It’s not Lincoln Highway-centric, but if you like old cars and gas stations you’ll want to watch for FREE the video that accompanies the book I mentioned previously, Fill ’er Up: The Glory Days of Wisconsin Gas Station. The half-hour-long show is on the Wisconsin Public Television web site in 8 segments or can be purchased as a DVD. It’s a fun and informative look at stations, and you don’t need to be from Wisconsin to appreciate the info, the places visited, and the cool films and photos. Click HERE to go to the page of segments plus some related clips such as a look at an 1878 experiment with steam-driven carriages that may have been the world’s first car race. Below is a scene from the video.
As reported here recently, a street sign was dedicated on the Lincoln birthday bicentennial marking the eastern terminus of the Lincoln Highway at Times Square. LHA director Jerry Peppers has been working on getting a permanent marker and was part of the unveiling. Here are some photos from his daughter Amy Peppers that document the unveiling, including the broken string drama.
The sign awaits unveiling with the pull-string secured until it’s ready.
Commissioner of the New York City DOT Janette Sadik-Kahn joins Jerry Peppers to pull off the cover.
But wait! The cover rips and the string pulls off!!
Who you gonna call?
NYC DOT workers to the rescue!
Finally!
Peppers and Sadik-Kahn pose with Tim Tompkins, President of Times Square Alliance.
And Pepper again shows what he’d really like – a marker, perhaps a concrete post, at the intersection.
Jan Shupert-Arick will be discussing The Lincoln Highway Across Indiana at the Fort Wayne History Center on Sunday, March 1, at 2 p.m. The Lincoln Highway ran through downtown Fort Wayne. Jan, past-president of the LHA, has just published a book by that title through Arcadia (available through Amazon for $21.99).
The free lecture is part of the 2009 George R. Mather Sunday Lecture Series, made possible with support from the Dunsire Family Foundation. Jan is the director of regional services at Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne, and also served as director of education at The Lincoln Museum, which included as part of her work directing a major temporary exhibit, “Coast to Coast on the Lincoln Highway.”
The History Center is at 302 East Berry Street. For more information, call (260) 426-2882, or visit www.fwhistorycenter.com/.
A new mailer/flyer details plans for the museum building being planned by the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor in western Pennsylvania. The Lincoln Highway Experience will be the largest and most prominent site documenting the Lincoln Highway.
To be located just west of Ligonier, Pa., the Lincoln Highway Experience will tell the story of the highway both in the state and on a national level. Interpretive exhibits will focus on the years 1912-1940 but the emphasis will be on what is still along the corridor, encouraging visitors to get out and drive the road.
The building itself was designed by Venturi Scott Brown Associates, familiar to roadside fans for their pioneering work, including publication of Learning From Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form (1972, revised 1977) by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour. The 10,000 s.f interior was handled by Maude Group and Kissiloff Associates and will include two films.
The LHHC has helped secure and administer grants for dozens of regional projects and is now launching its own capital campaign for the Experience. Donors at the $2,500 level will bceome members of The Lincoln Circle, with naming opportunities. The LHHC was designated in 1995 to promote economic development through tourism. Visit www.lhhc.org for more information about the Corridor.
If you know of a neon sign along the Lincoln Highway that needs some attention before it ends up being removed or destroyed, here’s an inspiring video about neon signs that were restored along Route 66 in New Mexico. Originally broadcast on PBS station KNME, the 26-minute program won a Rocky Mountain Regional Emmy Award.
Spreading the word that these signs have historic, architectural, and tourist value is the best way to change opinions; as one sign-maker says (and we hope he now feels differently), “We could just sell them a new sign, it’d be so much easier.”
Ford was producing so many cars in the ’teens and that it built satellite assembly plants in cities so Detroit could efficiently ship “knocked down” chassis, and final assembly could be done near the point of sale. Pittsburgh’s plant has long sat decaying on its automobile row, Baum Boulevard, the Lincoln Highway through the east end of town. Now the final tenant is moving out but plans call for a revamping into medical offices.
