Talks to explore Lincoln Highway, Sac to San Fran

Gary Kinst will give a presentation tomorrow night about the Lincoln Highway, particularly the original 1913 route from Sacramento to San Francisco, California. The Lincoln Highway: Main Street Across America will be given Tuesday, Feb. 2, 7:00 p.m. at the Livermore Public Library in Livermore, CA. Borrowing its title from Drake Hokanson’s landmark book about the road, the talk will include both present-day and vintage photos. Kinst is the editor of the Lincoln Highway Association California Chapter’s newsletter The Traveler, and is a member of the Livermore Heritage Guild and Tracy Westside Pioneers.

Another treat is in store at the Livermore Library two weeks later when Bill Roe presents The Lincoln Highway by Bicycle on Feb. 23, 7:00p.m. In 1999,  Roe took two months to bike the Linoln Highway, some 3,000 miles through 13 states. Bill will share his trials, tribulations and triumphs as he climbs the Sierras, battles the elements, and encounters locals along the way.

Livermore Public Library
1188 S. Livermore Ave.
Livermore, CA 94550
(925) 373-5500

Lincoln Highway icon takes a tumble

It’s not often that an individual’s health gets reported on at Lincoln Highway News but Bernie Queneau is not your average Lincoln Highway fan. He is best known as one of the four scouts who crossed the U.S. on a safety and promotional tour in 1928. In recent years he’s resurfaced as the leading goodwill ambassador for the cross-country road. He can also be seen with wife Esther in the PBS video, A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway.

It was just a few years ago that Bernie married Esther, a past LHA president. Unfortunately she called to say that 97-year-old Bernie was in the exercise room when he accidentally slipped and broke his shoulder and knee. It may take a long time to recover but Esther felt it’s nothing he hasn’t overcome before. And we all expect to see them at the Lincoln Highway centennial celebration in three years! You can send get-well wishes to him c/o:

Providence Point
500 Providence Point Blvd
Pittsburgh, PA 15243

Winter weather exposes Omaha brick pavers

A story in the Omaha World-Herald has only a small but interesting Lincoln Highway connection. Harsh winter weather has created endless potholes in this eastern Nebraska city, including one at 42nd and Dodge Streets that has exposed a rail from the old city streetcar line and “bricks that were likely part of the Lincoln Highway.”

Rare coins found in “Lincoln Highway hoard”

New Jersey LHA director Al Pfingstl wrote to say that “Collectible Coins from New York” is advertising Lincoln Highway Hoard Morgan silver dollars. The coins, like the Lady Liberty here priced at $89, aren’t a LH relic but rather the collection was found along the Lincoln. (Note this coin is dated and labeled 1888 but the web site calls it 1902.) Find out more or buy one at www.newyorkmint.net/.

Thousands of motorists have traveled on the road in the century since it first opened. Little did they know that a quaint house they passed by in rural Pennsylvania was more than it seemed. Far from being the pastoral farmhouse in the middle of Amish country, the house contained a fortune in silver coins. Dubbed the “Lincoln Highway Hoard” for its proximity to the famed roadway, the stash contained over 8,000 Morgan Silver Dollars, including many scarce dates and mint marks secured directly from the release of the U.S. Treasury Hoard in the early 1960s.

This is the largest Morgan Silver Dollar hoard we’ve seen in decades. In fact, finding even small hoards of Morgan dollars is a rarity today. We couldn’t pass this opportunity up, and now we’re passing the deal on to New York Mint customers. The coin we’re offering here is an 1902-O Morgan Silver Dollar—struck at the famous New Orleans Mint. It comes graded and encapsulated by NGC in Mint State-63, Brilliant Uncirculated condition with a special pedigree label.

Lincoln Highway photos on neat stuff blog

At Atomic Antiques, Mark Stevens posts “neat stuff from the 20th century.” He recently posted these two cool Lincoln Highway images. Visit his page (scrolling down a bit) to see the photos larger and read a bit about them. Feel free to comment too.

Before visiting his site, can you identify the location of the first and the purpose behind the second?

