Roadtrip photos and resources

Posted on by Russell Rein

The American Road Forum has a great series of posts from Keep the Show on the Road with many pictures, detailing his trip on the Lincoln Highway as follows:

and from Roadhound:

Check out Waymarking.com’s Lincoln Highway pages at:
http://xrl.us/6xho

A 50th Anniversary recreation of beat author Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road includes the Lincoln Highway. Read more at Boston.com’s travel site:
http://xrl.us/6xgc

and from the North Platte Bulletin – The beat goes on: Tracing Kerouac’s tracks through North Platte, Lincoln County and Nebraska:
http://xrl.us/6xg3

Brian and Sarah Butko’s new book: Roadside Attractions: Cool Cafes, Souvenir Stands, Route 66 Relics, & Other Road Trip Fun, Stackpole Press came out this June. Here’s the link at Amazon.com:
http://xrl.us/6xn5

Visit Brian’s website at:
http://www.brianbutko.com/

and read Brian’s interview at Heidi’s Pick Six blog, and dig that picture of Sarah and Brian in their new roadbuilding equipment:
http://ambasadora.livejournal.com/143298.html

Lincoln Highway news in California

Posted on by Russell Rein

Checkout Truckee.com’s History Page with a link to a Historic Downtown Walking Tour:
http://www.truckee.com/history.html

Truckee River’s Tahoe Pyramid Bikeway (paved and unpaved sections) includes sections of the Lincoln Highway, read more from the Sierra Sun:
http://xrl.us/6xet
and at the Bikeway website:
http://www.tpbikeway.org/

From BigMallRat’s Blog – All roads lead to Oakland:
http://xrl.us/6xfo [click on the ad pic to enlarge]

This advertisement of interest is from the H. C. Capwell Company, celebrating the opening of the Carquinez Bridge in May of 1927. The advertisement extols the virtues of the “six great highways” delivering traffic across the new bridge to Oakland; bringing in new shoppers from all over. The six great highways include the Pacific Highway, Redwood Highway, Lincoln Highway…..

Toward the bottom of the Dublin, CA’s Library blog is a picture of the Lincoln Highway and US 50 – “This photograph shows Dublin in about 1940 with the original Lincoln Highway 50 merging with the new Lincoln Highway 50. It is an example of the kind of photograph that will be scanned and digitized as part of new project that the Library and the Dublin Heritage Center are currently engaged in.” The photos will be available on the web through the Calisphere website operated by the University of California. Read more about at the website:
http://dublinlibrary.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/dublin-history-digital-photographs/

Check out Calisphere at:
http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/

JoesBigBlog has some nice pictures of the Lincoln Highway bridge railings at:
http://xrl.us/6xkx

Mike Kaelin writes:

Gentlemen, an article in today’s Sunday edition of “The Record” (Stockton) puts a major part of the 1924-1927 Lincoln Highway in jeopardy! The ‘history-challenged’ Stockton City Council is considering approving the “Oakmoore Gateway Specific Plan”, some kind of development which would result in closing off Hwy. 99 access to Wilson Way; it would also make a cul-de-sac at the north end of Newton Road (1924-1927 LH), eliminate that portion of Wilson Way (1924-1927 LH) which connects the southbound Hwy. 99 off-ramp to Newton Road, and would re-align other parts of Wilson Way (not LH) with Maranatha Drive. Comrades and LH consuls, stay tuned on this one, because Monday I will definitely be visiting City Hall in Stockton to get a copy of this ill-advised ‘plan’ and more information!

[Anyone have an update on this?]

Wow – check out the NorCal Explorer’s Blog of Motel Row along US 40 in Sacramento:
http://xrl.us/6yt4

Bear Rescue on the Rainbow Bridge – Donner Summit, from ABC TV, LA [with video]
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=bizarre&id=5680253
and from KNBC with great slideshow [click on pic]
http://www.knbc.com/news/14218253/detail.html

Lincoln Highway news in Nevada

Posted on by Russell Rein

Karl Breckinridge’s column from the Reno Gazette Journal
discusses – “Of Fords and Ravioli”:

An observation here last Sunday brought a half-a-dozen e-mails – we noted downtown construction had exposed a sign on the back wall of Reno Furniture’s store on Virginia Street, a sign in an alley that had been obscured for many years – first by Ford dealer Richardson-Lovelock, then by a temporary building that was recently razed.

