LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
The Lincoln Highway Experience Museum east of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, has launched a new postcard exhibit. “Wish You Were Here” features six greatly-enlarged postcards showing iconic locations along the Lincoln Highway in central and western Pennsylvania.
A screen shot from the Trib Live news story about the postcard exhibit.
The postcard backs are also reproduced, including the personal handwritten messages. All paid visitors to the museum will also receive a free new postcard (and stamp) to write out and address while at the museum.
The museum has an archive with more than 3,000 Lincoln Highway postcards. It is located just west of the Kingston Bridge on US 30 eastbound. The exhibit is located in a room of the historic 1815 Johnston House, one of the oldest structures along the Lincoln Highway.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
A new poster commemoratees the forthcoming centennial of the Lincoln Highway in 2013. The Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society Museum of Merrilville, Indiana, commissioned Mitch Markovitz to create the evocative image.
“We started this project more than a year ago,” said Dan Kleine, the project manager for the poster commissioning and a member of the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society board. “The whole idea was to build awareness that the Old Lincoln Highway is 73rd Avenue, just outside the museum’s front door.”
In his oil-on-canvas painting that is reproduced as a poster, Markovitz of Knox, creates a scene from 1929 when the Lincoln Highway was a major thoroughfare that led to Broadway and then north to Gary and Chicago….
Jeff Blair, Indiana’s national director on the Lincoln Highway Association, traveled from Leesburg, Ind., to witness the poster’s unveiling.
“Last year, I walked the Lincoln Highway west from Ohio to Illinois for charity. Next May, I’m going to walk east from Illinois to Ohio and I’ll pass right by here on the first day,” Blair said.
The article claims that the poster shows a 1929 Ford Model T, which is impossible. More likely it’s a Model A, though just as perplexing is why the image is said to portray the LH in 1929, a year after the LHA ceased active operations. Perhaps it was to include a 1928 concrete post, but that too is in an incorrect orientation, i.e., not facing the road.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
The 8th Annual Buy-Way Yard Sale along the Lincoln Highway starts this Thursday and runs through Saturday, Aug. 11. Started in Ohio, it has grown to include West Virginia and parts of Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa’s Lincoln Highway communities.
“If you are looking for it, it’s out there somewhere waiting for you to buy at a bargain price,” says Mike Hocker, executive director for Ohio’s Lincoln Highway Historic Byway. “This three-day BUY-WAY Yard Sale has not only introduced people from all over the country to the history of America’s first coast-to-coast paved roads, but it also provides an economic boost to the communities that participate, and it serves the thrifty side of all of us who find that bargain.” Visit www.historicbyway.com for more info.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
An auction is set for Saturday, August 11, 2012 at 9 am for highway memorabilia from the famous gas station once run by George Preston in Belle Plaine, Iowa. Not to worry — the signs on the station and adjacent garage are not being sold.
The station moved to 1301 4th Ave (west end of Main Street, green line on map) in 1921 when the Lincoln Highway’s route was changed through Belle Plaine. George started working there in 1923 at age 13 and soon purchased the Standard Oil station for $100. It later became a Phillips 66 and remained operational until 1989. George and wife Blanche also operated a 3-room motel.
After his passing in 1993, the site was cared for by his eldest son Ronald with the same passion and intuition, and he continued collecting memorabilia until he passed away in 2011.
Ron’s daughter Mary Preston wrote to say, “We have no intention of selling the corner but in the same breath we must sell some of the ‘clutter’ on Preston’s Corner.” The family is working with the Lincoln Highway Association and Belle Plaine Historical Society to preserve The Corner for travelers to step back in time.
Objects for auction include gas pumps, toys, furniture, books, farm equipment, a 1927 Model T … and lots of signs.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
Explore the 1913 Lincoln Highway through Indiana on July 21, 2012, as part of the Lincoln Highway Adventure and Moveable Feast, a partnership of the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association and Indiana Landmarks.
Follow the highway east from South Bend past scenic landscapes, historic sites, and good food in Mishawaka, Elkhart, Goshen, Ligonier, Kimmell, and Wolf Lake. End the day in Ligonier, where the Movable Feast showcases landmarks such as the 1839 Stone’s Trace Historic Site, 1879 Kimmell House, and 1930 Luckey Hospital Museum.
Each registered vehicle will receive an Adventure Bag with a dash plaque, discount coupons, and Adventure Passport Booklet containing information about sites along the route with by turn-by-turn directions. Check in via FourSquare or stay connected through your other favorite social media during the Adventure. The Lincoln Highway Adventure welcomes families, car clubs and caravans.
For more information, contact Indiana Landmarks’ Northern Regional Office at north@indianalandmarks.org or 574-232-4534.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
Pennsylvania’s Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor has a new home along the Lincoln Highway between Greensburg and Ligonier. LHHC has purchased the 1815 stone Johnston House across from the Kingston Dam. The site will eventually be home to the Lincoln Highway Experience Museum, which will include the restored Serro’s Diner that sat along the LH in Irwin.
LHHC is holding a Grand Opening of its gift shop today, Friday, December 16, 2011, from 3 to 7 p.m. Hot cider and gingerbread will be served. In addition to Lincoln Highway memorabilia and books, you’ll find many fine crafts from the Handmade Along the Highway program.
Contact LHHC at 3435 Route 30 East, Latrobe, PA 15650. New phone: 724-879-4241. www.lhhc.org/.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
Join the first annual Lincoln Highway Adventure along Indiana’s historic Lincoln Highway, August 5 and 6, 2011. The fun event will coincide with the Buy-Way Yard Sale stretching across several states. Kick off the Adventure at Downtown South Bend’s First Friday Cruise-In, then the next day pilot your crew through New Carlisle, LaPorte, Valparaiso, Dyer, and back to Plymouth for the Adventure’s Closing Picnic.
Each registered vehicle will receive an Adventure Bag with a dash plaque, discount coupons, an Adventure Passport and a booklet containing turn-by-turn directions and information about sites, great stops and communities along the way. Compete in the Lincoln Highway Scavenger Hunt, a geo-cache hunt and check in via FourSquare, or stay connected through your other favorite social media. Families, Car Clubs and Caravans welcome! Find reservation and pricing at: www.lincolnhighwayadventure11.eventbrite.com For more information or questions contact: Indiana Landmarks’ Northern Regional Office at north@indianalandmarks.org or (574) 232-4534.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
It’s once again time for the annual Lincoln Highway Buy-Way Yard Sale running August 4, 5 and 6, 2011. The miles-long event began in Ohio seven years ago and has since expanded to all of Iowa and parts of Illinois and Indiana.
Ohio publishes an official Traveler’s Guide that includes a map of the state’s Lincoln Highway alignments plus listings of many yard sales and community events along the way. This free guide is available at convention and visitor bureaus and chambers along the route.
BUY-WAY Yard Sale participants in any state may list their yard sale information on the byway website www.historicbyway.com that shoppers can print out and use to navigate their shopping.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
A newly posted video uses a vintage player piano to play “Lincoln Highway,” a 1922 march by George B. Lutz. Click below to hear it.
I ran a photo of the sheet music in my book The Lincoln Highway: Pennsylvania Traveler’s Guide (music at right). Other similar marches were produced in 1914 and 1921.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
A constant stream of Lincoln Highway memorabilia shows up on eBay, less so on craigslist. But here’s a sign from the Lincoln Highway Garage that was on Rt. 462 in York that advertised the LH Restaurant inside. The station is long gone, replaced by a Turkey Hill store that pays homoage to the old place, but this souvenir has survived.
Click the map above for a full-size view of the Lincoln Highway.
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Lincoln Highway News 