LINCOLN HIGHWAY NEWS IS A BLOG BY BRIAN BUTKO
Pennsylvania’s Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor is once again staging a Lincoln Highway Road Rally this weekend, October 8 and 9. This year’s rally will start in Jennerstown and end at Mister Ed’s Elephant Museum in Orrtanna, 12 miles west of Gettysburg, and includes a mystery! Although registration has ended, you can see the group along the way with its many antique car participants.
This year’s rally starts 9:30 a.m. with breakfast at the Coal Miner’s Cafe in Jennerstown, then visit the Bicycle Built for Two Roadside Giant, the new Flight 93 Memorial and the former site of the Grandview Ship Hotel. Lunch at the Omni Bedford Springs Resort, then a quilt show and Civil War exhibit at the Bedford County Historical Society. The day will end with a visit to a second Roadside Giant, a giant quarter in Everett.
Sunday includes a stop at the 1920 Seldon Truck Roadside Giant and a visit to Chambersburg, tours of the Thaddeus Stevens Blacksmith Shop, and a picnic lunch at Caledonia State Park. The drive will end at Mister Ed’s Elephant Museum about 2:30 p.m.
Participants will be asked to help solve the murder of a former naval officer at the S.S. Grand View Ship Hotel west of Bedford. Clues will be posted along the route to help solve the crime.
To find out more about the rally or other LHHC events, e-mail olga@LHHC.org or call 724-238-9030.
I’ll be giving a PowerPoint presentation tonite just a few miles from the site of the S.S. Grand View Ship Hotel, the best-known roadside attraction along the Lincoln Highway until it burned in 2001. Central City is the closet (tiny) town so everyone there worked at, ate at, and celebrated at the Ship — should be lots of fun.
Here are photos of the Ship Hotel’s dining room about 1940 and the outside about 1975. That kid looks like me! But it’s not.
Still trying to catch up, and here’s one exciting reason I’m behind — my new book on the Ship Hotel is out and I’ve arranged some signings. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette just published a very nice feature review about the book and of the Ship itself.
My 10-day trip south was fun but left no time for blog updates. Lots to catch up on including the scheduling of three signings of my new book, The Ship Hotel: A Grand View along the Lincoln Highway.
FRI, April 16, 7–8:30 pm: B&N Waterfront, Homestead PA
SAT, April 17, 10–Noon: Coffee Bean coffeehouse, 5345 Rt 30, across from Westmoreland Mall, Greensburg PA
SAT, April 17, 2:30–4 pm: newly restored Union Hotel, 128 E. Main St., Everett PA
The non-profit Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor is coordinating the two on Saturday and will have books available for purchase with cash or check. Coffee mugs and t-shirts featuring vintage pictures of the Ship Hotel will also be for sale along with my other books on the Lincoln Highway and roadside attractions. Sales benefit the non-profit LHHC.
Olga Herbert, executive director of the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor in Pennsylvania, has a friend who wants to sell his collection of Ship Hotel memorabilia. Anyone interested in purchasing part or all of the collection should send their name and phone # to Olga at office@LHHC.org. In about a week, she will send the info to him and he will follow up by telephone. NOTE: no portion of the profits will go to the LHHC, she is doing this as a favor since he doesn’t have e-mail.
The complete story of the Ship Hotel is due out in March in a book written by, well, me. I began researching the Ship in 1988 and became friends with Clara Gardner, granddaughter of founder Herbert Paulson. Clara is gone now but her children graciously permitted me to use many, many family photos. Look for more peeks inside the book in the coming months.
After much back and forth debate, Stackpole Books has finalized the cover to my next book, The Ship Hotel: A Grand View Along the Lincoln Highway. It shows the Ship in the early 50s, when crowds were still coming despite the lure of the parallel Pa. Turnpike. I was hoping for more nautical touches but I’m thrilled they chose to feature this beautiful view from good friend Cy Hosmer.
The Grand View Ship Hotel was once the best-known attraction along the coast-to-coast Lincoln Highway. It’s burning in 2001 broke hearts far and wide. Today all that remains are a few scattered scorched remnants below the 1920s wall (see my brief clip below). My book traces the history starting with a roadside stand that served early travelers stopping for the grand view. I got to design the inside, which will feature lots of cool photos printed large. Look for the book in Spring 2010!
There’s no breaking news today and I’ve been working nonstop since noon Wednesday to finish my book on the Ship Hotel. It’s getting there but still rough in the Noah’s Ark chapter and the deadline looms hours away.
I’ve been spending lots of time writing the Ship Hotel book, due out in 2010. More than 2 months after my request for info, I still get letters and photos daily — it’s getting hard to wrap up! Here’s a nice photo I just color-corrected. As you’ve probably seen in your own family photos, pigments fade from old Kodacolor prints, leaving them pink. I really enjoy working to bring them back to how they should look.
Lincoln Highway Companion is still at least a month away from release but Stackpole Books just added it and my other books to their web site. For LH Companion click HERE; Greetings from the LH can be found HERE.
Companion is already printing so no more changes can be made, but the road is always in flux. Here’s a draft page from Iowa — a popular stretch that includes Preston’s station in Belle Plaine and the bridge at Tama with the highway’s name in its rails. Creating and correcting the maps for this book added many, many months to its production.
I drove east on the Lincoln Highway last weekend to wrap up my research on the S.S. Grand View Ship Hotel. The Ship, west of Bedford, PA, was one of the best-loved roadside attractions until it burned in 2001. Good weather, a productive trip, lots of photos, and a good book on tape made it fun, but it’s still sad to see the Ship gone and odd to see so many places changed. Old signs gone, new buildings in operation, more lanes for traffic.
Little now changes at Grand View Point. Vandals have taken about all they can, particularly from the lighthouses that once graced each end of the wall. Here’s a very short clip of what remains – not at all exciting but it documents what’s there today. I posted another on YouTube taken when I crawled down the hill.
Now that I’ve shifted to working day and night on my book for 2010 — The Ship Hotel: A Grand View along the Lincoln Highway — I’ve dug out copies of the blueprints. Most fascinating are drawings of the original building planned in 1928. The Ship would be built around this basic structure a few years later. Here’s a look at a side elevation of the original stand with some castle ornamentation. You can see how it hung onto the mountainside!
I’ve seen lots of photos but, oddly, NEVER one during construction of either the original hotel or its conversion to the Ship. Anyone have more information or images from its construction?
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!
I drove east on the Lincoln Highway last weekend to wrap up my research on the S.S. Grand View Ship Hotel. The Ship, west of Bedford, PA, was one of the best-loved roadside attractions until it burned in 2001. Good weather, a productive trip, lots of photos, and a good book on tape made it fun, but it’s still sad to see the Ship gone and odd to see so many places changed. Old signs gone, new buildings in operation, more lanes for traffic.
Lincoln Highway News 