Posts Tagged ‘Greensburg PA’
August 31, 2010
The Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor is sponsoring a one-day bus trip along the Lincoln Highway from Greensburg to Everett, Pa., (and back) on Monday, October 11, 2010. The “ultimate road trip” will be guided by Lou DeRose, the ultimate Lincoln Highway fan, and Olga Herbert, the Executive Director of the LHHC. Both know this route inside and out and will share little-known facts about this country’s first coast-to-coast route.
In addition to photo ops at four Roadside Giants and four Lincoln Highway murals, bus guests will be treated to a lunch buffet at the Omni Bedford Springs Resort followed by a private tour. The day begins with a private guided tour of the historic Compass Inn in Laughlintown led by Innkeeper Jim Koontz.
After lunch they’ll head to Everett for a photo op of another Roadside Giant followed by visits to Bedford’s art deco Dunkle’s Gulf Station and the 1927 Coffee Pot. Dinner is at the historic Jean Bonnet Tavern with time to browse the Cabin Gift Shoppe.
Departure is from either Greensburg’s Hempfield Square or Latrobe 30 Shopping Plaza.
Make your reservation TODAY at www.LHHC.org where you can pay online or call (724) 238-9030. The travel package ($115 per person) includes the guided tours of Compass Inn and Bedford Springs, lunch at Bedford Springs, dinner at Jean Bonnet Tavern, and a photo memento. Sorry, no refunds.
Tags:Bedford PA, bus tour of historic highway, Greensburg PA, highway history, historic highway, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, roadside attractions, roadtrip
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December 21, 2009
Kristin Poerschke of the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor sent some photos of the Mountain View Inn east of Greensburg. The property was bought recently and much of the historic hotel was demolished for a planned shopping plaza. Kristin’s picture might look like the same building as in this vintage postcard but it’s not; the original section was razed and only sections built in the past decade were retained.
Tags:2-lane travel, Greensburg PA, Lincoln Highway, Mountain View Inn, old hotel demolition, Road trip
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, lodging, Road trip, roadside, transportation, travel | 6 Comments »
November 17, 2009
The Mountain View Inn east of Greensburg, Pa., a long-time landmark along the Lincoln Highway, was sold earlier this year. Reports were that the new owners wanted to build a shopping plaza, and indeed, people have been writing about the inn’s destruction. Here’s a note from blog reader John: “the original section of the hotel has been razed. The only sections saved from destruction are those built this decade.”
The Pittsburgh Tribune Review reported last month that asbestos concerns had halted the dismantling following an auction of its all its contents. A state Department of Environmental Protection inspector “ordered the building secured until it could be examined to determine if asbestos is present. As a result, Altman dozens of successful bidders had to wait to collect their purchases.
Brothers James and Daniel Snyder …
purchased the property for more than $2.5 million after the inn, restaurant and bar closed in January. The real estate developers plan to raze part of the structure to make way for commercial development. The sale included the inn, 14 acres and a house on the property…. The hotel’s Mountain Laurel wing overlooking Route 30 will be retained as a 53-room lodge run by about 10 employees, according to plans presented this week to township officials.
Tags:development, Greensburg PA, historic inn demolished, hotel history, Lincoln Highway, Mountain View Inn, PA history, Road trip, roadside
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, lodging, roadside, transportation | 2 Comments »
July 15, 2009
The Mountain View Inn, a historic and beloved hotel located between the Lincoln Highway and Route 30 east of Greensburg, Pa., closed in January but now has a buyer and a potential sales agreement.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, First Commonwealth Bank, owner of the historic inn, is in preliminary talks with a private group that has shown interest but there’s no guarantee it would reopen as a hotel.
This occurred a day after the Westmoreland Cultural Trust outlined its own plan to buy the facility and lease it to area colleges to operate as a hotel and convention center.
The inn opened in 1924 and the Booher family bought it in 1940. Descendants Vance and Vicki Booher began experiencing financial problems in 2001 and closed it earlier this year.
