Posts Tagged ‘restoration’
July 27, 2010
The News-Sentinel of Fort Wayne, Indiana, reports that one of the 15 remaining Lincoln Highway concrete markers in the state has a new home in front of New Haven City Hall, 815 Lincoln Highway E., just a few feet from the road’s original route.
“Our board felt that one of the markers should be on the eastern side of the state,” said Jan Shupert-Arick, president of the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association. “Mayor Terry McDonald has been active in our association, and the city did an extraordinary job of restoring the marker. This is a treasured resource.”
That didn’t keep the marker from falling into disrepair and near-oblivion in recent years, however. Believed to have been one of two markers that once stood near what is now the Harrison Street Bridge just north of downtown Fort Wayne, the heavy post was eventually donated to the Lincoln Museum, which never displayed the damaged marker before closing in 2008.
The museum gave the more-intact marker it did display to the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis, but the Lincoln Highway Association was only too happy to accept the post that has been restored by New Haven employees and local stone carver Timothy Doyle, whose expertise allowed city workers to blend old and new concrete seamlessly.
The exhibit includes a bronze plaque donated by the association and the city.
Tags:highway history, historic highway, Indiana, Lincoln Highway, New Haven IN, restoration, road marker
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, signs, transportation, travel | Leave a Comment »
July 13, 2010
Van & Bev Becker send word from Iowa that the Lincoln Cafe in Belle Plaine is set to reopen in September. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported today that Gzim “Jimmy” Limani, owner of the likewise famous King’s Tower Café (also along the Lincoln Highway in nearby Tama) is working to rehab the shuttered cafe. When it opens in September, Limani promises home-style cooking every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
“My customers from Belle Plaine told me I should buy it, so I did,” Limani, who’s originally from Albania, said. “It’s a historical building and the people in town are really excited about it. They have been very supportive.”
The previous owner of the Lincoln Café, Curtis Bailey, of Marengo, was murdered in his home last summer and the café closed….
Limani, his son Arijan, 14, and another worker have almost gutted the inside of the building…. “The place is old and needs cleaning and we’ve ripped it down to the bones, to the bricks. It’s down to the bricks in the kitchen….”
Limani said almost everything like the floors, ceiling and lights will be replaced or repaired and there will be new tables and booths. The outside of the café will also get updated with the help of KB Construction in Belle Plaine.
“I want to keep the original sign and it will stay the Lincoln Café,” Limani said smiling. “I don’t want to change that.”
Tags:Belle Plaine IA, cafe, highway history, historic highway, Iowa, Lincoln Highway, restaurant, restoration
Posted in food, highways, history, Lincoln Highway, Road trip, roadside, travel | 3 Comments »
October 7, 2009
Looks like it might be another tough week to keep up with blogging — kids have the flu and I get more symptoms every hour. But here’s some cheery news (and a photo) from Jeff at Vintage Roadside.
Kelly & I are on a road trip from Portland, OR to Nashville, TN for the National Trust annual conference and we’re driving the Lincoln Highway across Wyoming & Nebraska. We’re writing our blog and visited the Black & Orange cabins today in Fort Bridger, Wyoming. We linked to your post about the cabins to give people more history about them.
Read their adventures at vintageroadtrip.blogspot.com/.
Tags:cabins, Fort Bridger WY, Lincoln Highway, restoration, tourist cabins, vintage motel, WY
Posted in highways, history, Lincoln Highway, lodging, Road trip, roadside, signs, travel | 2 Comments »
January 26, 2008
Closed for 12 years, the Colo Motel has reopened, giving Lincoln Highway tourists a new-style, old-fashioned lodging option in central Iowa. It is part of the Reed/Niland corner complex that includes a cafe and gas station, both also restored. The cafe is operating and is a must-stop itself; the 1920s gas station is for display only but is set to house a country-style store.
The motel’s six rooms rent for an affordable $49.99 per night or $175 for five consecutive nights. Scott Berka, Colo city clerk, says that other than “waiting for some of the furniture to arrive,” the rooms are complete with cable TV, wireless internet, central air, pillow-top mattresses, and room service from the café. The Colo is on the forefront of restoring mid-century motels for 2-lane tourists, and also gives locals a lodging option for out-of-town guests.
Above: Stuart Huse, one of the owners of Flat-Top Concrete & Construction, the prime contractor for the project, finishes the woodwork. Above photos courtesy Scott Berka.
The roadside one-stop opened about 1920 at the corner of Lincoln Highway and US 65, the old Jefferson Highway, but declined in recent decades as the old road was bypassed. The restoration is a project of Colo Development Group and the City of Colo; it has cost nearly $1 million including $663,000 in grant funding (from the Iowa DOT’s and Federal Highway Administration’s Transportation Enhancement Funding) and about $270,000 in local donations.The one-stop
An article in the Nevada [Iowa] Journal reported on the opening, and quoted Berka and Sandy Wilfong, manager of Niland’s Café and now the Colo Motel. She praised the retro-stryle rooms and appointments such as wrought iron headboards and curtain rods, and quilts on the beds. Come Spring, Wilfong hopes to have a farmers market at the corner on Saturdays.
