2023 Road Trip: Lincoln Highway: PA (5/31/2023)

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

After entering Pennsylvania, we left the National Road, and headed up to the Historic Lincoln Highway.

1940 Bennett gas pump as a Roadside Giant
(2009, by students of Eastern Westmoreland
Career & Technology Center in Latrobe, PA)
of the Lincoln Highway, one of five Giants
and a Roadside America attraction (KSS)

Lincoln Highway Experience (2011) in the
Johnston House (1812-1815), the childhood home of
PA Governor William Johnston (KSS)

Lincoln Highway Experience new addition

Okay, so the Lincoln Highway Experience is an "immersive" museum, commemorating the nation's first coast-to-coast highway, from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. It was the first national memorial to Abraham Lincoln - the Lincoln Highway was begun in 1913 (and completed in 1925).

We started in the Johnston House living room to watch a video

Focusing on the Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania, there were reminders of landmarks along the road.

Painting by a local artist of Storyland and the
Pied Piper statue at its entrance, which we saw on 10/30/2021

Pennsylvania license plates over the years

A 1913 license plate of porcelain over iron, with
a keystone tag engraved with the vehicle number (VIN)

Then Lieutenant Colonel Dwight Eisenhower
participated in the 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy,
consisting of 81 Army motorized vehicles traveling from
Washington, DC to San Francisco to test the
mobility of the military during wartime conditions

In this way Eisenhower learned firsthand the difficulties faced in traveling great distances on roads that were impassable and resulted in frequent breakdowns of the military vehicles. Likely these early experiences influenced his later decisions concerning the building of the interstate highway system during his presidential administration.

Women drivers were recognized, such as
Alice Huyler Ramsey (the first woman to drive
coast-to-coast, from New York to California
in 1909) and writer Emily Post, who did not
drive but wrote a travelogue about her own
cross-country road trip in 1915

Psychedelic gas pump

Vintage Lincoln Highway marker

Vincent van Gas gas pump

Mock-up of a Lincoln Highway gas station

Another painted gas pump, and a
motel neon sign

Inside a tourist cabin

Copies of casts (1860, by Leonard W Volk) of
Abraham Lincoln's hands on the day he won the
presidential election; the casts were later studied by
Daniel Chester French for his statue of Lincoln
in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC

1937 Packard 120; it was Packard Automobile’s president
at the time, Henry B. Joy, also the President of the
Lincoln Highway Association, who was
instrumental in the development of the Lincoln Highway

1938 Serro Diner has been meticulously restored

Your admission included a cup of coffee
and a slice of pie in the diner!

Admission also included a postcard for each person, which if you wrote and addressed it there, they would mail it for you.

Continuing on the Lincoln Highway/US-30 to
Fort Ligonier (1758), which was one of the forts along
the road constructed by the Forbes Expedition,
on its way to seize Fort Duquesne from the French

Fort Ligonier was decommissioned in 1766, so
what we see now is a reconstruction

Ligonier Beach Arch (1925)

When it opened, Ligonier Beach was the 
largest swimming pool in the world

The pool measured 400'/122 m long by 125'/38 m wide

Another of the Roadside Giants of the
Lincoln Highway: Bicycle Built for Two
(2009, by students of Eastern Westmoreland
Career & Technology Center in Latrobe, PA)
(a Roadside America attraction)

Lincoln Highway/US-30 at Stoystown, PA

Trostletown Covered Bridge (1845), a Kingpost Truss
bridge with gabled roof, which crosses Stony Creek
(a Roadside America attraction)

Stoystown American Legion Veterans Memorial (1987)
(a Roadside America attraction)

M-60 Tank

Bell UH-1 Iroquois "Huey" Helicopter

"Flight 93 Abortion Billboard" - is it one or two signs?

Remember Me Rose Garden on property donated by
the Families of Flight 93

The fountain is surrounded by stones marked with the
names of those who perished on Flight 93 on 9/11/2001

The garden is laid out in the shape of a compass rose, but is
also planted with 350 Rosa 'Julie Andrews' pink rose bushes

In the background is the cross that was first erected
at the actual Flight 93 crash site

The end of the 8,000-mile 2023 Road Trip.

