PBS producer Rick Sebak, whose A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway debuted in October, dazzled attendees to the Frick Art & Historical Center’s Model T Jubillee weekend with tales of road trips near and far. Here he is recalling a trip he almost drove from South America:
A number of Model Ts were on display and can be seen through Sunday May 3 as part of ARevolution on Wheels: The Model T at 100. The Frick has borrowed four vintage autos to supplement the 1914 Model T Touring car already in its collection: a 1909 Model T Touring Car, a 1917 Model T Runabout, a 1925 Model T Depot Hack, and a 1926 Model T Coupe.
Here, a display of Model T parts and ephemera sits in front of the 1909 model:
And here is the 1917 Runabout outfitted as a fire chief’s car:
They also have a freshly restored 1908 Buick:
Visit the Frick’s Car & Carriage Museum at 7227 Reynolds St., Point Breeze, www.frickart.org, (412) 371-0600.
The Car and Carriage Museum at the Frick Art & Historical Center is hosting a weekend-long Model T Jubilee. The celebration and activities on Saturday and Sunday celebrate the exhibit “A Revolution on Wheels: The Model T at 100,” which opened in October to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1908 Model T. The exhibit, which contains five Model T Fords ranging from 1909 to 1926, will close on May 3. The museum is along the Lincoln Highway in the Point Breeze section of Pittsburgh, Pa.
ABOVE: Model T Fords at the Frick’s Car and Carriage Museum. Photo by Pytlik Design Associates.
Saturday will feature kid activities. The highlight on Sunday is a lecture at 1:30 p.m. by WQED-TV’s Rick Sebak discussing his most recent PBS television program, A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway. (If you haven’t heard it for a while, have a listen to the excellent song that accompanied the video, Goin all the Way on the Lincoln Highway composed and performed by Buddy Nutt.)
The Model T Jubilee is free; Sebak’s talk is $10, $8 for members. The Frick is at 7227 Reynolds St., Point Breeze, www.frickart.org, (412) 371-0600.
The Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor has announced that the first of the Roadside Giants student sculptures has been installed along the Lincoln Highway west of Ligonier, Pennsylvania. The Roadside Giants program encourages students from vocational and technical schools along the Lincoln Highway (US 30 in PA) to design and create sculptures that will line the road. They are named for the larger-than-life buildings and statues that are used to attract travelers to stop and spend some time and money, documented in such esteemed books as Roadside Giants — yes, written by me and my wife Sarah.
The first Giant, from the Eastern Westmoreland Career & Technology Center, is a replica 1940s Bennett Gas Pump at the future site of the Lincoln Highway Experience, a welcome center and attraction in Ligonier Township. It’s at the intersection of US 30W and Route 259, near the Idlewild Park entrance. Ligonier Livingalso wrote a story about it.
Four other schools will also soon install giants:
• Somerset County Career & Technology Center designed a vintage Bicycle Built for Two
• Bedford County Technical Center students created an oversized quarter including a profile of Washington
• Franklin County Career & Technology Center built a replica 1921 Selden Apple Truck like the ones used to haul produce at Chambersburg’s orchards.
• Central Westmoreland Career & Technology Center wanted to design a Lincoln Highway-era figure, so they chose a Packard Car with Driver.
“I love art and education,” said Olga Herbert, Executive Director of the LHHC. The Roadside Giants of the Lincoln Highway project combined the two, and involved the community. It will create another great photo op for all Lincoln Highway road trips this summer.”
The Veterans Memorial Bridge linking Columbia with Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, may soon be getting a facelift. The Lancaster Intelligencer Journal reports that on April 30, 3 pm, at the Columbia Borough building, the nonprofit Lancaster-York Heritage Region will unveil plans for the renovation of the bridge and ask for public input.
Plans call for a three-phase project. In the first phase, workers would replace the “cobra” streetlights put in during the 1970s with reproductions of the original art deco lights used when the bridge first opened to traffic in September 1930….
The second phase would concentrate on the “travel plazas” at either end of the bridge, including upgrades such as new landscaping and pedestrian improvements such as traffic islands or “roundabouts” like those found in Gettysburg and Abbotstown.
The project’s final phase would involve “under-lighting” the bridge’s reinforced concrete arches. “This last phase would be aimed at travelers going across the nearby Route 30 bridge,” Pinkerton said.
I am also quoted in the article, in varying degrees of accuracy.
The Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge, a wetland mecca along the Lincoln Highway in western Utah, is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The refuge was established in 1959 by the Migratory Bird Commission and is managed as a unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System.
The celebration will take place May 9-10, 2009. Billed as a weekend of Wildlife, Wildlands, and History, participants will accompany instructors in the field for natural history classes in any of three sessions (two on Saturday, one Sunday). Topics will include land birds, aquatic birds, aquatic botany, area geology, refuge archeology, and most notably, a class titled Fish Springs the Crossroads which looks at the many important pioneer trails that passed through the refuge.
ABOVE: Refuge manager and LHA membership coordinator Jay Banta was photographed by PBS producer Rick Sebak as the crew filmed for last year’s Lincoln Highway program.
Refuge manager Jay Banta says that class will cover “the Jackass Mail, the Pony Express, the Central Overland Stage, the Transcontinental Telegraph, the Lincoln Highway, and maybe even a bit of the CCC history as they built most of the country roads in our part of the world.” Classes are limited to 20 students and require pre-registration, available online, by email, or by phone — see below.
Camping will be allowed on the refuge Friday May 8 and Saturday May 9. There will be a group potluck dinner on Saturday with a “Campfire” program by manager Banta and some surprise guests!
The refuge is 135 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Commuting time is approximately 3.5 hours from SLC, with half of that distance being gravel roads.
For more information check the Special Events at http://fishsprings.fws.gov or e-mail fishsprings@fws.gov or call the refuge from 7 am to 4:30 pm, M–F. (435) 831-5353 x2
It’s always a surprise — and a relief — when a book you’ve been working on for years finally arrives in finished form. Today I was finally able to hold and look through a completed Lincoln Highway Companion, sent on ahead by the printer. Ahh, the smell of fresh ink and new paper!!
Like my last book, Roadside Attractions, this one incorporates written contributions from dozens of friends and fellow old road enthusiasts; it’s an honor to include their roadside recommendations.
No matter whether others like your book or not, you know every image, every fact, every comma had to be chosen, tracked down, and approved. It’s like your child — you love it no matter what. I filmed a little video preview of Lincoln Highway Companion for YouTube that you can play here too.
Attendees to this summer’s Lincoln Highway Association conference in South Bend, Indiana, won’t be very far from Elkhart, just to the east along the Lincoln Highway. Online news site msnbc has launched The Elkhart Project, a long-term interactive blog to provide perspective on the national recession. The site has a variety of features on the town that learned that “heavy dependence on a single industry – in this case RVs – is a double-edged sword: It provides a comfortable ride in the boom years but a rough journey when the good times stop rolling.”
The Iowa Lincoln Highway Association will gather in Carroll this Saturday, April 11, for a business meeting, lunch, and short tour. Location is the Club House Bar & Grill, 529 N. Main St./US 30, aka the Lincoln Highway. Coffee and pastries will be available at 9 am. The meeting starts at 9:30; topics will include the next motor tour across the state and the LH Heritage Byway project. Lunch follows there, then the group will tour the Santa Maria Winery a block away in the former Wittrock Auto building. That’s the building below — it was still in operation when I visited in 2004, with Mike Wittrock at the 1931 double canopy station.
With Spring travel not yet here and snow surprising many of us, there’s not much news from the road, but my editor just sent some good news – a few honest-to-goodness samples of my Lincoln Highway Companion book have arrived! These go out to booksellers that want a look before ordering, and perhaps reviewers. I’m hoping to see one too — he says “Looks great!!!” but I’ll still be anxious till I see it myself. Here’s a photo from it of the Frazer Diner that Stackpole Books posted on Facebook. Click it to see it a bit larger.
Over the weekend I added a wonderful image to my Ship Hotel book – a photo taken from the mountainside looking down on the Grand View Point Hotel, about 1930 just before it was remade into the Ship. In the distance, along the Lincoln Highway / US 30 is a billboard — this is about 17 miles east of Bedford, Pennsylvania. It’s pretty small in the photo but I was wondering what it said so I enlarged it – what do you think? I’ll post it regular and darkened.
Click the map above for a full-size view of the Lincoln Highway.
Like this blog? You'll LOVE my books!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!
Another fun book! The Ship Hotel: A Grand View along the Lincoln Highway recalls the greatest roadside attraction along the coast-to-coast road.
And for those who LOVE diners, click the book below to purchase our completely updated guide to the history, geography, and food of Pennsylvania's Diners!
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