The motel is at 18 Lincoln Highway in Colo. Reservations are taken through Nilands Cafe: (641) 377-3663. To learn more about the complex, go to the Colo Iowa web page and click Reed/Niland corner at the bottom of the left-hand column.
Tags:Colo, gas station, highway, Iowa, motel, restoration, Road trip, travel
Posted in food, highways, history, lodging, Road trip, roadside, travel | 2 Comments »
December 18, 2007
One of the stops during the 2008 Lincoln Highway Association conference in Evanston, Wyoming, will be the remains of the Sunset Motel. The string of six rooms—three with built-in garages—are on Bear River Drive, the LH on the east end of town near WY-89. Built in 1932 in Mission or Spanish Colonial Revival style, this portion of the motel has been saved—the question now is what to do with it.
I asked Jim Davis about the motor court. He’s Director of Administrative Services for Evanston and also on the Advisory Board for the Wyoming Main Street Program, on the Advisory Board for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a staff member for the Evanston Historic Preservation Commission, and a founding member and past chair of Tracks Across Wyoming.
The good news about the Sunset Cabins is that they are still standing. Bad news, we still haven’t figured a new use for them and they remain threatened. The Evanston Preservation Commission had them listed as locally significant; however this does nothing to protect them as Evanston does not have a demolition ordinance or any such preservation ordinance. The cabins remain with the ownership of the city and we are still trying to figure a way for us to find adaptive reuse in order to secure their future. A little over a year ago we placed a restored Lincoln Highway marker at the site in order to draw attention as to the significance of this site.
One of the problems with any restoration effort is how to adapt and reuse. Jane Law, City of Evanston Urban Renewal Coordinator (and who kindly arranged for these photos), says, “We have heard artist studios, concessions, but nothing that gets everyone stirred up enough to get something done…. It would truly be a shame to ever lose them, they are quite unique and really pretty cute. The state is restoring some motor cabins in Ft. Bridger, so maybe we can get some more interest there for them to come a little further west.”
Another issue is having the resources for every worthy project:
At present we really have our hands full restoring, rehabilitating, and preserving our wonderful and unique roundhouse and railyards site…. We are also trying to rehabilitate a historic hotel in our historic downtown; that has been a very long process with years of delay. Our Renewal Agency just purchased what remains of our downtown theater. That will be quite a project in itself. There was a terrible fire there in May and the building is just a shell now, but not wanting a hole in the block or a mini parking lot, we stepped up and will try to make that a viable business for our downtown. So we have our hands full, BUT the Sunset Cabins are something our Historic Preservation Commission should address. I do think those coming next year [to the LHA conference] will like them and could play a big part in thinking of a reuse. [my emphasis]
Jane also sent a detailed and fascinating hisstorical survey of the site that I’ll review soon in a separate post.
Tags:cabins, Evanston, history, lodging, motel, restoration, transportation, Wyoming
Posted in highways, history, lodging, Road trip, roadside, transportation, travel | 4 Comments »
December 5, 2007
Tags:Colo, highways, Iowa, motel, restoration
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November 15, 2007
The famous Haines Shoe House in south-central Pennsylvania got a fresh look through the efforts of Hampton Hotels’ Save-A-Landmark program. Built in 1948, the 3-story stucco shoe and its fence were painted at no charge of materials or labor. Carleen and Ronald Farabaugh have owned the house since 2003, giving tours and selling ice cream, and occasionally staying overnight. Carleen told me there’s always work to be done but they are thrilled with what the company’s 15 volunteers accomplished: “The Shoe House was desperately in need of a facelift. Hampton’s generosity should help to preserve the Shoe House for years to come so everyone can enjoy it.” She adds that all revenue is put into its restoration.
The house was built as a promotional gimmick for Mahlon Haines to advertise his chain of shoe stores—he’d loan the shoe (actually, a work boot) free to honeymooners and retirees who lived in a town that had a Haines Shoe Store. The house was set back a bit from the Lincoln Highway, but a Route 30 bypass now runs just outside its windows.
Chris Epting, author of numerous books on roadside landmarks, was there as spokesman for the Save-A-Landmark program doing TV and radio spots: “This was another wonderful opportunity to be a part of helping to restore a vital roadside landmark. This program continues to succeed on levels that are unprecedented for these kinds of efforts, and I’m very proud to be working with Hampton Inn as we move forward to the next landmark.” Also attending was Kyle Weaver of Stackpole Books, editor of my books and working with Epting on a forthcoming Stackpole title, The Birthplace Book. The photos seen here were graciously loaned by Kyle.
Hampton donated $20,000 in supplies for the Shoe redo, and organized a collecting effort for Soles4Souls, a nonprofit organization that collects and distributes shoes for people affected by natural disasters.