2023 Road Trip: Frank Lloyd Wright: The Westcott House (5/30/2023)

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

World's Largest Candle in Centerville, IN

Madonna of the Trail (1928, by August Leimbach)
is one of the 12 Madonnas erected along the
National Old Trails Road, which at this point
followed the National Road; in fact this was the
first Madonna of the Trail to be erected with
Harry S Truman in attendance in his role as
president of the National Old Trails Association

Now we head into Ohio, to the third city of Springfield visited on this one trip (Virginia and Missouri as well).

The Westcott House (1908-1910, by Frank Lloyd Wright
in Prairie style) is a reciprocal museum with
Tyler Arboretum, where we saved on admission

A long horizontal wall connects the house with the garage

The entrance door is "hidden" at the side
of the house, with wrought-iron gates
and four earth-colored tiles in a square,
a pattern repeated throughout the house

Colored glass celestory windows over the entry way

The house (and garage) had been converted into apartments,
so when purchased for the Westcott House Foundation
in 2001, a complete restoration was needed, which
lasted until 2005 when the house opened to the public

As seen in the reception room above, the decision was made to decorate with items that were popular at the time, such a Tiffany lamps, Stickley furniture, and Stickley-inspired textiles and pottery.

Most of the built-in furniture was recreated using
Wright's designs, including the glass cabinet doors;
only later three of the original doors were found and
installed, the only difference from the recreated door
being the color of the tiny glass panes (the
restorers were working from black and white photos)

Wright's iconic inglenook is large enough to be the
living room, and the bench sofa has hidden storage (KSS)

The Roman bricks used for the fireplace
emphasize the horizontal lines

It is difficult to see, but there are two sets of
shades built into the window, one to still
allow light but temper the effect of the sun, 
and the other was a blackout shade

The reflecting pool in front of the house

Even the window awnings and porch canopy were
designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the porch
covering could be retracted in sections

The enormous planters were also a part
of the design, and these are original (KSS)

A view of the front of the house, and you can see
one of the flanking planters on the left (KSS)

The reconstruction of a Wright dining room
table with built-in lamps and chairs

The children's playroom features child-size Wrightian
furniture, and the wooden tangram-type pattern
blocks that inspired Wright as a child

A peek inside the bathroom with an
original wall light fixture

The colored glass skylight over the stairs

A look at a wall with the encaustic finish,
using a medium of beeswax and tree resin that
is melted together and mixed with pigment
before being "painted" on the walls for
a textured "organic" finish (KSS)

One of the Stickley-inspired applique and
embroidery bedspreads

Plenty of built-ins in the closet

The cantilevered roof over a balcony
(no support columns needed)

A bedroom that for a period was the "great room"
of an apartment in the Westcott House

Another Stickley-inspired bedspread

From the second story, a view along the pergola
towards the garage

Vintage electric fuse panel

The kitchen sink with built-in drainboards

A four-door ice box, with the box
next to the window for ice delivery

Garden along the pergola

A view of Westcott House from the rear to see
the influence of Japanese architure

The stable area of the garage with a gap between the
wall and ceiling where hay stored above could be
shoveled down into the horse troughs

We made a quick stop in Columbus, OH, at the Ohio Craft Museum (1992), which is more of a public display for Ohio Designers Craftsmen and their contemporary crafts. (Tyler Arboretum membership reciprocity, but already free!) 

Kent is seen behind the unnamed sculpture
in front of the Ohio Craft Museum

Best of 2023 Exhibition:

Guenveur and Madeleine: 5 of Potholders (coins) in
the Kitchen Tarot (2023, by Susan Shie)

Neuronic Scatter (2023, by Beth Lindenberger)

Neuron #23 (2023, by Forge Garrabrant)

Dinner was at the Flagship Wendy's (2013) in Dublin, OH,
across the street from the global headquarters  

Statue (2013, by Matthew Gray Palmer)
of Wendy's founder, Dave Thomas

Memorabilia and items from the first Wendy's
(torn down) at Fifth and Broad Streets in Columbus, OH

We continued on I-70 into West Virginia.

Madonna of the Trails (1928, by
August Leimbach) in Wheeling, WV

Now we have seen seven of the 12 Madonnas of the Trail, all on this 2023 Road Trip, because we happened to be on the "right trail."

Next: The National Road in PA.