Shippensburg Community Fair

Every year since 1958, during the full week in July, Shippensburg hosts the community fair that appeals to all generations. I know many people who regularly attend the fair so that they can eat meals on the fairgrounds. There is something nostalgic about the fair: the bright lights, the noises, and the smell of classic fair food, which entices us to amusement. Older people seem to channel their inner child; young people enjoy everything with reckless abandon. And the community renews itself each summer. 

Interesting and Derelict Buildings: US30 from Bedford to Jeannette, PA

A house near Wolfsburg

It is impossible to list all the interesting places and sites on the Lincoln Highway. It would take an inordinate amount of time even stop at even half the places that spark imagination along the way. Therefore, the journey I took in July 2014 along US30, which closely coincides with the Lincoln Highway, focused on interesting and mostly derelict buildings I observed. The journey started just west of Bedford, Pennsylvania where I photographed an abandoned house just outside the village of Wolfsburg.

A.W. Covin Dry Goods (Schellsburg)

IOOF building (Schellsburg)

Lincoln Highway Auto Center (Schellsburg)

As the Lincoln Highway makes its way through the town of Schellsburg it is known as Pitt Street. At the corner of Market and Pitt there appears what seems to be an old department store with palimpsest: “A.W. Colvin / Dry Goods / Notions / Shoes / Clothing / &₠.” A little further west on Pitt, two interesting buildings stand across the street from one another. The IOOF building, built in 1876, still has a fallout shelter sign on its front. Given the size and age of the building, it seems improbably that it would provide much protection in the event of a nuclear attack. Any such attack would, no doubt, destroy the Lincoln Highway Auto Center just across the street. The garage has a Lincoln Highway historical marker on its sign with a picture of the building as it appeared in 1921. The marker indicated that the automobiles were so expensive that owners often sought places to park the cars indoors while travelling. As an additional service many began to offer repair services as well, hence in the United States, it is how the word “garage” came to mean a place where one could get one’s car repaired.

As I continued west, I drove by a sign that indicated the turnoff to the town of New Paris, which is just a few miles off the Lincoln Highway. I was tempted to have a look at the town purporting to be the new incarnation of the capital of France. A brief search of the internet did not shed any light onto why the moniker was chosen. When New Paris was settled in 1846, I wondered if the founders had delusions of grandeur, even if there was not a great river running through the town, or a city island. The population in 2010 was only 186 people.

The Lincoln Highway meanders into the Laurel Highlands, passing attractions such as Mount Ararat Lookout and Bald Eagle Summit (the location of a prominent wind farm these days). There are a number of covered bridges in the area as well. Coming into Jenners, a small town founded in 1907 by the Consolidated Coal Company to house the workers at a local mine, I noticed a derelict church that retained some very nice stained glass windows. No marker indicate what the denomination the church was, or when it closed; however, a date over the front door seems to indicate that the church was built in 1901.

Amadio Motors (Jeannette)

US30 straddles Loyalhanna Creek for a few miles, with traffic travelling either side of the pretty body of water. Near the end of that stretch of the highway there is a Lincoln Highway experience that will be explored in the future. About seven miles from Greensburg, the highway opens up to a four-lane, suburban highway with a great deal of sprawl. Just past Greensburg, which will most likely be the subject of a future post, the highway has several remnants of the past as you drive towards Pittsburgh. I took a picture of Amadio Motors, operating since 1949 and now closed, through the windshield of my car while waiting for a light to change. 

Windsor Lock State Canal Trail

The Windsor Lock State Canal Trail

This 4.5-mile trail is a canal towpath along the Connecticut River that was built to bypass the Enfield Rapids. The canal was built between May 1827 and November 1829 by four hundred Irish laborers using picks and shovels to complete the task. The canal was the first to be built so that steamboats could use the river and employed three locks facilitating boats being lowered 30 feet over the course of the canal. By 1836, because of the canal, eight steamboats a day were making the run from Hartford to Springfield.

Rest stop along the Connecticut between 1 and 1.5-mile marker

I have fond memories of this trail. A decade ago it would be common for us to walk the trail, and that was at a time before I became serious about walking. Travelling south from the parking lot in Suffield, the Connecticut River is to your left and the canal to your right. Once you get beyond the initial lock, of which the gate and some hardware remains, there is farmland to the west. Soon after, however, the landscape quickly turns to a heavily-treed area with several cliffs. The rapids provide an audio background to the numerous song birds as you walk. On the opposite side of the river, there is a railroad track with frequent trains. The sound of the trains, which probably helped spell the demise of the canal, often drowns out most of the noise along the path.

Turtle sunning itself in the canal

The relative remoteness of the trail to houses and buildings means that there is a great deal of avian life. Some of the birds are quite colorful and interesting; however, there are so many hiding places that it is sometimes difficult to identify some species. Nevertheless, I readily identified catbirds, goldfinches, and house finches.

Other wildlife is sometimes observed as well. Soon after I started, two otters crossed the trail about fifty yards ahead of me. They disappeared into the brush and canal before I would get my camera out (no, really). Turtles, sunning themselves on half-submerged trees in the canal, often make big splashes as you walk by. They dive in the water sensing impending danger even though the proximity of the trail to them is quite far. Waterfowl (geese, ducks and egrets) are especially common in the canal.

The remaining lock near the beginning of the trail

The trail itself is asphalt and it is marked with half-mile markers spray-painted directly onto the trail. As I walked on a humid July morning, there were a number of cyclists, however, only one jogger. The trail is closed from November 14 until April 1 so that endangered birds of prey are not disturbed. 

Milford, Pennsylvania

Hotel Fauchere

I stopped in Milford for lunch and a short perambulation on a hot and humid, July afternoon. I had lunch at the Milford Diner, which has a nostalgic feel but has been substantially upgraded in recent years.  Among the pictures and memorabilia hanging on the wall is a photograph, signature and newspaper clipping of President Clinton. He stopped at the diner in 2008 while campaigning for his wife Hillary during the Democratic primaries. Perhaps even more interesting (and amusing) is another picture frame that contains a photograph and explanation: A scoutmaster from a Boy Scout troop took the boys for a meal in 1983. I am sure there is an excellent story behind the photos and frame (which was not disclosed) and suspect there are many more such stories around the walls of the diner.

Bucolic Ann Street

After lunch, I took a quick walk around town. Among the more intriguing places was the Hotel Fauchére, established in 1852 as a summer hotel. It quickly became famous for its French cuisine under the direction of Louis Fauchére, the chef of Delmonico’s in New York City. Over the years the hotel’s guests included three American presidents and a number of actors, including Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Mae West.

Village Diner, on US6

Walking in the residential neighborhoods, many of the houses retain hitching posts for horses in the front yards. The streets are quaint and charmingly kept. Walking the length of Ann Street, there were many beautiful houses and yards. At the end of the street, the petite Ethel Barckley Memorial Park is a beautiful overlook of the Delaware River.
 

About three miles northwest of town, near the 398 mile marker on US6, the Village Diner appears to be a great classic diner.