S.S. Grand View Ship Hotel memorabilia for sale

Olga Herbert, executive director of the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor in Pennsylvania, has a friend who wants to sell his collection of Ship Hotel memorabilia. Anyone interested in purchasing part or all of the collection should send their name and phone # to Olga at office@LHHC.org. In about a week, she will send the info to him and he will follow up by telephone. NOTE: no portion of the profits will go to the LHHC, she is doing this as a favor since he doesn’t have e-mail.

The complete story of the Ship Hotel is due out in March in a book written by, well, me. I began researching the Ship in 1988 and became friends with Clara Gardner, granddaughter of founder Herbert Paulson. Clara is gone now but her children graciously permitted me to use many, many family photos. Look for more peeks inside the book in the coming months.

Lincoln Hwy in Truckee Canyon to serve bike trail

The Reno Gazette-Journal reported about a bike trail that will incorporate seven miles of the old Lincoln Highway near the California-Nevada border. For now, that section is the biggest missing link in the Tahoe-Pyramid Bikeway, a 116-mile path that follows the Truckee River from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake. The new part will be routed along I-80 and dirt roads from Boca Reservoir to Dog Valley Road in Verdi.

Janet Phillips, who founded the group of volunteers working on the project, said of the 10 new miles, seven miles will be on old roadbed from the Lincoln Highway and three miles of new construction will be required.

Phillips said, “There’s a huge transportation history in that canyon and we are going to bring some of it back to life.” A big obstacle was cleared December 10 when the Truckee-Donner Recreation and Park District Board approved an environmental study for the project that was required by California.

Snow and ice along the Lincoln Highway

We can dream of summer road trips this time of year but for now it’s only one month into Winter. Here’s a nice photo (if you like cold weather) from the Omaha World-Herald showing a Lincoln Way street sign in Woodbine, Iowa, known for it’s brick-paved stretch of Lincoln Highway.

2010 Buy-Way yard sale set for August

The Sixth Annual BUY-WAY Yard Sale along the Lincoln Highway has been set for August 5, 6 and 7, 2010. The leading state is Ohio, which last years had over 1,000 yard sale locations.

“Ohio started this, and parts of Indiana and Illinois soon joined in,” said Mike Hocker, executive director of the Historic Byway in Ohio, “and now there is talk of New Jersey and Iowa joining this year.”

The dates are now established to be the “first Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in August” and will occur along with the “Route 127 Sale” which crosses the Lincoln in Van Wert, Ohio, the same weekend.

A Travelers Guide will be distributed to businesses along the corridor for pick-up by shoppers in late July, and the official byway website, www.historicbyway.com will host free and paid listings of yard sales and other activities beginning in May.

Aurora IL mounts Lincoln Highway mural today

Various local editions of Suburban Chicago News are telling of work today about noon to mount a new Lincoln Highway mural in Aurora, Illinois. The 200-square-foot mural, spearheaded by the Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition, depicts the city nearly a century ago, when the Lincoln Highway was the premier transcontinental trail.

Coalition Associate Director Diane Rossiter explains, “Each mural is painted on what’s called di-bond – a vinyl clad aluminum product — so if a building is remodeled or torn down, we could take it down without losing it.” The mural is on the north wall of the La Quinta de Los Reyes restaurant, 50 N. Broadway. Click HERE to see the image below larger.

The project has been in the works for years, according to Sue Vos, head of the Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau…. Each mural costs roughly $10,000, but the cities and towns receiving them are asked to contribute very little, Vos said. Aurora was responsible for finding a building owner willing to host the mural and for installing the brackets to hang it. The image of a streetscape lit by electric street lamps was chosen by Vos, her staff and the Aurora Historical Society.

Aurora was the first community in Illinois to install electric streetlights in the early days of last century, which led to its official nickname: the City of Lights.

Visit drivelincolnhighway.com for more information on the Lincoln Highway Coalition and the murals.

NOTE: A nice UPDATE ran the day after.

42N blog visits Iowa Lincoln Highway bridge

Dave Chase posted a short story about the Lincoln Highway through Mt. Vernon, Iowa, on his blog 42N, which details life around the 42N latitude. His photo shows the Union Pacific tracks on the west end of town that are crossed by a bridge that carries the Lincoln Highway.

