LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
A brochure scanned and online for free download touts a Lincoln Highway water fountain design that was to be placed from coast to coast. Also proposed were cement tourist cabins to be built resembling Abraham Lincoln’s log cabin. Both ideas intended to honor the slain President. A map shows the “Reno Branch” of the LH from Reno, Nevada to … Los Angeles!
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL24589131M/Lincoln_Highway_Fountain_Society
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
Our friend David Chase has a couple beautiful photos on his 42N blog taken along the original Lincoln Highway in Linn County, Iowa. Travelers can veer off the paved Lincoln Highway onto a gravel road to find an iron bridge and farm buildings. Check out the other barn here, and make sure to click them to see the images in beautiful large format: http://42n.blogspot.com/2011/01/old-and-new-along-original-lincoln.html
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
The Tama-Toledo News reports that the most famous Lincoln Highway bridge — in Tama, Iowa — was hit recently by farm equipment, damaging one of the concrete rails which spell out “Lincoln Highway” and causing $1,500 damage.
In evaluating this damage, Schoonover Tuckpointing, Vinton, also found areas where cement is “spalling” – breaking up, flaking or pitting concrete. In addition, cracks caused by settling were also found. Total cost of these repairs and some spot painting was set at $4,382.
Mayor Chris Bearden urged city council members Monday night to approve the repairs. “The bridge is the only one in the country”, Bearden said. “It needs to be in top shape for the 150th anniversary (of Tama coming up in 2012.)”…. Tama’s bridge under went a renovation in 2006 costing $10,675 according to City Clerk Judy Welch.
The council also approved the purchase of seven new Lincoln Highway banners to replace ones street commissioner Stuart Eisentrager said are faded and showing signs of aging due to weather exposure. The new banners cost $153 each or a total of $1,071 plus shipping. The old banners will be offered for sale by the city with the sale procedure to be announced.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
The famous (and world’s largest) Shoe Tree along the Lincoln Highway at Middlegate, Nevada, was cut down overnight last Thursday. The 70-foot cottonwood towered over U.S. 50 about 125 miles east of Reno. A gallery of photos such as the ones here can be found on Flickr.
According to the Lahontan Valley News, there are no suspects or motives:
There are a lot of angry people,” said Middlegate bartender Travis Anderton, describing the reaction from his customers. “That (the tree) helps out business. People come out to see the Shoe Tree.”… Anderton’s grandmother, Fredda Stevenson, is planning a memorial at the site of the tree on Feb. 13 from 2:30-5:30 p.m. The destruction of the Shoe Tree bothers Stevenson, who bought the Middlegate Bar and Restaurant 26 years ago. “I watched it grow up as a little tree,” said Stevenson, who has lived in the area for more than 40 years.
“We cried. It’s like losing a member of the family,” she said.
Rick Gray, executive director of the Fallon Convention and Tourism Authority, is another person who is outraged and hopes authorities can tie the loose ends together in finding the culprit or culprits.
“It was a quirky landmark on the Loneliest Road in America,” he said.
Click HERE for a page full of fond recollections. Note that comments on one of the news stories also included this viewpoint:
“That used to be a beautiful shade tree in the middle of the desert. It has since become an eyesore with all those stinky shoes hanging in it. An Historical landmark? Give me a break!… Good riddance to an ugly dead tree.”
Thanks to Loungelistener and Denny Gibson for the tip.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
A fire Saturday night destroyed a restaurant in Paradise Township near Lancaster, Pa., that had closed after a fire in 2008. The Garden Gate Diner at 3105 Lincoln Highway East, formerly the Wagon Wheel Restaurant and the Route 30 Family Restaurant, was the scene of the two-alarm blaze, as seen in the photo from Lancaster Online.
Another article reported that a rooftop cooling unit crashed through the ceiling into the dining room. More than a dozen fire companies responded to the scene. The older section of the building, which includes the kitchen and counter area, is standing but sustained smoke and water damage; the newer section to the west, which includes the main dining room, collapsed in the fire and was cleared by fire crews.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
UPDATE: The local newspaper now reports the diner was moved to Pennsylvania.
A vintage diner along the Lincoln Highway in New Brunswick, NJ, has been demolished, reportedly on December 7, 2010. The 1941 Fodero-brand Mack’s Diner stopped serving food in 1968. It became a grocery, then was bought in 1976 for $7,250 and operated as All Ears’ Records until criminal activity closed that business in 2005.