The e-mail comments fell in two directions – when was the sign ever visible from any thoroughfare? And, obviously from old-timers: Wasn’t Reno’s Ford dealer once in the Reno Furniture building? One-by-one we’ll reconstruct that central downtown block, and here I’m playing with relatively ancient phone books, Polk City Directories and Sanborn Fire maps, which tend to differ from each other by a year or two. (There’s one of the reasons that I don’t venture back prior to World War II often in these pages…)

There are tracks toward a Ford dealership even before 1917 but fairly solid records of “Calavada Ford” operating in Reno, downtown in the 400 block of North Virginia Street. (I’ve written “Calavada” twice in the past and twice you read “Cal-Vada.” The former sold Fords, the latter Jeeps.) Calavada Ford operated in a building, brick, per the Sanborn map, that was a doorway south of Reno Furniture’s location at 432 N. Virginia. That dealership later moved to the corner of East Fourth and “University” Street, the present Center Street’s prewar name. In 1938 it was acquired by Richardson and Lovelock, and one of my old columns further describes those two fine guys. Reno Furniture’s alley sign that I wrote of was visible from 1940 until the dealership was significantly enlarged to the north, obscuring the sign (the block had been occupied by some stately single-family homes until 1955.) Rounding out the thought, Fred Bartlett bought the dealership in 1966, and Forest Lovelock joined veteran Reno auto dealer Pio Mastering.

The Reno Furniture building at 432 N. Virginia Street originally housed Reno Grocery, a wholesale grocer to the trade – that building tracking to 1923 on a Sanborn map.

Shifting gears slightly, I’ll scribe that while following a Citifare bus earlier this week, I’ll noted a placard “80 years of Inez” over second line “70 years of the Halfway Club” with a photo of Mama herself alongside.

“This demands to be chronicled,” I thought to myself and turned east on Highway 40 toward the Halfway Club to investigate further. Sources inside that legendary lair spun the tale of a beautiful bundle of joy arriving in St. Mary’s on Feb. 11th of 1927, being named Inez by her parents John and Elvira Casale and being taken home to the present Halfway Club building where she would live during her childhood. It was then indeed halfway between Reno and Sparks, a fur  piece from either, as it would remain until well into the 1950s.

The Casales would open an Italian deli specializing in raviolis in 1935, and in 1937 reopen as a restaurant where the by-then world-famous raviolis were served to travelers on the Lincoln Highway. Ines married Steamboat Stempeck in 1946 and continued making the best raviolis in the world (and now I’ll probably hear from Bruno Selmi in Gerlach. Well, they’re both damn good!)

Inez at 80 remains the popular grande dame of the local social and culinary landscape, still embracing the Halfway Club’s corporate mantra, “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”

I know the Sunday readers join me in sending her our best. Have a good week; it’s OK to scream if you hear “Danny Boy” one more time, and God bless America.

Karl’s web page is at:  http://www.karlbreckenridge.com/

NV US 50 – LH pics from JoesBigBlog:
http://xrl.us/6xna

Lincoln Highway news in Nebraska

Posted on by Russell Rein

A pedestrian and bicycle trail is proposed along the old Lincoln Highway between Omaha and Elkhorn:
http://xrl.us/6ysn

Ghost Roads of Nebraska from the WashingtonPost.com:
http://xrl.us/6xqh

A couple near Sutherland, Nebraska collect their very own diner:
http://xrl.us/2tgp

Blackstad’s Blog has some musings on small town Nebraska, namely Schuyler at:
http://xrl.us/6yru

as does Prairie Traveler
http://xrl.us/6yt8

Lincoln Highway news in Iowa

Posted on by Russell Rein

Yahoo’s Roaddog reports:

The June 3rd Marshalltown Times Republican reports that the Twin Town Motel sign, which has been on US-30 since the 1950s, will be torn down shortly. The eight unit motel was torn down last year to make room for a new convenience store. Tama and Toledo are often called Iowa’s Twin Cities.

The owners of the sign are considering offering it on ebay and are open to offers from locals about the sign. Vintage neon signs are now considered to be highly collectible and a Neon Museum has even opened in Las Vegas recently. I think there is another one in Ohio.

The Twin Town Motel was built in 1954 by Fred Mohrfield on the relocated US-30 in Toledo. Next to it he had a Standard Oil Station and later the Standard Cafe was built.

He had first built a Standard station in 1932 on old 30. In 1937, he added tourist cabins and a few years later, built a motel which was later converted to apartments. A couple years ago, it was seriously damaged by fire and since leveled.