Dave took his photo from the original 1915 LH bridge. He has a link to bridgehunter.com that features images of that arched span, including the photo below by our friend J.R. Manning (you may have seen him on the road in his yellow Model A). His 2007 view is looking north from a preserved brick stretch to the rehabbed bridge, now for pedestrians only.

Snow covers the Lincoln Highway coast-to-coast

Much of the country is suffering from cold and snow, which means much of the Lincoln Highway is impassable. An Iowa TV station reports, “Deputies had to shut down part of old Lincoln Highway for a short time between Ames and Nevada.” A road worker added, “The road’s plugged up!” And once the road is cleared, it covers over right away so some trucks are not even attempting the job for safety.

My web site has selected weather updates along the Lincoln Highway at www.brianbutko.com/lh.gr.weather.html/. As you can see, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Iowa are below zero in addition to being snowed in.

’10 Illinois Lincoln Highway guides available

The 2010 Illinois Lincoln Highway Visitor Guide from the Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition is now available around the state or by mail. New features include a page about the completed interpretive gazebo project, a half page for the current interpretive mural project, and an easier-to-use map of the highway with icons for gazebos, murals and exhibits. Another change moved accommodation listings from each community to their own section.

Fill out the form here to get yours: www.drivelincolnhighway.com/visitorsguide.html or view and download a complete copy at www.drivelincolnhighway.com/LH2010guide.pdf/.

More on Lincoln Highway bricks that moved west

Updating yesterday’s story on Brian Cassler’s efforts to deliver bricks to Nebraska, dad Jim sent this photo and info on where they came from:

The bricks were uncovered in the summer of 2007 when Tuscarawas Street (the Lincoln Hwy through downtown Canton, Ohio) was unearthed as a part of a street renovation project. Former LHA president Bob Lichty asked the city to save them to be used for a future project. When the Archway requested bricks, we were able to fill their request.

The bricks will be used for a recreated stretch of the transcontinental road at the Great Platte River Road Archway that spans I-80 near Kearney in central Nebraska. Cleaning the bricks and arranging their transport was an Eagle Scout project for Brian Cassler. Jim operates the Lincoln Highway Trading Post.

Next gen gets Lincoln Highway bricks to archway

An Eagle Scout project for Brian Cassler will be a gift for Lincoln Highway fans forever. The Kearney Hub reports that Cassler’s efforts will result in a recreated stretch of the transcontinental road at the Great Platte River Road Archway that spans I-80 in central Nebraska. The Kearney paper has 25 photos online, as seen in the screen capture below.

“The original paving bricks are getting pretty rare,” said Ronnie O’Brien, director of education/operations at the archway. “We were going to contract with a brick company to recreate a piece of the Lincoln Highway.” Instead, workers in Canton, Ohio, a city of 78,000, found original bricks in 2008 while reconstructing city streets. Brian Cassler of Canton took on a project of cleaning, organizing and palletizing the [2,200] bricks from the famous highway.

Cassler, along with trucker Tim Wunsch of Fort Morgan, Colo., delivered the load of pavers to the archway Sunday. “The city of Canton donated the bricks to the archway to be used in the display,” O’Brien said. “The bricks had been under other construction, and they were dirty and in a huge pile. They needed to be cleaned up and scraped before they could be hauled here.” Cassler, who took on the project as part of his Eagle Scout requirements, spent several months preparing the bricks. Cassler’s father runs the Lincoln Highway Trading Post in Canton.

Check out highway merchandise at the Lincoln Highway Trading Post online store.

The Omaha World-Herald also ran a feature story about the project.

Article details Fraser’s Lincoln statue in NJ

An article at Inside SU, a news site for Syracuse University, relates the long and interesting story of a statue along the Lincoln Highway. That rendering of Abraham Lincoln along JFK Boulevard in Jersey City was created in 1930 by well-known sculptor James Earl Fraser; his “End of the Trail” portraying an exhausted Indian on a horse was at the time adjacent to the western terminus of the Lincoln Highway in San Francisco.

Lincoln statue photo by Kyle Weaver, from Lincoln Highway Companion.

