We stopped Leesville, OH to photograph a Lincoln Highway marker and again near Bucyrus, OH for a stone pillar.
Bucyrus, Ohio was a ghost town. We could walk up and down the streets with only a car or two passing us. One of the interesting buildings downtown includes the Courthouse of Crawford County. It was built in 1854 and later refaced with of sandstone block in 1908. It has a beautiful copper domed clock tower.
A photo of the Bucyrus Public Library.
The Great American Crossroads Mural at Millenium Park.
Liberty Remembers Mural at 215 N. Sandusky Ave. It's located on the wall beside the Daily Scoop.
Great looking store fronts just off of the Lincoln Highway on N. Sandusky Avenue. It includes the Molenkopf-Walther Bulding and the 1881 Bucyrus City Bank Building (originally the Monnett Bank)
Outside of Cairo, OH there was a train stopped that was just begging for ts photo to be taken. This large grain train was being pulled by CSX 988 (GE ES44AC), CP 9506 (GE AC44CW), and BNSF 7862 (EMD SD40-2).
We found more great old buildings in Delphos, OH. A Firestone dealer now occupies what was originally LHA station.
The Old Commercial Bank Building.
The Old City Hall Building, Police & Fire Departments still located in this building, was built in 1888 to house all city offices. The original alarm bell is still in the tower.
McShanes’s Phelan House was built in 1880. It was purchased by the Lehmann's in 1956 and remained a hotel until 1959 when it was converted into a furniture and appliance store.
Photo of the Roth and Central Block buildings.
The Miami and Erie Canals once were located here. A replica concrete post sits near what remains of the canal. Our trip mascot, "Luigi", poses for a photo.
We stopped for an early lunch at Balyeat's Coffee Shop for some small town diner food in Van Wert, Ohio. The restaurant has been serving since 1924. Peg was hoping for some real fried chicken but now they just briefly pan fry it and then bake it.
Across the street is the Hotel Marsh which opened in 1915 and served as a Lincoln Highway control point.
Nearby is also the Van Wert County courthouse. The courthouse is a Second Empire structure built in 1876.
In the "Garden of the Senses" is a mural that was painted by Oscar Velasquez in 2004. The garden also has an original Lincoln Highway marker that was put there by the local Historical Society.
The night before I had discovered that the Auburn Cord Duesneberg Museum was open on Sunday so we diverted off the Lincoln to make a short 30 minute drive to Auburn, Indiana. This car museum is the best that I have ever visited. You can read about it in a separate blog entry.
Once in Auburn we also discovered the National Auto and Truck Museum. Again, this deserves its own blog entry.
We headed back to Fort Wayne, Indiana to hop back on the Lincoln to follow its 1928 routing. The next town we stopped in was Plymouth, Indiana.
The Simons Building is in the middle but I have no clue as to the others.
The Rees Theater opened in February of 1940 with a showing of “Remember the Night,” starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. It was purchased in 2013 after being closed for several years. The new owners are hoping to renovate the building and preserve its Art Deco look.
The Marshall County Court House was built in 1872.
Trying to follow the original route of the Lincoln Highway we often found ourselves on gravel roads. As long as you slow down and take your time the trip is quite enjoyable. We were headed for Schereville, Indiana for our stop for the night when we happened upon another stopped train on a long straight track. The locomotives were CFE 3316 (EMD SD40T-2) and TPW 4056 (EMD GP40X).
Did you read about our Lincoln Highway road trip day 1 and 2?
Lincoln Highway Road Trip Day 1
Lincoln Highway Road Trip Day 2