The Pittsburgh plant at 5000 Baum Blvd (at Morewood) in Bloomfield was one of two dozen that Ford opened in the spring of 1915. Though only 40 cars were produced per day, it served the needs of the region through 1932. The ghost of the Ford Motor Company script can still be seen along the roofline.
The Post-Gazette reports that the last tenant — the flagship Paper Mart store — closed after 25 years there:
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center bought the building about two years ago and began clearing tenants out as their leases ended. Papermart was the last tenant when its lease expired in January. UPMC extended the lease on a month-by-month basis, but the cost had gone up….
Frank Raczkiewicz, a spokesman for UPMC, said the building will be “another cancer research facility” and that the medical giant, which is based in Oakland with headquarters Downtown, has already outgrown the Hillman Cancer Center.
Route 30: Three Stories, One Highway, a film written, produced, and directed by John Putch, will be shown in Ligonier, Pa., this weekend at the Ligonier Theater, 210 W. Main St. Times are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
Route 30 features three interconnecting comedic stories. The cast of 15 includes TV stars Dana Delaney, Dave Delouise, and Ed Gotwalt of Mister Ed’s Elephant Museum (below, in his own poster pose). The film was shot in October 2007 between Chambersburg and Gettysburg, mostly along the Lincoln Highway/US 30. Putch is the son of Bill Putch and Jean Stapleton, best known as Edith Bunker of All in the Family. The two founded Totem Pole Playhouse along US 30 in Caledonia State Park, between Chambersburg and Gettysburg, and so is where Putch spent his youth. Mister Ed was a regular performer there too.
The 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth on February 12th has launched numerous events to honor the 16th president of the United States, 1861-65, Lincoln’s name was invoked almost 50 years after his death in naming the Lincoln Highway, and so the bicentennial brought about the marking of the Lincoln Highway’s eastern terminus.
Here’s part of an article announcing the Proclamation of the Lincoln Highway, from the New York Times on September 13, 1913:
Also related to the anniversary, Craig Harmon of the Lincoln Highway National Museum & Archives reports that the Ukrainian Embassy contacted him about his 2nd annual Lincoln essay contest, specifically regarding “What Abraham Lincoln Means To Me,” an invitation of essays from world leaders. The embassy soon followed up with an essay written and signed by Viktor Yushchenko, the President of Ukraine! His essay includes this heartfelt sentiment: “His energy, inspiring faith in triumph of humanism, in vistory of freedom over slavery, as well as his selfless work to achieve his ideals became the model that I try to emulate in my everyday life.”
Below is the wreath laid at the Lincoln Memorial on his birthday by Harmon, reresenting the Lincoln Highway National Museum & Archives.
Portrait credit: Brady National Photographic Art Gallery (Washington, D.C.), photographer. “Abraham Lincoln, three-quarter length portrait, standing, facing left.” 1864 January 8. Selected Civil War Photographs, 1861-1865, Library of Congress.
Here’s a clip from an Indiana Lincoln Highway student curriculum project that the Indiana LHA has been working on. The Lincoln Highway Story is a Chamberlin Video Production, financed by the Hannah Lindahl Children’s Museum. Full-length DVDs will be available at this summer’s LHA conference in South Bend, Indiana.
Magna, Utah, just west of Salt Lake City along the Lincoln Highway, is the setting for Dadnapped, premiering on the Disney Channel at 8 pm tonight. The movie features Disney’s stable of teen stars like Emily Osment and others from Hannah Montana. The photo above showing the town’s Empress Theater and others can be seen on the Flickr page of DWRowan. The town (renamed Mercury in the film) was spruced up and altered some for the film but many buildings will be recognized such as the Empress. Filming was late in 2007. The trailer also features some scenes of the town.
Osment will be promoting it on The View this morning, other Disney stars are on other ABC shows today, and with two music videos premiering later, Disney at one point reportedly billed tonight’s schedule (perhaps overbilling to us older than teens) as “the equivalent of the Beatles and Rolling Stones appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show on the same night.”
The plot? “Melissa has a bad case of sibling rivalry, only her competition is a fictional character in her father’s best-selling novel about a teenage super spy. When her father is ‘dadnapped’ by a group of overzealous fans, it’s up to Melissa to muster the courage and know-how to find him… which suddenly puts her in the midst of her own adventurous plot.”
