing for our family. None of this stuff would have ever happened without the restaurant,” Brian Prevatte said.

For Whitey Prevatte, it is hard to believe he will slow down.  The silver haired man pops up and down out of his chair, attending a cup of soup while thanking customers for years, perhaps decades, of patronage.

Whitey even employed Wilmington’s most famous son for a summer. Michael Jordan worked landscaping and maintenance at the El-Berta, cleaning the pool and cutting the grass.

“We heard he was a good basketball player, but we had no idea what he’d become,” Mike Prevatte said. Jordan was only a junior in high school then, and had not yet grown to his full 6’6” frame.

The pictures throughout the restaurant show the range of clientele that passed through the doors, including US Rep. Mike McIntyre all the way to a dated photo of a man in a highway patrol uniform labeled simply as Clark.

“We had a lot of fun,” Whitey said.