LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
Enjoy a 90-year-old look at an article titled “The Lincoln Highway—Our Wonder Road” that appeared in the August 1920 issue of Popular Science by clicking HERE.
Posts Tagged ‘historic highway’
Lincoln Highway in Popular Science, 1920
November 23, 2010Indiana LHA holiday gathering at Kimmell B & B
November 19, 2010LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
The Indiana Lincoln Highway Association will hold a Holiday Gathering and House Tour at the Kimmell House Bed & Breakfast on December 4, 2010, starting at 2pm. The event is open to the public (pre-register by Wednesday, December 1) for only $16, which includes entrée, beverage, tax, and gratuity.
The historic property offers casual dining in addition to overnight accommodations. It is one of several bed and breakfasts along the Lincoln Highway in Indiana. Owners Dean and Deb Stoops will provide a personal tour of the property to attendees. For more information, call (574) 210-6278or visit www.kimmellhouseinn.com/.
Kimmell House Inn Bed & Breakfast
1397 N US Highway 33
Kimmell, IN 46760
Latrobe drive-in theater safe for now
November 18, 2010LINCOLN 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.
Could US 30 in Ohio become a toll road?
November 15, 2010A 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.
Belle Plaine's Lincoln Cafe Reopening Soon
November 5, 2010LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
Van & Bev Becker send good news from Iowa that the Lincoln Cafe in Belle Plaine is about to reopen. The landmark eatery closed a year and a ahlf ago after the owner was murdered as part of a family dispute. Click the image below to watch a video report from KGAN-TV, Cedar Rapids. Check out my previous entries such as this and this.
Above, the remodeled cafe, and below, before its closure.
Lakeview Motel burns, may be demolished
November 1, 2010LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
A fire has left the future uncertain for a vintage motel on the Lincoln Highway south of Plainfield, Illinois. About two thirds of the Lakeview Motel, 15824 S. Joliet Rd. at Renwick Rd., was damaged at a loss estimated at $350,000. The Plainfield Patch reports police believe the blaze started in an unoccupied room and quickly spread into the roof of the 19-room motel. The longtime maintenance manager thinks an unhappy tenant may have been the source, and said, “Out of 19 rooms, 10 of them are pretty much gone.” A photo the paper ran from before the fire (by Kevin Whaley) shows the c. 1950 motel.
The Herald-News reports that even before the fire, the village’s building inspector says multiple code violations made the buildings a dangerous place to live. He has since condemned the motel, house, and mobile homes but the owner would rather rebuild than demolish. The inspector said he’ll give the owner 30 days to figure out how to proceed: “I think people deserve better…. And it’s a prime corner. There’s a lot of potential on this corner.”
Like most mid-century motels, tourists are no longer the primary customers. One online reviewer cried “WHAT A DUMP!!!!!!: This place does not belong in Plainfield. A drug den, where there is nothing but losers & transient people there. Not even safe to park vehicle there. Should be torn down…” but a response said, “It’s not the greatest place on earth, but some people are not as fortunate as others [and] have to stay wherever they can afford and at least they have a roof over their head and not sleeping on the corner.”
Recipes & artwork in IL Lincoln Highway book
October 30, 2010LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
David Alan Badger has been gathering recipes from businesses along the Lincoln Highway in Illinois and combining them with pencil drawings of the businesses to produce Recipes from the Illinois Lincoln Highway National Scenic Byway. The book includes sections for each community along the route, plus a special section on the ILHC’s Interpretive Gazebos and Murals. Learn more about the recipes book at www.drivelincolnhighway.com, which includes a list of the communities.
You can also visit www.davidalanbadger.com to see more of Badger’s artwork.
LHHC gets grant for iPhone Lincoln Highway app
October 28, 2010
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.
Last of Cedar Rapids "auto row" to be razed
October 27, 2010LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
Eastern Iowa Life reports that the last intact block of “automobile row” in Cedar Rapids will be razed as early as Monday:
Lagniappe Investments plans to raze 706 and 712 Second Ave. SE, buildings that in recent years served as the Home Appliance Center and a hall for the Emerald Knights Drum & Bugle Corps…. Tom Slattery, authorized representative for Lagniappe, would not say why the site is being cleared.
Mark Stoffer Hunter, an expert in Cedar Rapids history, said architecturally, the buildings are not significant, but the block is important to Cedar Rapids history. “It’s the one block of downtown Cedar Rapids that hasn’t changed in 50 years,” he said…. As the Lincoln Highway was routed onto Second Avenue around 1920, businesses replaced homes along the route.
In the above photo, supplied to the paper by historian Mark Stoffer Hunter, Barron Motor Supply is shown at 706 Second Ave. SE in this 1935 photo. The store was one of several that lined Cedar Rapids’ “automobile row” along the Lincoln Highway.
Malta mural features Lincoln Hwy Seedling Mile
October 26, 2010LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
The Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition announced the completion of its newest Interpretive Mural along the 179-mile byway corridor: 127 N. Third Street in Malta, Illinois, on the Malta Historical Society’s Old Town Hall.
The Malta mural showcases the Lincoln Highway’s first Seedling Mile with a detailed painting of workmen pouring the concrete from a steam-operated mixer and a view at right of men smoothing the surface. The LHA used Seedling Miles to demonstrate the advantages of concrete over dirt surfaces in hopes that it would inspire further road improvements.
For more information on the Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition, including its murals and gazebos plus places to see and things to do, or to download an ILHC’s 2010 Visitor Guide, visit www.drivelincolnhighway.com/.
Lincoln Highway News 