The article also tells the tale of an identical bronze Lincoln in the courtyard outside Maxwell Hall at Syracuse and how the duplicate came to be.

Lincoln Highway on Belle Plaine, Iowa, mural

Van & Bev Becker wrote to say that Belle Plaine, Iowa, hopes to encourage tourism by promoting the Lincoln Highway and its importance to the town. Artists have been commissioned to paint historic scenes on local structures. The Beckers sent the photo below of a mural on the outside of the history museum at the corner of 12th St. & 9th Ave.

A word about the dates 1913 through 1937 that were used in the caption at the bottom of the mural.  The 1913 date is of course of the beginning of the Lincoln Highway; however, the 1937 date includes the early years when the Lincoln Highway was designated as US 30.  Early highway planners routed travelers miles to the south into the city of Belle Plaine to avoid the steep and muddy “Bohemie Alps.”  By the late ’30s, highway building techniques, including cut and fill, allowed the then-Highway 30 to run straight west through the extremely hilly region east of Tama, resulting in Belle Plaine being bypassed.  This new route straight through the Bohemie Alps is the road you will drive today if you follow Highway 30 between Cedar Rapids and Tama.

So the mural portrays the 1913 route through the terrain it was, in reality, avoiding.

Lincoln Highway bypass will alter Tama, Iowa

The WCF Courier of Eastern Iowa ran a lengthy feature about the impact of a coming US 30 bypass around Tama and Toledo, Iowa. Parts of the current road bypassed the original Lincoln Highway long ago, and even this 4-lane has been under consideration for decades. The 7.5-mile project is set to open next year.

Here are excerpts:

The $24 million expansion is expected to draw manufacturing and other industries that need access to a major highway. Unfortunately, some are concerned traffic-dependent businesses, including restaurants and hotels, could see a drop in customers….

The highway has been important to Tama and Toledo over time. Tama was home to the Lincoln Highway at the turn of the century. When most of the road was rebranded U.S. 30, the thoroughfare maintained its relevance.

Big T’s Maid Rite has been a longtime institution at the intersection of U.S. highways 30 and 63 in Toledo. Cars come and go as travelers stop for coffee and pie. Others want the “mo” – a Maid Rite with onions and mustard.

Manager Brad Crawford expects business to drop off after four-lane opens. There’s less impetus to pull off the highway and grab a bite to eat when cars are travelling at 65 mph, he said.

“Any business is going to be affected by that,” Crawford said. The main hope for businesses, like Big T’s, is that the brand is strong enough to keep people coming back.

The mostly demolished Mountain View Inn

Kristin Poerschke of the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor sent some photos of the Mountain View Inn east of Greensburg. The property was bought recently and much of the historic hotel was demolished for a planned shopping plaza. Kristin’s picture might look like the same building as in this vintage postcard but it’s not; the original section was razed and only sections built in the past decade were retained.

Utah railroad murals centennial today

Craig Harmon launched a new web page today to commemorate the 100th anniversary of murals inside the restored Union Pacific Depot in Salt Lake City. The city, on pionner trails and the Transcontinental Railroad, also hosted the Lincoln Highway. The station, originally just called the Oregon Short Line Depot, is at Third West and South Temple streets.

Artists John McQuarrie & August C. Wocker were commissioned in September 1909 and by December the murals were finished. McQuarrie also made the bronze for the Betsy Ross Memorial Flag Pole at the Lincoln Highway’s western terminus.

In 1979, the paintings were restored by Scott M. Haskins, who also supplied current photos to Harmon such as the above. Learn more at Harmon’s page:
www.lincoln-highway-museum.org/BRMFP/JM/RR-01-SLC-Index.html/.

Lincoln Highway Assoc posts basic maps online

Paul Gilger, head of the mapping committee for the Lincoln Highway Association, has uploaded a national and statewide maps of the Lincoln Highway to the LHA site. Though they only show basic routings, the maps should be a huge benefit to fans thinking of following the first coast-to-coast highway.

Paul explained a little about the layout and process of creating them:

Once you get to the United States map, you click on the individual states to go to that state map.  (There is also a place to click at the top of the page to get to the states.)  Once on the state maps, you can click and go from state to state.

