An 82-year-old Ohio business will close at the end of summer. The Review of East Liverpool, Ohio, reports that Pearl China, located on Dresden Avenue, a bypass of the Lincoln Highway, is closing due to the owners’ retirement. The photo below shows its location along Dresden/old US 30, with 4-lane US 30 behind it — from the paper, by David M. Grimes.
After some 82 years of being part of the East Liverpool community … owners Patti and Terry Peterson of Calcutta will turn to the next chapter after their lives with the pottery and gift outlet store. Patti has been part of the store some 45 years when she began helping her mother in the early 60s while Terry will say goodbye some 35 years later when he first began his employment at the highway location. Pearl China Gifts is running a 15-percent off sale for the remaining selection of their inventory. The property is being advertised through Howard Hanna Real Estate Service and, according to their records, the nearly 10,000-foot building, with 2.8 acres of land is being sold for approximately $150,000.
A follow-up feature profiled Patti Peterson and her family’s involvement “with the ‘Pearl’ of the Lincoln Highway.”
Peterson’s bond with the store started with her father when he performed duties as a young boy in the early 1930s. Just several years after George and Dennis Singer opened up the pottery store, Peterson’s father, Shirl Vincent, would stop by the shop in the morning on his way to school, set up items, clean and sweep the rooms before continuing onto the schoolhouse.
In 1960, the last pottery production site of Pearl China was closed by Peterson’s father [Shirl] and the business switched to a retail outlet.
But in 1976, the Singer brothers retired and the young boy that once swept the floors became the official owner of the shop after he and his wife bought the store. They reached out to Peterson and her husband and once again the family was back together working under the roof of Pearl China….
In 1983, just seven years after purchasing the store, Peterson’s father unexpectantly passed away and her mother began to lose interest in the business. In 1986, Peterson and her husband bought the store and continued the establishment….
A small segment of Lincoln Highway on the northeast border of Philadelphia is due for change next summer; whether that will affect an 18th century stone arch bridge remains to be seen. Here’s a scene and a video walk along the road and bridge by Rick Sebak when filming his PBS special, A Ride Along the Lincoln Highway.
Plans to fix up Benjamin Rush State Park, parallel to Roosevelt Boulevard/the Lincoln Highway, have languished for decades due to a city-state dispute about the improvements. But according to Philly.com, John W. Norbeck, director of the Bureau of State Parks, last week said he and City Councilman Brian O’Neill reached “an agreement in principle” during a June 30 meeting.
The parks director said last week that the state will proceed as planned to put out bids early next year and for work to commence by June 2010…. The design stipulates that Burling Avenue, a beat-up old city road that cuts through the park from Roosevelt Boulevard’s outer northbound lanes, will be removed and filled in along with another street [Byberry-Bensalem Road, aka the old Lincoln Highway] that can be seen only on maps.
Striking Burling Avenue and Byberry-Bensalem Road from the city’s street map had been a sticking point for years. O’Neill had maintained that city law bars building on a city street unless the street has been “vacated” by ordinance. Later, city zoning matters further complicated things….
When City Council reconvenes in the fall, the councilman said, he will introduce legislation that would erase the streets from city maps and also change the city’s passive recreation ordinance to accommodate the state’s plans for Rush.
Dr. Ogan Gurel is walking the Lincoln Highway from Chicago to Washington, D.C., to bring attention to the health care crisis. LimaOhio.com reports that Gurel is in central Ohio, easily spotted by an American flag sticking out of his backpack. The image below is a screen shot from that site.
The idea for The Walk for Health Care came after Gurel was shocked by self-interested statements made by the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, and insurance executives on the issue of health care reform.