The article goes on to name some local vintage neon signs:

  • Indian headdress by King Tower Cafe in Tama- a classic!!!
  • Maid-Rite sign at Big T at the junction of 63 and 30
  • Dick’s restaurant and Champaign glass denoting the Granada Lounge was sold at auction when they closed in the 80s, but now located at the present Hardee’s site at 63 and 30

Others now gone:

  • L. Ranko Motel (now there is a great name for a motel if I’ve ever heard one)- presently it is the Budget Inn in Toledo
  • Toledo Convalescent Home
  • Henderson Funeral Home (what – a funeral home with neon?)

Article title: “Historic US 30 motel sign is ‘checking out'” by John Speer

Brian Butko reports that he took some photos of this sign three years ago. You can view them on his Flickr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49803691@N00/541708790/

Howard Stovall forwarded the Iowa Dept. of Transportation (IDOT) web link for their Historic Auto Trails Page I couldn’t find in the last newsletter:
http://www.iowadot.gov/autotrails/indexauto.htm

The Iowa Bed and Breakfast Association website has a page featuring the Lincoln Hotel in Lowden, IA:
http://iabedandbreakfast.com/blog/?p=982

The Marshalltown Times Republican ran a story on September 3rd – King Tower dedication to be held on September 23. “The work is a continuation of Tama volunteers who maintain the nearby Lincoln Highway bridge historic site and promote the highway‘s history and importance. …”

[I missed this story and they only have a 7 day archive online. Anyone have a copy?]

I found this from Roaddog’s blog:
http://xrl.us/6ytd

This weekend, a five year restoration project of one of the original King Tower cabins in Tama, Iowa, comes to a conclusion with its formal dedication. The King Tower continues to be a major attraction along the Lincoln Highway.

When built in 1937, it was heralded as one of the most modern truck stops in the nation. It consisted of a two story restaurant, and an adjacent filling station/garage. The filling station/garage was torn down awhile back, but the restaurant, which was air-conditioned when it was opened, still serves some great food and has that remarkable neon Indian head sign outside.

This effort has been headed up by Ron Cory, a Tama businessman with work done by a group of volunteers who also maintain the very famous and unique nearby 1915 Lincoln Highway bridge, the one with the words Lincoln Highway carved into its sides.

Originally, there were 18 cabins behind the King Tower One Stop for overnight stays by tourists. The formal dedication will take place September 23rd.

Kyle D. Gassiott, Host/Producer, Iowa Public Radio, WSUI/KSUI writes,

Hello Russell,

Thank you so much for listing my IBNA award in the Lincoln Highway Newsletter. Someone mentioned you were looking for links to my story. It aired on Weekend America on July 29, 2006.

Here’s the link to the main show page: (Third story down)
http://xrl.us/6ys3

The RealPlayer link to the story:
http://xrl.us/6ys5

And the link to the photos we took:
http://xrl.us/6ys9

Thanks again,
Kyle

Archive.org has the following 1922 document online: Preliminary impact studies–Skunk River bridge on the Lincoln highway near Ames, Iowa:
http://www.archive.org/details/preliminaryimpac00fullrich

Lincoln Highway news in Illinois

Posted on by Russell Rein

IL LHA Director Kay Shelton gave a Lincoln Highway presentation sponsored by the Sycamore Historical Society:
http://xrl.us/6xou

Lincoln Highway mural proposed for Dixon:
http://xrl.us/6xhy

Paul Dilworth of Los Angeles will paint the third streetscape mural in DeKalb:
http://xrl.us/6xg7

A new antique store has opening in DeKalb at 235 E. Lincoln Highway, featuring architectural antiques:
http://xrl.us/6xex

Frankfort and New Lenox rally for Route 30 – Lincoln Highway widening, from the FrankfortStar.com
http://xrl.us/6xfd

A new Italian restaurant called Filo Spinatos and translates in Italian to barbed wire, is planned for 241 E. Lincoln Highway in downtown DeKalb:
http://xrl.us/6xfw

The Lincoln Highway Buy-Way yard sale extends west into IL:
http://xrl.us/6xf2

Kay Shelton has a blog about the Illinois Buy-Way participants that includes some links to local businesses:
http://xrl.us/6xj2

Willow chairs from Fulton sold on the LH during the depression from the Glimpses of Fulton blog:
http://glimpsefulton.blogspot.com/2007/09/willow-chairs.html

Booster days in Creston – from Axcess News:
http://axcessnews.com/index.php/articles/show/id/12297

Live music and a good place to hang out in DeKalb – the House Cafe at 263 E. Lincoln Highway:
http://www.star.niu.edu/article.php?id=332

and at:
http://www.star.niu.edu/article.php?id=569