As you can see, at this scale, these maps can only be very generic, and can only show the general layout of the Lincoln Highway.  Included are the county names, the names of major cities, and the route signs for the major highways that follow the Lincoln. To see the exact location of all the alignments, it is still necessary to purchase the Lincoln Highway Driving Maps CD.

It has taken 2 years to format these maps, and then another year to set up the map pages.  A very big thank you goes to our webmaster Jimmy Lin who worked hand-in-hand with me.  I provided the map artwork, and then Jimmy set up the pages and their various cross-links.  He also provided many graphic refinements to the maps.

You’ll find the maps at www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/maps/.

To purchase the Driving Maps CD, visit the Lincoln Highway Trading Post.

1928 Lincoln Highway concrete post for sale

Anyone hoping to own – or donate – a 1928 Lincoln Highway marker has another one to choose from, oddly the second rare LH artifact offered for sale this week. Such concrete directional posts once lined the highway but have mostly disappeared. The national Lincoln Highway Association urges that any found or for sale are not merely kept as souvenirs but donated for historical displays or even put back along the coast-to-coast road for others to enjoy.

The 8-foot-long post, presently in Potter, Nebraska, can be had for $1,200. You’ll find it on Denver’s Craigslist.

Ohio Lincoln Highway abutment for sale on eBay

Those wishing to decorate their yards, or preserve a piece of history for a local historical society, can bid on an abutment that was not only used on the Lincoln Highway but retains the porcelain plaque to prove it.

Up for auction on eBay through Wednesday is the concrete bridge abutment and marker, located in a front yard in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. The starting price of $800 has no bids yet. Here’s the description:

Lincoln Highway Concrete Bridge Abutment. It has the original Ceramic Lincoln Highway logo. It weighs approximately 800 pounds. It was removed off the last bridge on route 30 in Hancock county, Ohio in the early 1980’s. It is 33 inches in height, 13.5 inches wide and 21 inches from front to back. The ceramic logo does have several cracks in it. The cement abutment does have some cement missing from the bottom portian. The winner of the auction will have to arrange for pick up and delievery of the item.

Let’s hope it ends up somewhere not only cared-for but accessible for public enjoyment.

Lincoln Hwy gazebo in Oregon … Illinois, that is

Another new gazebo is spreading news of the Lincoln Highway in Illinois. Though the town of Oregon is not on the coast-to-coast the route, it played a part in the road’s development and history. The Ogle County News reports that officials unveiled the addition to the Ogle County Courthouse lawn with hopes that tourism dollars will follow. The image below is a screen capture from that article, and excerpts follow.

“This area draws tourists and tourism draws dollars,” said State Representative Jerry Mitchell (R-Rock Falls) during a grand opening ceremony for the structure Nov. 28. “Hopefully, tourists will stop at the gazebo and spend some time and money here.”

The gazebo is one of 16 constructed along the Illinois Lincoln Highway National Scenic Byway and its corridor in northern Illinois.

It was recently constructed on the northwest corner of the courthouse square, facing Ill. 64 just one block west of Ill. 2.

Bonnie Heimbach, project director for the Illinois Highway Lincoln Coalition (ILHC) said Oregon qualified for a federal grant to help construct the gazebo because the city was part of early marketing efforts soon after the coast-to-coast highway was opened in 1913.

“Oregon is not exactly on the highway, but it is mentioned as early as 1915,” said Heimbach.

The Lincoln Highway is located south of Oregon and runs east to west, through Franklin Grove and Dixon. It was the first highway in the United States to connect the east and west coasts.

Oregon and Ogle County are included in the Lincoln Highway corridor because Lorado Taft’s Black Hawk statue was part of the cover of the original promotional flyer that advertised the first all-weather transcontinental highway, said Marcia Heuer, executive director of the Oregon Area Chamber of Commerce….

Each gazebo was constructed for $16,000 with a National Scenic Byway Grant from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). That grant provided 80 percent of the funding for each gazebo with local groups providing the remaining 20 percent.

WIFR-TV also covered the story.

