A Short Road and Rail Trip

A short road trip found Spence and myself spending a night in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. After spending the day roaming rural Pennsylvania, checking out the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon and the Wellsboro Diner, we headed for an evening of baseball and adventure. In our brief time in the area, we found good food, conversation and interesting things to think about.

A home for the night

Sometimes the adventure of travelling is not limited to where one visits, but often where one lays their head. This trip had us staying in a caboose, constructed by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1941. It is now owned and operated as B&B (without the breakfast) by the Clinton County Historical Society. The caboose rests at the old railroad station in Castanea, a small village just across Bald Eagle Creek from Lock Haven. It had the amenities of a nice self-service hotel room, with a dining area, refrigerator and microwave, plus the added bonus of great nostalgia. Although trains no longer pass through the small village, and most of the tracks have long since disappeared, as you wake up one can still hear a constant stream of train whistles in the distance, punctuating the quiet early morning. At one point I thought to myself, is this what it would be like to ride the rails? 

A minor problem with staying in the caboose was that I did not bring a towel, something not provided by the historical society. Thinking I might like to have a shower the next morning, we stopped by a dollar store to purchase a lime green towel ($2.50) and matching washcloth (.50). The next morning, after taking a shower, it seemed that the towel had left a great deal of itself on the floor of the shower. The rest of the day I felt like I was picking lime green lint out of my hair and off my clothes.

A bed for the night

My travelling partner has a propensity to sleep late, so I took the opportunity to have a short walk to explore Castanea. After a night of rain, clouds hung low over the mountains as I walked. The town has become a bedroom community of working-class people, with older homes and very few businesses. There was one house, at the corner of Logan and Brown, which has been abandoned for some time that made me think of the old mansion in the film, It’s A Wonderful Life. Not that the house necessarily resembled the abandoned film mansion; however, the broken windows and the two stories made me wonder if local people might believe the house was haunted. The streets in the town resemble the lattice-work of a pie top, nestled between Bald Eagle Mountain and Bald Eagle Creek. A small, fast-flowing stream, Harvey’s Run, bisects the town from the mountain to the creek. It was running quite heavy after a night of rain.

After my perambulation I find myself at the Train Station Restaurant, a thriving enterprise. The restaurant occupies what once was a house. Two women ran the breakfast without pretense. The food was simple but good and informal. An egg, toast and a cup of coffee cost me less than $4.00, meanwhile I was privy to many of the conversations between locals. The waitress kindly laughed at my joke that I might be back for a second breakfast when Spencer woke up. Sure enough, about 45 minutes later, we returned to the restaurant and I had yet another cup of coffee and toast while Spence had a hearty breakfast of waffle and bacon.

Boston (Indiana)

The small hamlet of Boston, Indiana is an example of trends found across the United States. Although the population of the country continues to grow, most of that growth occurs in urban and suburban areas. As people have increasingly moved away from rural areas, they have left the remnants of houses, buildings, businesses and institutions behind, often to decay in inglorious fashion. The population of Boston was never substantial, topping out at 257 people according to the 1950 census. Nevertheless, the town was prosperous enough to have an elementary school, a high school and a bank along state road 122, all of which are defunct. Sixty years later the population of Boston was nearly half of what it was in 1950.

The elementary school in Boston, Indiana

The elementary and high school, built in 1932 in a wonderful art deco design, sit empty with broken windows. A rusted, empty flagpole still stands in the front lawn between the two schools and vines have obscured much of the buildings. I wonder if there are still people who long to explore the hallways and classes of their youth. In my own curiosity, there was a temptation to sneak in and have a look at the interior of the building. As we pulled up to in front of the schools, I jokingly asked my travel companion if he was interested in having a look. He flatly declined. Nevertheless, I endeavored to change his mind because the sign carved in stone on the front of the high school read: “Entry ye to learn.”  

Proper, Dignified and Classic Shopping

This summer two major department stores closed in the centers of two cities separated by 3,400 miles. Both stores have had long histories, were cultural and geographic landmarks, and treated the customer to a fine shopping experience in buildings that used marble and brass, rather than concrete and fluorescent lights.

Kaufmann’s was a Pittsburgh institution. Originally founded in 1871 by German immigrants, its flagship store, at the corner of 5th Avenue and Smithfield Street, opened its doors in 1887. The department store evolved into a regional chain that had stores in five states. Eventually, the chain was bought by Federated Department Stores and in 2006 the flagship store’s name was changed to Macy’s.

In the summer of 2015, Macy’s announced that it would be closing its downtown location and the Kaufmann Building would be converted into offices and apartments. Although I had been in the store from time to time. The announcement prompted me to explore the store before its final closing. 

One of the historical aspects to the building is that Frank Lloyd Wright was hired to design the executive offices on the top floor as well as him masterpiece, Falling Water, on the company’s retreat south of Pittsburgh near Mill Run, Pennsylvania. In the late 1920s, the store was substantially redesigned with an art deco interior. While much of the interior has since been remodeled; features have been hidden or abandoned, but the elevators still retain the art deco design. My trip to the eleventh floor felt like snooping, as the only thing open on the level was the salon. I explored some of the empty corridors that had no signs forbidding entry, but clearly had not been used for quite some time. Behind a glass wall one could still see Edgar’s Restaurant, a mid-level eatery; Michael’s Restaurant, a high-end establishment; and, the Forbes Room, a nice meeting room that probably had catered meals as well. Just down the hall, an open door revealed the massive kitchen that served all three establishments. Towards the end of the building’s tenure as a department store, the only remaining restaurant was the Tic Toc Restaurant on the first floor. The Tic Toc opened in 1959 and, in later years, served many of the dishes made famous on the eleventh floor.

Earlier in the summer the classic department store in Dublin, Cleary’s located on O’Connell Street, closed its doors without warning. After years of financial difficulties, aggravated by the global financial crisis, the receivership company announced the store’s immediate closing and liquidation in June. Much like Kaufmann’s, and other department stores in North America and Europe, Cleary’s was a local shopping destination, where one could take time out for a meal or afternoon tea. I once heard a Dubliner tell a group of American students that if they wanted to buy something nice for their mothers, they could do so in Cleary’s. 

In addition to the many other parallels between the two stores something that Kaufmann’s and Cleary’s had in common was the ornate clocks that graced the outside of the buildings. Because of the central location of these stores, and the recognizable landmarks the stores represented, residents in both cities, in an era before mobile phones and texting, would make plans to meet “beneath the clock at…” Given the ornate clock at the old Marshall and Fields building in Chicago, it was probably the case there as well.

So why mourn, or memorialize, these old department stores? In the days before nondescript malls and fluorescent lighting, grand department stores, with their fabulous architecture and decorative fixtures, ennobled the shopper and provided a memorable experience. These beautiful and elaborate buildings were a sign that the merchant took pride in their work and made the customer feel welcome.