A 2008 article in MyCentralJersey.com noted that owner Tareq Algharaybeh was hoping to find a buyer for the dilapidated diner:
Flanked by a record shop and a mini market on French between Seaman and Suydam streets, the Mack’s turquoise shell glimpsed daylight recently. Last month, the advertising posters that have for years obscured nearly its entire facade were taken down.
For about a week, the words “Mack” and “Diner,” on either side of the brick and aluminum portico tethered to the patina of decades, were again visible.
Inside, what appears to be the diner’s original tile and wood counter teeters against the test of time. But other than the ventilation hoods, stripped of their exhaust fans, little trace remains of the diner’s days and nights as a restaurant.
But Algharaybeh, who bought the diner two years ago, says it is otherwise sturdy…. Algharaybeh, who also owns and runs Sam’s Pizza and Chicken two blocks south on French Street, has little use for this period piece. With three years left on the lease for the pizza establishment, Algharaybeh wants to move that business, which he has operated for 20 years at French and Alexander streets, onto the Mack’s lot.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
For years, reports have floated that the Hi-Way Drive-In Theater in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, was to close and be replaced by development. Most recently, Target has been the retailer of choice, but the drive-in along the Lincoln Highway has made clear it’s stance: posted on the marquee is “No Target did not buy us.” Top photo by Kristin Poerschke, bottom by me (Brian) on a recent visit.
A story in the East Liverpool, Ohio, Review relates a plan to pay for making U.S. Route 30 in eastern Ohio by making it a toll road.
Route 30 is a four-lane road from Indiana to East Canton, where it remains a two-lane road the final 36 miles in Ohio through Columbiana County, except for a portion which runs with state Route 11 from West Point to East Liverpool. For more than 50 years, various people have tried to get the final segment of Route 30 in Ohio completed, to no avail.
The latest attempt involves dividing the project into three sections and doing them in phases as the money comes available. The sections are East Canton to Minerva, Minerva to Hanoverton, and Hanoverton to state Route 11 at West Point. The committee is pursuing the Hanoverton-West Point section first, a distance of 12 miles, which would cost an estimated $118 million to design, acquire the property rights of way and construct, according to Deputy County Engineer Robert Durbin….
Durbin said they believe charging a toll of $1.25 for cars and $2.50 for trucks to travel the 12-mile segment would generate enough revenue to pay for the new road in 40 years based on the increased vehicle traffic they expect to result.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
The state has awarded $500,000 for recreation projects in Franklin and Cumberland counties in Pennsylvania, one of which will be an iPhone application to promote the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor. According to the Chambersburg Public Opinion, “the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources invested $23 million in 189 conservation and recreation projects in 65 counties. Another 177 applications were not funded. A grant of $180,000 will be used to develop an iPhone application to promote tourism in the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor and to finance a variety of other Lincoln Highway programs — mini-grants, school programs and repair interpretive exhibits and signs. The state’s National Road Heritage Corridor is also developing an iPhone application.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
Scott Segeti, former owner of Palmantier’s Motel, said he was “lured to these parts by the beauty of nearby farm fields, grazing cattle, grassy meadows, chirping birds, fresh air and an opportunity to be his own boss.”
Now Rainie Sonntag wrote to say:
My husband and I have the same dream so we went to the auction and purchased the Palmantier’s Motel. We fell in love with the place when we saw it. We had to have it. My mother was the long time owner of the Akron Turnpike Motel. She too had a dream and we helped her make it happen with her motel. Now we plan to do the same with ours!! We purchased it in July and we are now open. So for all you folks who stayed there in the past please return and make it happen.
Palmantier’s Motel, opened 1947, is a classic 9-unit motel along the Lincoln Highway in eastern Ohio. Segeti put it up for auction, saying he was struggling. The beautiful motel is within sight of the famous stretch of Baywood Road paved in red bricks (bottom center of photo). The new # for reservations is (330) 868-6000.
Click the map above for a full-size view of the Lincoln Highway.
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Click the Greetings book below to purchase the ultimate guide to the history and route of the Lincoln Highway!
Another fun book! The Ship Hotel: A Grand View along the Lincoln Highway recalls the greatest roadside attraction along the coast-to-coast road.
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