Lincoln Highway/Route 30 Christmas ornament

Glenn Wells of Roadsidefans.com alerts us to a Lincoln Highway/US 30 Christmas ornament. Glenn says he and his wife got it from Ornaments To Remember: www.ornaments2remember.com

Glenn writes, “They have other route numbers available too, including Route 66 and US 1, but Susan rejected them because ‘Everybody does Route 66′ and the US 1 sign said ‘Historic’ instead of replicating the actual sign.

Glenn adds that the proceeds from Ornaments To Remember fund a non-profit:

The Learning Community is an Oregon-based organization offering free resources to help parents and families. www.thelearningcommunity.us/. We have no connection to either: we were merely a paying customer, and the ornament is really cool! I wouldn’t recommend an inferior item just to help a non-profit, nor recommend an item that helps a for-profit business, but this one is win-win.

1934 news tells of Lincoln Highway expansion

Lancaster Online posted their regular Flashback column, which often has news of the Lincoln Highway. This story from December 1934 explains how the highway was to be widened east of Lancaster through Soudersburg. It’s interesting to see that this always-crowded stretch was already straining under its traffic 75 years ago.

State and local officials announced that an eight-mile-long project to widen the Lincoln Highway, from the east end of Lancaster City to Leaman Place, was beginning in a few weeks. Plans called for a four-lane highway from the city to Mellinger’s Church, and a three-lane road from the church to Leaman Place. The project was made possible by the decision to abandon trolley service from Broad and East King streets to Leaman Place. That move made available the land needed to widen the road, which was considered one of the most dangerous stretches of highway in the area.

Great Mid-Ohio “Almost-Across-the-State” Trek

Mike Buettner sent photos and a story by Mike McNaull (president of Mid-Ohio Chapter of the LHA) about a recent Lincoln Highway caravan. Read his story below.

Under a picture-perfect sunny “Indian Summer” sky, 21 LHA folks toured the grand old road, and at the end of the trek, visited two wonderful museums. The weather could not have been better, which added greatly to the entire experience of travelling on “The Main Street Across America.”

This trip originated in the Target parking lot at Mansfield/Ontario, just north of “new” US 30. Under the direction of the trip’s organizer, Mike Hocker, we headed west on the new road till we reached Bucyrus, and then turned south to intersect the old road. Along the way, we kept our eyes open, looking for answers to the “Shotgun Rider’s” trivia test (one assigned per vehicle). Following the 1913 route thru Nevada, Upper Sandusky (for a quick group photo at the brick section behind Willson’s Grocery), Kirby, Forest, Patterson, Dola, and then into Ada for a terrific meal at Viva Marie’s on the south side of town. While at Viva Marie’s, Mike Hocker collected the road trivia test results, and the winners were the vehicle of Richard & Mary Lou Taylor, and Phil & Marilyn Johnson. The restaurant had opened earlier-than-normal this day to accommodate our LHA group, and they treated us very well. Service was great, portions extremely generous, and the food very tasty (well worth the drive). We could have turned around and headed back home immediately after eating, calling it a day, but the best was yet to come!

After dining, we again headed west on the old road, passing thru Beaverdam, Cairo, and then into Gomer, stopping at the Welsh Museum. We were pleased to hook up with Mike & Tammy Buettner. At this point, the group split, with some pressing on to Delphos, to the Canal Museum. They are in the midst of building a new stairwell, and their Christmas trees had just been set up. The tour guides we very enthusiastic, showing-off their latest acquisition: a genuine WWI American machine gun! Both museums are real treasures for their communities, capturing the bygone days with photos, displays, and artifacts that tell the story of a simpler time in America. It was very encouraging to see LHA displays at both museums, and it was especially good to see the scale-model Snow Cruiser at Gomer made by former Mid-Ohio member Ray Gottfried.

This entire day was an ideal experience, and we all need to thank Mike Hocker for all of his efforts; from his very professional strip-map with six sections and itinerary, down to the “Shotgun Rider’s” quiz! This is a trip that we’ll be talking about for a long time to come!