Hampton Hotels’ Save-A-Landmark program has helped preserve more than 30 American architectural oddities since 2000. The Shoe has it’s own Hampton page, and an article about the event ran in the York Daily Record.
Tags:attraction, Hallam, Hellam, house, PA, restoration, Road trip, roadside, shoe, travel
Posted in highways, history, roadside, travel | Leave a Comment »
November 10, 2007
A few days after my story ran on the Covered Wagon, an article perhaps inspired by this blog ran on the front page of the Kearney Hub. It even featured my 1950s postcard of the place (though initial editions like the one below erroneously credited the image). Writer Todd Gottula talked to the owner and contractor, who is adding a second floor to convert the building into offices with log siding.
Gottula pinned down some dates: the Covered Wagon was sold to Boyd McClara in 1939, then Nick and Rose Ponticello purchased it in 1963. Nick auctioned many of the souvenirs in 2001 before selling the property to Hayes.
Jamie Hayes, who purchased the property four years ago from Nick Ponticello, says he wants to return it as close as possible to its original look. Since work started around the end of September, motorists keep stopping to talk with contractor Ray White and sons. Hayes says the amount of interest is unbelievable, with most making sure the site is being preserved, not destroyed.
A whimsical postcard view from a Covered Wagon attraction, courtesy Bernie Heisey.
Gottula reported in a sidebar story that the site inspired local musician Mike Nicolen to write a song about the Covered Wagon after meeting the Ponticellos in 1999. His thoughts, also on his website, mirror that of many old-time LH fans: “I think instead of building a $50 million archway across the interstate to commemorate westward expansion, they should have sent someone with a tape recorder and camera out to see Nick and Rose.” Nicolen’s site explains further, “Nick and Rose held on to the place and kept it open into their 80’s when health problems finally forced them into a nursing home…. Nick told me once that the Archway people wanted to buy him out and move his beloved Covered Wagon out to the Interstate. He said ‘Why don’t you pick up your Arch and move it out here? I’ve been here a lot longer than you’ve been out there!'”
Nicolen’s song likewise tells how I-80 and the Archway draws traffic from the 2-lane. Click Here to listen to Covered Wagon courtesy of the Kearney Hub or go to Mike’s site and scroll down to the last song, He tells the story from Nick’s point of view. with lines like:
Parked along the highway of our dreams
Facing westward, time moves onward here in the land of opportunity
Now they travel down I-80 doing 85 or more
They gas up at the interchange they’ll never see my store
Tags:attraction, Covered Wagon, Kearney, NE, oxen, postcard, restoration, roadtrip, song, travel, vacation, wagon
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October 27, 2007
John & Lenore Weiss recently stopped at the Covered Wagon in central Nebraska and talked with a contractor who is bringing the building, wagon, and oxen back to life. The once-busy attraction four miles west of Kearney was near the famous (and long gone) 1733 Ranch, where signs indicated the halfway point between Boston and San Francisco, 1733 miles each way. They sent two pictures that show the work underway.
“The contractor remembers all of it very well!” says Lenore. “The new owner does want a 2-story building, so he is doing a fine job and will be using log siding. The oxen and wagon will be completely restored, but the oxen will stay the same colors. Inside the wagon will be an office or two, and the top of the wagon will be new canvas as well.”
This is excellent news for anyone who has watched the site decline over the past 15 years, knowing the all-too-familiar fate of vintage roadside attractions. The attraction was built in 1932 by a pair of missionaries and later was run by Mr. & Mrs Boyd McClare and later Nicholas and Rose Ponticello. Kearney Planning Commission minutes from 2002 appear to approve the project that has just gotten underway.
Below are two views from its heyday, when postcards advertised that tourists could relax “and obtain worthwhile souvenirs at reasonable prices.” One of the unforgettable draws was a taxidermied two-headed calf. The two gas pumps look pretty sharp too.
John and Lenore Weiss are known to Route 66 and now LH fans for their research, tours, and publications, including one that will soon be reviewed here that covers both famed routes plus the Dixie Highway.
Tags:attraction, Covered Wagon, Kearney, NE, restoration, Weiss
Posted in highways, roadside, travel | 7 Comments »
October 25, 2007
Just as exciting as Niland’s Cafe reopening is that the restoration of the adjacent Colo Motel is nearly complete. (That’s their sign at left.) Six units offering modern amenities in a classic décor will be available for daily rental starting December 1. The motel closed in 1995 but in recent years has been part of the one-stop’s restoration that includes a non-working gas station and operating cafe. Colo Development Group hopes to someday use the memorabilia-filled gas station as a gift shop.
Scott Berka sent the photo below of the site before restoration was started – the motel is in the middle. Click here for a much larger version.
Tags:Colo, IA, motel, neon sign, restoration
Posted in highways, roadside, travel | Leave a Comment »
Lincoln Highway News 
