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| 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.
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| A.W. Covin Dry Goods (Schellsburg) |
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| IOOF building (Schellsburg) |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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