Tags:Greensburg PA, historic inn, hotel history, Lincoln Highway, US 30
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, lodging, roadside, travel | 1 Comment »
May 27, 2009
The third Roadside Giant sculpture along the Lincoln Highway in western Pennsylvania will be unveiled today. The Community Installation Celebration for the Central Westmoreland Career & Technology Center’s “Packard Car with Driver” will take place at 1 pm at the entrance to the Westmoreland Chamber of Commerce and the Mt. Odin Golf Course, on the original Lincoln Highway. Guests will enjoy a “giant” Packard Cake, in the same shape as the giant, but edible! Photos of the installation courtesy Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor.
Tags:Greensburg PA, highway history, highway sculpture, history, Lincoln Highway, PA, Road trip, roadside giants, travel
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January 26, 2009
An article in Sunday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the Mountain View Inn near Greensburg, Pa., had not gotten the loan it needed and was closing.
“First Commonwealth Bank on Friday refused to renew a revolving line of credit the innkeepers said they needed to see the hotel through the four slowest months for the hospitality industry,” according to the article.
Despite 60 weddings booked this year (a 50% increase), the owners of the Lincoln Highway landmark said they needed the funds to “see the hotel through the four slowest months for the hospitality industry.” They also cited competition from numerous national hotel chains that have opened nearby. In recent decades, the Boohers invested $4 million in building two new wings, doubling the inn’s capacity to 90 rooms.
Famous guests included Harrison Ford, the Dalai Lama, Fred Rogers, Arnold Palmer, Bernadette Peters, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Guy Lombardo.
Tags:Greensburg PA, historic hotel closing, hotel, Lincoln Highway, Mountian View Inn, recession, roadhouse
Posted in food, highways, history, Lincoln Highway, lodging, roadside, travel | 1 Comment »
January 22, 2009
The Mountain View Hotel & Conference Center, a historic hotel and restaurant founded 1924, is expected to close on Sunday, saddening not only fans of roadside rests and historic hotels, but shocking brides and others who have receptions planned.
Located between old and new routings of the Lincoln Highway east of Greensburg, the popular local landmark was one of the last old-style county hotels along the LH in Pennsylvania. Situated atop a small ridge, it also was part of the tradition in the state of roadhouses that located on mountaintops to serve the boiling radiators of early autos. The P-G and Trib both carried the news. Updates ran here and here.
The Trib noted that owner Vance Booher III blamed the recession as the most recent factor hurting business, and that his bank “has refused to extend a line of credit that would keep the hotel open. Unless he can obtain an emergency loan by the weekend, he will have ‘no feasible alternative but to cease all major operations.'” That does leave a slim window of hope for continued operation.
The inn’s 89 guest rooms are each uniquely decorated, from elegant 18th century to early American country. The original part of the inn survives along with its knotty pine paneling and great stone fireplace
Vance Booher purchased the inn in 1940 when only one of the original 40 upstairs rooms had running water. Private baths were added by knocking out walls and reducing the number of original rooms to 26.
Vance III took over in 1983 along with his wife Vicki. He has been recognized as an Advanced Certified Wine Professional by the Culinary Institute of America, one of only 16 such individuals in America and the first to be so recognized on the East Coast. Their sons were making it a fourth generation enterprise.
The Mountain View and its original 1925 outdoor pool (removed in 1973) served as a retreat for the wealthy of Pittsburgh until WWII, when it also served as the social headquarters for Army Air Corps cadets training at the nearby airport in Latrobe, now Arnold Palmer Regional Airport (which lays atop the Lincoln Highway).
The website is still operational, with upcoming events listed. Let’s hope financing comes through to keep it going. It’s also a good reminder to patronize locally owned businesses when you can.
Tags:Greensburg PA, historic hotel, Lincoln Highway, roadhouse, roadside
Posted in food, highways, history, Lincoln Highway, lodging, roadside | 6 Comments »
December 15, 2008
Looking through my computer files today I found this postcard scan of Weaver’s Motel along the Lincoln Highway on the east side of Greensburg, Pa.
