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.  

Hidden New York

In New York, sometimes it seems that real gems are obscured by the obvious. Earlier this month, I was interested by all the people milling around the 9/11 Memorial Site. The recently opened site intends to honor the victims of that terrible September morning in 2001, complete with an office tower and a shopping mall. Virtually every tourist was taking the same photograph, over and over again, from the same perspective, of the newly completed Freedom Tower. I did not see anyone who noticed the architectural gem at 90 West Street, which was damaged during the 9/11 attack as well. The building opened in 1907 and was designed by architect Cass Gilbert. The primary tenant was the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and it also housed Garret’s Restaurant, billed as the highest restaurant in the world at the time.  Its magnificence is obscured by other tall buildings and the distraction of other sites in lower Manhattan.

Thinking about Holmes and Experiences

As this year’s sojourn to Europe comes to an end, I refer back to my old literary friend Sherlock Holmes. In The Adventure of the Red Circle, Holmes reminds his friend that, “Education never ends, Watson.” With that I am reminded that in each new travel experience we are exposed to new things and increase our knowledge and understanding of the world. Perhaps this is why I (and many others) enjoy travel so much, because it is a high dosage of education. Why else navigate alternative transportation options to spend less than twenty-four hours in Malmö?  Because it is an opportunity to see something new, to experience other things, to learn something.

At the airport in Copenhagen, there is a commemorative display to Danish writer, and national hero, Hans Christian Andersen. The display notes that Anderson made more than thirty trips outside Denmark in his life. This had a profound effect on Andersen and he wrote that travel enriched him and made him happy. In The Fairy Tale of My Life (1855), he concluded, “To travel is to live.”

These nineteenth century literary references tells us of the importance of discovery, experience and knowledge. While phenomena of travel and discovery has substantially changed from the nineteenth century, the basic human need to learn and explore has not. Yet, we would do well to remember that the act of travelling does not require us to go far. It is a state of mind. Any journey, even as short as fifteen minutes, can be a travel experience. It depends on the sojourner’s attitude: Are we willing to see something new? Willing to explore? To learn something?

It is also worth noting that Doyle has Holmes quote Shakespeare near the end of the Red Circle: “Journeys end in lovers meeting.”

Endangered Species 2014

Following a post from last year about the declining number of telephone booths and postal boxes, particularly in the United Kingdom, I found some more examples. This time the condition of each seems more aesthetic than functional. In both Stockholm and Malmö I came across these Rikstelefon booths (neither actually had telephones in them). The booths were located in the old town sections of each of the respective cities.

Stockholm

Malmo

Moate

Additionally, in Moate, Ireland, I found this Victorian era mail slot that was no longer in use. My journeys also took me to the Postal Museum in Stockholm, where I observed several interesting specimens of postal history. In one room a quote about stamp collecting from Charles J. Phillips was painted on the wall: “The King of Hobbies and the Hobby of Kings” (1936). Given the decline in mailed letters and letter writing, and the use of personalized stamps, it seems doubtful whether philatelic pursuits would be popular in the future.  

Copenhagen Central Train Station

A train station is an interesting crossroad of people on the move, especially in Europe. Travelers and commuters converge at stations. All types of people walk through, from the young girl in her early teens in full makeup, carrying a soccer ball and cleats, to the elderly man who meanders from shop to shop, occasionally checking the departure board, in no particular hurry. Watching people in a train station is always fun and interesting and there is no telling who and what you are likely to see. 

When it is close and my hotel has an overpriced breakfast, I sometimes duck into a train station to have a coffee and croissant for breakfast. This was the case on a recent Saturday morning in Copenhagen. Sitting in a coffee shop at a window seat, I watched travelers meet, search, shop and hurry off to catch trains to their destinations. As my previous posts have indicated, I like train stations: It is a place of waiting, and a place of rendezvous.

Train stations contain symbols of, and information about, the city and culture they inhabit. Copenhagen Central Station is one of the busiest I have experienced.  I have heard more than one person say that there is always a line for tickets. Yet, most people are helpful and patient. Even though the majority of passengers are people, it is also a place for dogs. Sometimes the canine passengers seem more excited about their travels than their human companions. Yet, the dogs are seemingly always well behaved; human, on the other hand, are not always as well behaved.  

Opened in 1911, the main Copenhagen station is composed of brick, steel painted brown and a brownish red tile for flooring. The ceiling has slats that appear to be made of wood. It gives the station a surprisingly dark effect.

An interesting note: A smoking ban on the platforms will not come into effect until 1 July 2014 (it is surprising how many people were smoking).