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American Road Magazine
Celebrating our two-lane highways of yesteryear…And the joys of driving them today!

Road Trips Both Monday & Tuesday 4/5 & 6


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I got out both Monday and Tuesday this week. The weather felt like mid-summer. Shot lots of pix I'm still trying to edit and upload to the CRP.

 

We ate at two different restaurants, Bunnie's in Lavale and the Park & Dine in Hancock. I got photos from Hancock, LaVale, Eckhart Mines, Clarysville, Wolfe's Mill, Elliot's Cabins, Flintstone and more.

Here's a few samples:

 

A kind of Deja View from Hancock, MD

hancock-main-st-deja1.jpg

 

Deja View from Elliot's Cabins - West side of Martin's Mtn. (see more...)

elliots-cabins-deja1.jpg

 

Old National Road stone bridge abutment Flintstone, MD (See more...)

flintstone-bridge1_lrg.jpg

 

~ Steve

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Steve,

 

Doesn't anything change in Maryland? :) Seriously, you seem to have the dual blessing of good prior documentation and preservation. I remain impressed!

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Dave,

I've often wondered why the National Road was so well documented through Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The only credible reason I can come up with is the Road was the lifeblood of these communities and they were chronicling their achievements in photos and postcards.

As the importance of the Road declined, many of these same communities no longer had the money to update or replace their aging structures.

 

As you drive the old Road now, it's not uncommon to see once magnificent structures wasting away... It's sad.

 

tenant-house-deja1.jpg

The Race Tenant Farm House, Little Savage Mountain (Garrett Co. MD), circa 1974 (left) and today (right).

 

~ Steve

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Sweet. The area around Elliott's Cabins -- wow, the old road was rerouted here bigtime.

 

I stopped last spring at that very Park 'n Dine for lunch.

 

jim

 

Jim,

While driving a back road on Martin's summit (Sunset Orchard), I was fortunate to make contact with homeowner who had done significant research on his family's property. He was the one that clued me in to the location of Elliot's. I have passed that building on I-68 numerous times but would have probably never put it together with the postcard. (The cabins are hidden from the road.) In addition, he told me much of the original road on the top and west side of the mountain was destroyed when they built I-68 and Rocky Gap State Park and Golf Course.

 

~ Steve

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The Race Tenant house is a favorite of mine even though I didn't know it had a name. I remember thinking, when I first saw it in 2001, that someone might come along and restore it. Looking a little closer at pictures from that day exposes that as pretty wishful thinking. It looks occupied in the 1974 photo so it apparently went over the edge in the next couple of decades. I've accepted the idea that restoration is all but impossible but dread the day when I drive by and see it collapsed or totally gone.

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The Race Tenant house is a favorite of mine even though I didn't know it had a name. I remember thinking, when I first saw it in 2001, that someone might come along and restore it. Looking a little closer at pictures from that day exposes that as pretty wishful thinking. It looks occupied in the 1974 photo so it apparently went over the edge in the next couple of decades. I've accepted the idea that restoration is all but impossible but dread the day when I drive by and see it collapsed or totally gone.

 

Denny,

Close inspection of Race Tenant House "B" on a previous trip revealed the walls to be made of solid stacked 2 x 6s. A most unusual way to build unless you have access to cheap lumber. (And even then more labor intensive than frame building.)

It took a whole lot of neglect to bring this lady down.

 

Steve

 

little-savage-house5_lrg.jpg

Edited by Steve_Colby
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Close inspection of Race Tenant House "B" on a previous trip revealed the walls to be made of solid stacked 2 x 6s. A most unusual way to build unless you have access to cheap lumber. (And even then more labor intensive than frame building.)

It took a whole lot of neglect to bring this lady down.

Yes, I recall that; sort of a log house with planks. I've never moved off the road to inspect it closely myself although I'd like to. I'd really like to know if there is any evidence of one of the buildings (possible the one behind the house) ever containing a forge. My g-g-grandparents pulled their T inside a building somewhere in this area in 1921 and I've imagined (with absolutely no support) that it might have been here. The place had a forge and Granddad, a blacksmith by trade, sharpened a drill in exchange for the shelter.

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