When I began researching the highway in Pennsylvania two decades ago a few remnants of this motel remained. Judging by Google Street View, what looks like the main building of the tourist court still survives but that’s it.
Tags:Greensburg PA, Lincoln Highway, motel, Pennsylvania, postcard collecting, tourist court
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, lodging | 1 Comment »
November 13, 2008
Piil Rosenstein is nearing the end of his cross-country run, mush of which followed Route 66 and since Illihios has often been on the Lincoln HIghway. He wrote the note below from York, Pa. He’ll follow US 30 to the coast, meaning at Philadelphia he’ll leave the Lincoln, which bends NE to New York City. His running supports the charity of The Mario Lemieux Foundation which works in cancer research and supporting families affected by cancer. Here are excerpts from his diary starting in Pittsburgh:
Nov 6 = I gave a few more interviews and met a few former Penguins who are now announcing games. And I met the current best player in the world – Sidney Crosby…. 10 minutes into the first period they had a very nice ceremony with a video tribute to me on the jumbotron where I was presented with a couple of gifts. I received a proclamation from the mayor of Pittsburgh that November 6th, 2008, was Official Phil Rosenstein Day for the city…. After that, we went up to the owner’s box where I got to meet the owner himself – Mario Lemieux. What more can I say??
Nov 7 = I stopped in Greensburg for a free milkshake around noon because they recognized me from the TV…. I never would have made it to Greensburg without Dan’s help by taking the stroller [cart] from me. The shoulder came and went often and all the traffic would have been within inches of hitting me had I been out there with that stroller…. I made it to the edge of Laughlintown before stopping for the night.
Nov 8 = The temperature today was 49 degrees to start and then never got any higher. Part of that is due to the amount of time I spent climbing a few mountains today. Though they were only 2900 feet high, it still isn’t easy pushing that stroller up them…. I took a picture of one of the more beautiful Lincoln Highway (Route 30) murals. I ran about 40 miles again today and ended up getting into Schellsburg just as it got dark.
Nov 9 = I left Schellsburg feeling a bit sore from all the recent miles and the hills, but I still made good time getting into Bedford where I met up with Alisa and here friends Sue and Peter. I spent all day running without the stroller, but with two people while the third waited five miles ahead for us. It was weird to run with other people, but I really enjoyed the company and made good time running a steady pace all day. We finished the day about 13 miles east of Breezewood. By running without the stroller and the hydration vest, I was able to finish the day with more than 40 miles once again – third day in a row.
Nov 10 = I ran 40 miles once again today. That’s 4 days in a row now. My legs can feel it now. I was pretty sore all day long and really struggled in the afternoon. In the morning, I went over a few more mountains where it was snowing on top. It’s much easier without the stroller (left behind at Alisa’s place) going up a mountain. Going down is where it hurt the most. After that it was flat, but the winds made it seem colder than the 35 degrees the thermometers kept saying. I finished the day in Caledonia tired, sore, and freezing cold.
Nov 11 = Alisa dropped me off where she picked me up last night, but this time I had the stroller. I moved slowly since I was sore and tired from all the recent miles. I made it through Gettysburg (on this Veteran’s Day) and then another 10 miles before meeting my friends Dave and Gary who drove up from Virginia. We … made it to the edge of York before going out to dinner.
Tags:Bedford PA, Breezewood PA, Greensburg PA, Mario Lemieux, Penguins hockey, Pittsburgh Penguins, Running across America, York PA
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May 13, 2008
Heavy rain over the weekend likely caused a portion of the original Lincoln Highway west of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, to fall onto US 30, closing both eastbound lanes of the 4-lane. A water line also broke but it was not clear what happened first. Here is a view of the LH before the landslide, which occurred to the left:
More that 30 truckloads of debris fell down onto US 30, and though that road is again open, the LH (aka old Route 30 and Tollgate Hill Road) will remain closed for a few weeks. Read the full report in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review by cliking the image below:
Or read about it and view a video on ThePittsburghChannel.com by clicking below:
Tags:Greensburg PA, highways, mud slide, road closed
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