ABC in Utah reports that Salty Pictures Inc., the production company that made Dadnapped, received $400,000 in economic incentives from the state. In return, the company spent almost $2.7 million in Utah. Filming for Dadnapped wrapped up in June of last year.
Other shows filmed around Magna range from an episode of Everwood (2003) to Stephen King’s The Stand (1994) to Carnival of Souls (1962) at Saltair.
Eric Ebbinger has been getting lots of press the past week for running the Lincoln Highway across Ohio in 5 days to honor Abraham Lincoln. Ebinger, 31, of Norwalk, started the 241-mile trek on Lincoln’s 200th birthday (Thursday) and plans to finish today, on President’s Day. He’ll start the final 27 miles at 9 am in Massilllon, heading eat towards East Liverpool.
With winds gusting up to 30 mph at his back on the first day, Ebinger said he pushed himself too hard. He paid for it Friday.
“I had a really rough day,” he said after taking an ice bath. “I had to have an emergency massage in Bucyrus. “My legs were filled with lactic acid. I didn’t properly rehab the first night.”
That wasn’t all. “I had blisters all over my feet,” Ebinger said. “It felt like I was running on broken glass.”
Eris posts daily updates on his website, www.thelincolnrun.com, which is the source of these photos. Starting at the top, Gerry Payne as President Lincoln met Eric at the square in Wooster after a 32 mile day; wife Misty helping to coordinate things; Greg and Bel, owners of the Oak Park Tavern on Route 30 east of Mansfield, opened their restaurant for Eric and crew of about 10 to gave them water, bananas, and Gatorade; Gerry Payne and Eric walking a portion of the original brick Lincoln Highway near Wooster.
LHA director for New York Jerry Peppers joined Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and NYC Commissioner of Transportation Janette Sadik-Khan to unveil a Lincoln Highway street sign in Times Square yesterday, the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth. It is said to be temporary or at least the first until a larger one can mark the spot as the Eastern Terminus of the coast-to-coast road.
Peppers says the sign is “on a post at the corner of Broadway and 42nd Street just a few feet from where I posted the marker in the WQED special. It simply reads Lincoln Highway and is not exactly what we want [a plaque with an explanation], but it is a start.” The New York Times ran the above photo and a short blog entry, including this quote:
“As a wonderful tribute to the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birthday, we have placed a historic marker to celebrate the construction of our nation’s first transcontinental highway,” Mayor Bloomberg said. “It memorializes Times Square’s connection with the route’s storied history, and reminds all of us that New York City remains the gateway to the rest of America.”
It also quoted Peppers, who has worked at bringing this to fruition:
The Lincoln Highway brings together the ‘Main Street Across America’ and the nation’s most famous intersection — Broadway and 42nd Street. It’s particularly important to mark the eastern terminus of the Lincoln Highway, where it will serve as a reminder to millions of New Yorkers and visitors from all across the globe who pass through here of our nation’s history and the City’s connection with the rest of the country’s early highways.
In the 95 years since the establishment of the Lincoln Highway, there has never been a sign or marker at the Eastern Terminus, unlike the Western Terminus which has had various signs over time. The Lincoln Highway’s identity was never strong in urban areas, where streets and street names were already entrenched.
New York City will erect a temporary marker today denoting the Lincoln Highway’s Eastern Terminus at Times Square in commemoration of Lincoln’s Birthday. The New York Daily News reports:
This morning, City Hall will take the first step toward placing a marker bearing Lincoln’s name in Times Square. Why Times Square? Because 42nd St. and Broadway was the starting point for the first transcontential highway in the U.S., a route that bore the name of the 16th President. Conceived in 1913, the Lincoln Highway predated the Lincoln Memorial in honoring America’s foremost leader. It led drivers west to a Hudson River ferry to Weehawken and then clear across the country, to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. In much of the country, stretches of the Lincoln are revered as Americana. But the mile-long New York portion – the shortest but most-traveled stretch – has been all but forgotten. No more. The city today will erect a temporary “Lincoln Highway” sign as the start of the process for installing a formal testament to Lincoln and to the role Times Square played at the dawn of the automotive age. Well done.
