A Trip Down Memory Lane

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

LINCOLN HIGHWAY EXPERIENCE

In the early 1900s, automobile travel skyrocketed. However, most roads, with the exception of city streets, were unsuitable to drive on, leading to the creation of the Lincoln Highway in 1913. The route was the first transcontinental highway in the United States. Today, it stretches from New York City’s Times Square to San Francisco, with 70 miles weaving through Pennsylvania's Laurel Highlands.

A beautiful stone house that was once a stagecoach stop on the Lincoln Highway in Latrobe is now home to the Lincoln Highway Experience. The interactive museum allows visitors to travel back in time and learn about this historic road and the interesting sights along the way.

In 2018, the Lincoln Highway Experience introduced two new exhibit rooms in the historic building, as well as a new expansion that is now home to original retro memorabilia, such as the original Serro’s Diner.

What fun would a road trip be without great food? At the end of the 19th century, lunch wagons, similar to present-day food trucks, made way for diners. Serro’s Diner, measuring roughly the size of a train car, was purchased by the Serro brothers in 1938, who intentionally placed the diner at the new Pennsylvania

Turnpike exit in Irwin to serve truck drivers and tourists. In its heyday, the diner featured high-end details such as solid mahogany, marble, porcelain, copper, pocket doors and leather stools and cushions. It makes sense why it was described as the "Cadillac of diners.”

After 20 years of service, the diner was sold and moved twice. In 2003, the Senator John Heinz History Center donated the diner to the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor, who had the diner meticulously restored before installing it in the Lincoln Highway Experience.

The diner is certainly a beauty, but visitors can do more than just marvel at it. After a tour of the museum, guests are invited to take a seat in the diner and enjoy a slice of pie and a cup of coffee; both treats are included in the cost of admission.

During a long road trip, travelers also needed a place to stay and gas to fill their cars. Hence the creation of facilities like filling stations and tourist cabins. On display at the museum are 6-foottall vintage gas pumps, a facsimile of a 1937 filling station, a pristine 1937 Packard-120 and a restored 1938 tourist cabin that was once located near present-day Idlewild and SoakZone.

ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS

ALONG THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY

The Lincoln Highway Experience makes a great pit stop on a cruise through the Laurel Highlands. Don't miss these attractions – listed from east to west on Route 30.

Mural – Remote Control Building 75 PA Avenue, Irwin, 15642

Roadside Giant – Packard Car Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce 241 Tollgate Hill Road, Greensburg, 15601

Roadside Giant – 1940s Gas Pump 3435 State Route 30 East Latrobe, 15650

Lincoln Highway Experience 435 State Route 30 East Latrobe, 15650

Ligonier Diamond Ligonier, 15658

Roadside Giant – Bicycle Built for Two 2811 Lincoln Hwy. Stoystown, 15563

Mural on Barn – Abraham Lincoln 241 Lincoln Highway Stoystown, 15563

Mural – Vintage Automobile Tow 101 W. Main Street Stoystown, 15563

Flight 93 National Memorial 6424 Lincoln Hwy. Stoystown, 15563

Painted Gas Pump and Exhibit Duppstadt’s Country Store 6885 Lincoln Hwy., Stoystown 15563

PLAN YOUR TRIP

HOURS

The museum is open from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., with the last visitors admitted at 3 p.m., Monday through Saturday from April through December and Monday to Friday from January through March.

VISIT

laurelhighlands.org/lincolnhighway