Photos (all by Mike Buettner except group by Mike Hocker):

Nineteen members and friends of the Mid-Ohio Chapter of the Lincoln Highway Association came together at the old brick roadway in Upper Sandusky for the traditional group photo:
Row 1 – Nancy Hocker, Mary Lou Lockard, Mike Hocker, Mary Lou Taylor.
Row 2 – Keith Lupton, Maureen Lupton, Hanni Talpas, Vivian Stitzel, Marilyn Johnson, Tom Lockard, Jean Stauffer, Harold Zager, Jane Zager, Mel Draper.
Row 3 – Joe Everly, Nancy Everly, Richard Taylor, Phil Johnson, Mike McNaull.

LHA Member Carla Olds was one of the hosts at the Welsh Community Museum in Gomer, and was waiting for our arrival on the front porch of the museum with some beverages and traditional Welsh cakes.

Prominently displayed inside is Ray Gottfried’s scale model of Admiral Byrd’s Snow Cruiser, which famously crashed just east of town in 1939.

This new mural was recently painted on the old Lincoln Highway Garage at the northeast corner of Fifth Street and Main Street in downtown Delphos. We gave the building owner a “CONTROL STATION” sign many years ago, which remains on the corner of the building.

The Delphos Canal Commission Museum has this modest, but significant, Lincoln Highway display.  The old terra cotta sign in the display case was salvaged from the original brick pillar in Oceola after it was destroyed by a wayward vehicle in 1993, and later purchased at a sale by a Delphos collector.  The old sign was used as a model for new signs (such as the one on the floor) that have been placed in several brick pillar replicas in Ohio.

G C Murphy sign comes down, letters saved

The G.C Murphy Company was once one of the titans of the 5 & 10 trade. Not as well known as Woolworth’s or a competitor that followed, K-Mart, it nonetheless boasted more than 500 stores in the eastern U.S. One of them was along the Lincoln Highway / Penn Ave. in Wilkinsburg, Pa., and though it closed long ago, the letters remained on the facade until last week. The store was one of two in the relatively small town; this was likely one of the last G.C. Murphy Co. signs to remain intact in its original location.

Jason Togyer, who published a book about the company just this year, also runs a web site Tube City Almanac about local news and included this update recently (and loaned use of the above photo):

Targeted by corporate raiders in 1985, the G.C. Murphy Co. was taken over by Connecticut-based Ames Department Stores, which closed more than 100 of its variety stores … but the Wilkinsburg store — the 39th in the chain — was spared.

In 1989, the Wilkinsburg store and 130 others were sold by Ames to McCrory Stores Corp., which went into permanent decline in the 1990s and finally closed all of its remaining locations in 2002….

The Wilkinsburg store is now part of Brooklyn, N.Y., based Rainbow Shops Inc., a low-priced clothing chain for women and children.

Two sign companies donated the battered letters to the G.C. Murphy Co. Foundation, which hopes to restore and preverve them.

PA Landmark Mountain View Inn demolished

The Mountain View Inn east of Greensburg, Pa., a long-time landmark along the Lincoln Highway, was sold earlier this year. Reports were that the new owners wanted to build a shopping plaza, and indeed, people have been writing about the inn’s destruction. Here’s a note from blog reader John: “the original section of the hotel has been razed. The only sections saved from destruction are those built this decade.”

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review reported last month that asbestos concerns had halted the dismantling following an auction of its all its contents. A state Department of Environmental Protection inspector “ordered the building secured until it could be examined to determine if asbestos is present. As a result, Altman dozens of successful bidders had to wait to collect their purchases.

Brothers James and Daniel Snyder …

purchased the property for more than $2.5 million after the inn, restaurant and bar closed in January. The real estate developers plan to raze part of the structure to make way for commercial development. The sale included the inn, 14 acres and a house on the property…. The hotel’s Mountain Laurel wing overlooking Route 30 will be retained as a 53-room lodge run by about 10 employees, according to plans presented this week to township officials.

Delay in highway news while life goes on

Just a quick note to explain the lack of recent updates. Among the many difficult times here lately was the death of a close friend and an out-of-town funeral. Here’s hoping we all get to spend a little more time with those we love on the road of life.

Lincoln Highway photo by Rick Sebak.