NY LHA director Jerry Peppers said he was surprised to hear about it two days ago: “Although I supplied a form of marker and a form of plaque, I do not know what they intend to post. I am told that Mayor Bloomberg himself will be at the unveiling around 10 AM Thursday, depending on his schedule.” Below is Peppers in Times Square with his own very temporary LH marker.
A brief AP story published a couple hours after the event paraphrased an official: “New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan (SAY’-dik-Kahn) said the historic route exemplifies a modern goal: finding innovative transportation solutions.”
Gregory Franzwa, founder of the modern-day Lincoln Highway Association and editor of the LHA Forum, is ailing. LHA president Bob Dieterich reports that cancer has left him sometimes too weak to walk or talk. This follows soon after his scare with lung cancer, which he kept to himself then humorously documented in Folio. That’s the newsletter of his Patrice Press and it’s more like a full magazine eagerly anticipated by its readers. Here’s wishing Gregory and wife Kathy all the best. You can send him your good thoughts as well, or better yet, a good joke at <books@patricepress.com>.
The just-published Winter 2008-09 Lincoln Highway Forum is as always packed with info, including a fascinating cover story (OK, written my me!) on postcard collecting in full, beautiful color. Other features include the story of Beaverdam, Ohio, the restoration of the Bedford Springs Hotel in Pennsylvania, and info on the June 2009 conference in South Bend, Indiana. Become an LHA member here and start receiving it today.
Past LHA president Jesse Petersen has extensively researched the Lincoln Highway in Utah, mapped it, and co-authored a book on it with Gregory Franzwa. His newest project is A Route for the Overland Stage: James H. Simpson’s 1859 Trail Across the Great Basin. The exploration of the Great Basin by army topographical engineer Simpson opened up one of the West’s most important transportation and communication corridors, a vital link to the Pacific Coast that was followed by the Overland Stage and Pony Express.
Petersen writes, “My interest in the Simpson expedition was a result of my interest in the history of the Lincoln Highway. I was attending the Lincoln Highway Association’s 1996 conference in Reno, Nevada, when one of the presenters mentioned that the historic highway had followed much of the route that James Simpson had opened through Nevada in 1859.”
Jess walked or drove the entire trail west and Simpson’s variant path returning east to accurately describe, map, and photograph the route. Published by Utah State University Press, the 240-page, 8.5 x 11 paperback is $24.95 or buy it on Amazon for $18.96.
Suddenly everyone is on foot along the Lincoln Highway. Following up on my last post about running the LH (with a quick reference to the 1960 song by the Ventures), Dennis Crowley has announced his plans to again walk part of the route this fall. (I reported on his first leg last October 6 and 8.) Walking America the Lincoln Way will take him from Sacramento, California, on September 14 to Eureka, Nevada, by October 29.
He’ll depart from the Shell Service Station, 4900 W. Capitol Ave in West Sacramento, and make 6 miles that day, reaching the intersection of Capitol and 26th St. He’ll soon be making it twice as far daily. Dennis says:
The preparations to get things ready to deal with the desolation of Nevada have been more than I realized so I backed things off. AAA didn’t name U.S. 50 “The Lonliest Road in America” for no reason. Walking this stretch and on to Salt Lake City next year will make my walk across the Mojave on old Route 66 in California seem like a picnic. Thanks to technology, however, I should be able to make this walk safe and comfortable. I am doing a lot of research into satellite personal locator beacons, satellite phones, gps, and other such things such as portable lightweight solar panels to keep batteries charged and allow me to run my portable DVD player. Afterall, I need something to do on my days off right?
Long-distance runner and Lincoln enthusiast Eric Ebinger will launch a run across Ohio on the 200th anniversary of President Lincoln’s birth on February 12. Appropriately, he’ll be following the Lincoln Highway for its 241 miles. Ebinger, of Norwalk, will start at the Indiana state line near Van Wert, and follow the route completed in 1928 for five days. His wife Misty, who grew up in Orrville, is coordinating. “My wife and I are looking forward to meeting the people along this wonderful scenic highway, and perhaps drawing attention to a man whose wisdom and grace guided our nation through its most turbulent period.”
