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?!
Look for the book Kevin Kutz’ Lincoln Highway, available on Amazon.
Tags: artist, Bedford PA, Lincoln Highway, plein air, roadside, souvenir, vintage pillow
Lincoln Highway News 
February 6, 2009 at 9:30 am |
In a meaningless coincidence, I received Kevin’s book about the same time you received his pillow. I doubt that a little praise will make up for the royalties I cheated him out of by buying it used but I’ll praise it anyway. As someone who never saw the real Grand View Ship Hotel, I appreciate his multiple views of it. Then, as someone who has only seen the Coffee Pot in its current location, I appreciate his painting of its reconstruction and I especially like “The Coffee Pot at Night”, even though I had to Google & Wiki to sort out Oldenbergian:-) The beer signs and life shining from the windows give me a whole new view. Lots of other good stuff (K&M, the drive-ins, sitting on top of the world at the Blue Dell, …), too. And I’ll look at the Coffee Pot a bit differently now that I know the window frames and lettering are Kevin’s work.