100 Years Ago Today - The Lincoln Highway

Today we travel superhighways, great six-lane beltways of asphalt and concrete that span thousands of miles of countryside. It’s a banal mode of travel, the most amazing sights you’ll see from the interstate system are billboards advertizing the same handful of fast food joints over and over again. We ride in automobiles that, for the most part, are reliable, safe, and almost identical in every way. A hundred years ago, though, travelling across the country in your merry Oldsmobile or Tin Lizzie was a different affair. In fact, a hundred years ago today the Lincoln Highway became the first paved motorway that crossed the country from coast to coast. The Lincoln Highway was the brainchild of Hoosier Carl G. Fisher and his great road joined New York with San Francisco, crossing thirteen states and spanning 3389 miles in the process.

The Lincoln Highway crossed northern Indiana, starting in Allen County and progressing through Ft. Wayne, Goshen, Elkhart, Mishawaka, La Porte, Westville, Valparaiso, Merrillville, and Dyer before departing into the Illinois plains and to date you still can travel this hundred year old track.

1928 Map of the Lincoln Highway in Northern Indiana

Don’t think of the Lincoln Highway as a highway in the modern sense of the word. Automotive travel in 1913 was a dicey thing; a point brought home by this line is from The Complete Official Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway a promotional guide published in 1916:

“You can drive anywhere between New York and the Indiana-Illinois line either during or after heavy rainstorms without difficulty, but once west of this point it is wise to delay the trip, as many days as necessary, stopping comfortably at a hotel, if heavy rainstorms are encountered. You will make more progress in the end, and you will be saved many disagreeably experience.”

In fact, the guide provides a lengthy list of items the traveler should carry while traversing the Lincoln Highway. The provision section follows with its Donner Party preamble left intact.

It’s always interesting to pour over these old travel guides. Early automotive guides tend to be pretty utilitarian with lots of ads for cars (of course) and the parts to keep them running. There were a couple ads of interest to the native Hoosier, though. 

Hotel Rumely (or Rumley depending on your source) was situated on the Lincoln Highway in La Porte, Indiana and according to their ad they provided “special attention” to “automobile parties”. Somehow I get the feeling special attention means they had parking and maybe bellboys who would help unload the dozens of bags motorists carried. The building still stands today, though it’s now apartments. The Automobile Maintenance Company garage located a block east of the Rumely didn't fare so well and has been lost to time and urban re-muddling. I found a postcard of the Rumely, typical brick and stone behemoth of the era with little architectural detail. You probably could have found a similar hotel in every middling-sized town across the Midwest during the mid-1910’s. By the way, the term European plan used in the Rumely ad might make the hotel sound extra-fancy, but it simply means your meals aren’t included in the cost of your room.

In Elkhart, Indiana motorists could stay at a fancier institution, the Bucklen Hotel. There isn't much information about the Bucklen, except for the fact that like the Rumley its name has had numerous spellings (Bucklen, Bucklin, and Buckland). The Bucklen Hotel connected to the Bucklen Opera House, forming the entertainment center of small-town Elkhart in the mid-1910’s. According to the ad, the hotel was American plan meaning your meals came with the room. Photos I found show the hotel’s slow descent into disuse and decay. In the seventies it looks like there may have been a fire and today a parking lot occupies the corner where the once grand old lady stood.

I’m going to have to plan a trip along the Lincoln Highway this fall. Maybe take in the colors, the cool air, and stop at a few roadside sights. Who knows what provisions I might need, especially if the rains come early!