Ebinger will travel sixty miles each of the first two days, completing half the run in two of the five days. “From Van Wert to Mansfield is nice and flat,” Ebinger said, “which should make for comfortable running. That allows three days for the second half, which is filled with hills.” Ebinger has received numerous emails through his website, www.thelincolnrun.com, from runners across the state who plan on joining him for different parts of the run.
The January 2009 newsletter of the Nebraska Lincoln Highway Association includes a number of interesting stories and a feature on theaters along the route. That story noted that a drive-in theater in Kearney was badly damaged in the May 29 tornado, and insurance was not adequate to replace the screen, so it was torn down in July (seen here still on Google Maps). The state’s two remaining ozoners are not on the Lincoln.
The same tornado also badly damaged the old Continental grain elevator in Shelton, and so it will be torn down too.
In happier news, a bronze statue depicting a 1920s gas jocky was dedicated in Ogallala at the Sprce Street Station, a 1922 Standard station restored in 2003. Sculpted by Nebraska artist Gary Ginther, “it is meant to capture the friendly hometown Nebraskan in his work-torn overalls, dirty oil rag, $2.95 work boots, and strong rough hands with an inviting welcome to service the community.”
On December 19, I wrote about the Lincoln Highway’s original course on Tuscarora Mountain east of McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania. Of particular concern to explorers and researchers is the course of the “Horseshoe Curve” halfway up — two turnoffs leave us wondering about the original route. While researching my Ship Hotel book, I came across this 1930s aerial postcard showing the old and new curves — answering the question and now giving purpose to those who go exploring.
The red circle marks Doc Seylar’s, famed mountaintop stop on Tuscarora Summit; McConnellsburg is off to the right. Below is a close-up of the Horseshoe Curves, both old and new. Of course, both were obliterated about 1970 when a third Horseshoe Curve was built to serve the US 30 bypass around town, leaving only remnants of these two.
A postcard folder that I found also has two photos of the new curve. The first view calls it the Beauty Curve; the other, just a few feet west, notes it as the Horseshoe Curve. It must have been quite an engineering feat in the early ’30s.
One of the people I’ll always associate with the Lincoln Highway is Kevin Kutz, an artist from Bedford, Pa., who has been painting plein air scenes for decades. Along with Dunkle’s Gulf and the Coffee Pot right in Bedford, he had the Grand View Ship Hotel just west of town, which is what brought us to corresponding recently. (I’m racing to finish my book on the Ship Hotel.) Kevin has painted many scenes of the Ship, but as he says, he was never just looking for nostalgic scenes.
And so a big box arrived in yesterday’s mail. Among all his Ship notes and imagery is this pillow. He scribbled a great note to the effect that it had been laying around his cabin, and before it deteriorates more or his wife tosses it out, he thought he’d send it to me. What can you say about such a cool, generous gift? Especially a 90-year-old one that was still being used?!
I received a copy of the new Roadside USA book by Shellee Graham and Jim Ross. There are a number of Lincoln Highway images such as this shot of Orr’s Ranch in Utah.
The book’s 30 main images are made like postcards, with a caption on back joined by a related photo. These are not captioned but are locations closely associated with the front image. The Lincoln Highway is featured in 5 of the main images, a pretty good percentage, but if you like roadside imagery you love them all, from Route 66 diners to a gas pump on the Ozark Trails. At $10.95, you’ll want to buy some as gifts, or get a couple for yourself: save one and mail postcards from the other.
The 64-page paperback is available on <a title=”Roadside USA book by Graham and Ross” href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/096774816X?ie=UTF8&tag=boobybribut-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=096774816X” target=”_blank”>Amazon</a>.
Click the map above for a full-size view of the Lincoln Highway.
Now available: Lincoln Highway Companion features detailed maps and places to eat and stay. Click the book to buy it on Amazon.
Click the Greetings book below to purchase the ultimate guide to the history and route of the Lincoln Highway!
