The News-Sentinel of Fort Wayne, Indiana, reports that one of the 15 remaining Lincoln Highway concrete markers in the state has a new home in front of New Haven City Hall, 815 Lincoln Highway E., just a few feet from the road’s original route.
“Our board felt that one of the markers should be on the eastern side of the state,” said Jan Shupert-Arick, president of the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association. “Mayor Terry McDonald has been active in our association, and the city did an extraordinary job of restoring the marker. This is a treasured resource.”
That didn’t keep the marker from falling into disrepair and near-oblivion in recent years, however. Believed to have been one of two markers that once stood near what is now the Harrison Street Bridge just north of downtown Fort Wayne, the heavy post was eventually donated to the Lincoln Museum, which never displayed the damaged marker before closing in 2008.
The museum gave the more-intact marker it did display to the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis, but the Lincoln Highway Association was only too happy to accept the post that has been restored by New Haven employees and local stone carver Timothy Doyle, whose expertise allowed city workers to blend old and new concrete seamlessly.
The exhibit includes a bronze plaque donated by the association and the city.
Tags: highway history, historic highway, Indiana, Lincoln Highway, New Haven IN, restoration, road marker
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