Gurel says, “I want to knock some sense into the situation because it’s not about preserving a piece of the monetary pie but basic human needs,” Gurel said. He emphasizes that his walk isn’t affiliated with a particular viewpoint or political party but he just feels the status quo is unacceptable. Here is his schedule:
6/27 Chicago
6/28 Gary, Indiana
6/29 Valparaiso, Indiana
6/30 Plymouth, Indiana
7/1 Warsaw, Indiana
7/2 Columbia City, Indiana
7/3 Ft. Wayne, Indiana
7/4 Cairo, Ohio
7/8 Upper Sandusky and Bucyrus, Ohio
7/9 Mansfield, Ohio
7/10 Wooster, Ohio
7/12 Canton, Ohio
7/13 Minerva, Ohio
7/14 Lisbon, Ohio
7/15 Chester, West Virginia
7/16 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
7/17 Irwin/Grapeville/Greensburg, Pennsylvania
7/18 Latrobe, Pennsylvania
7/20 Bedford, Pennsylvania
7/23 Hagerstown, Maryland
7/24 Frederick, Maryland
7/25 Germantown/Gaithersburg & Rockville Maryland
7/26 Bethesda, Maryland & Washington DC
The Bridger Valley Pioneerreported on last Wednesday’s dedication of the restored Black and Orange Cabins in Fort Bridger, Wyoming. The motel along the Lincoln Highway dates to the 1930s. Many Lincoln Highway fans visited the unrestored cabins at the 2008 LHA Evanston conference. The cabins, with carports, were an extension of the Rocheford Hotel in an attempt to serve travelers who wanted less formal accommodations. The event coincided with the passing through of the Military Vehicle Preservation Association’s re-enactment of the 1919 military convoy.
Randy Wagner, who provided the photos above, wrote, “The ribbon-cutting coincided with the arrival of the Military Convoy and some 250 folks attended. The contractor told me he was able to use abour 90 percent of the original building material. The registration office is a complete reconstruction as it was destroyed by fire some 20 years ago. They are not available to rent although a couple have been furnished (bed, dresser, chair, stove and not much else) and are open for inspection. More will be furnished as period furniture becomes available. The state doesn’t want to compete with the two small motels that struggle to stay in business in Fort Bridger.”
LHA director for Wyoming Shelly Horne reports on the day that MVPA leader “Terry Shellswell had invited some of us to join the convoy in Green River. When we got there he offered Joe Cox (a local LHA member) a ride with a retired Air Force Colonel in his jeep (above) and invited me to ride with him in his jeep with he and his wife at the head of the column. He asked my wife, Deann, to lead a small column down the interstate that was not able to travel the old road. We followed the LH from Green River to Little America, then picked it up again in Granger to Fort Bridger with a rest stop at Church Butte.” He spoke briefly at the Blakc and Orange Cabins “before the ribbon cutting (which appropriately was a tree branch cutting). The convoy was fed Buffalo Burgers and we were gone again. We picked up the LH east of Eagle Rock a few miles. As we were heading up the grade past Eagle Rock, I looked back at the convoy. It was strung out for several miles and was quite a sight.”
Beginning tonight, July 7, NBC debuts Great American Road Trip with seven families crossing the U.S. while competing in wacky challenges — a lite version of The Amazing Race. Interestingly, the eight episode show is produced by BBC Worldwide. While the Lincoln Highway is not mentioned, it could likely show up; meanwhile, Route 66 gets a fair amount of visibility. Here are two teaser promos:
Here’s a description from NBC:
These comical, clever challenges are set against iconic American backdrops like the majestic Grand Canyon and the regal Washington Monument. Along the way, our families and our viewers will also discover quirky American landmarks, ranging from the World’s Largest Chair to a sneaker the size of a car. Although family fun is the centerpiece of the show, the competition is real and one family will be eliminated each week based on their performance in the challenges. Ultimately, only one family will return home with a dream prize that perfectly complements their extraordinary and memorable summer vacation.
Former LHA president Randy Wagner always makes clear his opposition to windfarms and their impact on the view along Western roads like the Lincoln Highway, so as an Easterner, I asked him to explain. Below is his response.
