Clinton

CLINTON

Pop. 24,151 Alt. 589

Control, Lafayette Hotel.

Aurora
114.7

Cedar Rapids
80.0

Midway between Chicago and Omaha. Hotels, garages. Local speed limit, 15 miles per hour, enforced. One railroad crossing at grade protected, two toll bridges over the Mississippi River. Free comfort station, road information bureau and tourist camp.

Eight banks, 5 railroads, over 100 factories, 2 telephone companies, 5 newspapers, parks, $100,000 coliseum, convention hall and armory. Manufactures furniture, lumber, sugar, bridges, harness, shoes, paper, wire cloth and wire specialties, sashes and doors, gasoline engines, refrigerators, crackers and cookies, locks, candy.

Chapter of nearly every national order, YMCA, YWCA, churches, Chamber of Commerce.

Concrete

L.H. Local Consul, A.A. Daehler, Daehler Motor Co.

- A Complete Official Road Guide of The LINCOLN HIGHWAY Fifth Edition (1924)

Clinton.
No sooner did Lincoln Highway travelers come off the Fulton-Lyons bridge into Iowa than they passed Lyons High School. The Fulton-Lyons bridge was demolished in 1974, and the Lincoln Highway passed into history in 1925. Even the town of Lyons vanished as it was incorporated into greater Clinton, but the shell of the Lyons High School building still stands. This photo and the following are images of building facades along 2nd Street and 5th Avenue in Clinton - the route of the Lincoln Highway.

Clinton.
The Frontier Best Western Motel at this site has been in service for many years. To the east of the motel is a patch of abandoned Lincoln Highway concrete. It used to start at the motel parking lot and run into the grove above, where it ends at an old viaduct embankment overlooking a creek. In 1997, however, most of the pavement was removed so the parking lot could be expanded.

Clinton.
The embankment of the abandoned Lincoln Highway segment from the previous photo. Atop the massive concrete are members attending the Fall 1996 ILHA meeting.

Clinton.
If you stand at the point where I took the previous photo, and imagine the pavement extending straight west as it used to, it passes the W.F. Coan Monument.
IN APPRECIATION OF THE EFFORTS OF W.F. COAN IN
PROMOTING AND ESTABLISHING THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY.
Quoting Greg Franzwa in The Lincoln Highway: Iowa, "Coan, of Clinton, was the initial consul of the Lincoln Highway Association for the state of Iowa. In an especially wise move, the national LHA insisted on heavy citizen involvement. 'Consuls' [Latin spelling] were appointed for each state, each county, and virtually all of the towns through which the highway passed. Coan was one of the most respected of the state consuls, and in 1914 he was made an honorary vice-president of the national Lincoln Highway Association."

"As was the case with much of Iowa, the Lincoln Highway in Clinton frequently changed course. From the bridge, all routes proceeded south along Second Street to the main business district."

One Clinton ILHA member believes the route changed so often in Clinton because the citizens knew that any street designated as the Lincoln Highway would get paved, so it was an effective means to having good roads throughout the city.