Windfarms are destroying the natural Western landscape and are bringing to an end the wide open spaces that those of us that live here have so long enjoyed. Wherever they grow, they dominate the viewshed like nothing else ever invented by man. While normal man-made visual intrusions, like power lines and oil wells, tend to fade from view in 3-5 miles, windmills boldly stand out for up to 30 miles, always on the skyline. An example would be the once beautiful Lincoln Highway drive from Fort Bridger to Evanston, a journey through a pristine landscape since 1913 that is now a windmill forest. Another example is closer to home: Cheyenne residents have forever enjoyed an unobstructed view of the Laramie Mountains and the Sherman Summit to the west. Now a windfarm blocks the view and the feeling of living in the wide open, unspoiled west is forever gone.
I could go on and on about the facts that wind energy is highly inefficient and can only be economically justified with heavy federal (taxpayer) subsidies; that windmills are very high maintenance items; that they don’t work on those hot, still, muggy days when energy is in high demand; that they are seriously altering the habitat for native wildlife species such as sage grouse and pronghorn antelope; that Wyoming is destroying its landscape to send power to Denver, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
Mount Vernon, Iowa, is hosting its first annual Lincoln Highway Open Air Antique Show on July 4, rain or shine. Antiques vendors will set up along Main Street, which is the Lincoln Highway through town. Antique shops, cafés, and other stores also will be open on July 4. Parking and admission are free. Call (319) 210-9935 for more information, or email Kristy SeBlonka at kristy@visitmvl.com/, or visit www.visitmvl.com/. Photo courtesy Rubicon Photo, map from the LHA’s DeLorme map pack.
LHA director Kay Shelton alerted us that, for the couple million people with Hotmail accounts, logging out takes them right to the http://www.msn.com Web site and a few weeks ago the site had a link: “Forget 66: A Better Cross-Country Route” with a short article on the Lincoln Highway. It’s still available HERE.
The story by award-winning author Earl Swift advises “Forget Route 66. This here is our Main Street.” And “With a couple of weeks free, you can still take this curvy, low-speed cruise from end to end and, in the process, gain an understanding of just how big and varied and spectacular this country is.”
Van Becker sent news that two Iowa locations celebrated “96 Years on the Lincoln Highway” on June 13-14 with two amateur radio stations operating for two days from two historic one-stop locations. Above is Bev Becker, WØWDC, LHA life member and experienced amateur radio operator taking her first turn at the mic; following is Van’s report.
The Benton County Amateur Radio Club, KØKBX, put the restored Youngville Cafe on the air operating with three transmitters on the 20, 40 and 80 meter ham bands. This is the second year for this crew and practice sure helped the results! We had 12 operators rotating through one-hour stints at the microphone.
ABOVE: Youngville Cafe, 20 miles west of Cedar Rapids, Iowa on the Lincoln Highway. Inside, an original 1928 LH marker is on display.
The Ames Amateur Radio Club, WØYL, operated from Reed-Nyland Corner in Colo, Iowa. This group experienced a slow start while installing temporary antennas in the rain. This was the first year for this group and they had respectable results and lots of fun. They also had the comfort of a fully-operating cafe for refreshments.
ABOVE: Reed-Nyland gas station, Colo, Iowa, on the Lincoln Highway.
Together, we contacted over 1,000 different stations from coast to coast, quite a few Canadian stations, and even one fellow in Scotland!
The operators had a sheet of “talking points” and LH facts to help enlighten the over-the-air listeners. All the stations contacted will receive an impressive color confirmation certificate upon receipt of their QSL (confirmation) card. Each certificate will be accompanied by a Lincoln Highway Association brochure too.
RoadTrip America, a wonderful site for travel news and ideas, gave a very kind review to my Lincoln Highway Companion, calling it
a perfect size and format for riding shotgun on road trips. With 190 pages packed with color photographs and detailed maps, road trip aficionados can easily follow this historic highway…. Reading the book is like sitting in at a “round-table” and listening to people share their favorite discoveries.
The goal of the book is to make it easy to travel the road but not need a stack of guides and maps, all while not taking away the element of surprise. Click HERE to get it at reduced price from Amazon.
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!
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