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

Ppoo In Eastern Ohio


DennyG
 Share

Recommended Posts

I did get to the advertised location (PPOO in Eastern Ohio) but I had to go through Wheeling, WV, to do it. The four day trip is covered at http://www.dennygibson.com/ld2007 through only the last day has anything to do with the PP-OO.

 

Denny,

 

I just read Sept 3, and it is excellent. The old alignment and ferry landing was quite interesting. The trouble with your stuff is I want to jump in the car and head there for my own look see.

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...thanks for taking that over-the-shoulder photo of old 40's demise into I-70.
I thought you might recognize yourself as the mentioned "e-grouper". On Friday there were two cars parked on the spur and four or five guys fishing from its edge. I don't think I even noticed the water there before.

 

The old alignment and ferry landing was quite interesting.
The whole idea of moving the route from bridge to ferry leaves me wondering. Probably an interesting but lost story.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just read Sept 2. Interesting Round barn. Was the guy giving the tour the owner?

 

To repeat a question I asked Roadnmaven and Jennifer, but got no reply...must have stumped them.... :D

 

I have an “academic” question for the diner crowd. What distinguishes a diner from a cafe? Is “diner” part of a regional vernacular?

 

I used to subscribe to a magazine devoted to diners. They were mostly east of the Mississippi. My recollection is that they featured metal diners, of the “former railroad car” variety. Those are easy to distinguish as diners.

 

My wife and I frequently have breakfast at a restaurant with counter seating and booth seating. How would I know whether to call it a diner?

 

We have our share of interesting roadside artifacts that might be called diners on old US99..... if I knew how to identify one. We have a neat 1935 roadhouse “Mary McCracks”, a 1930 restaurant complete with the hat clips on the back of the wooden counter stools called “The Spar”, etc. But I have not considered them diners.

 

Educate me!

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just read Sept 2. Interesting Round barn. Was the guy giving the tour the owner?

 

To repeat a question I asked Roadnmaven and Jennifer, but got no reply...must have stumped them.... :D

 

I have an “academic” question for the diner crowd. What distinguishes a diner from a cafe? Is “diner” part of a regional vernacular?

Keep the Show on the Road!

 

Hey there!

 

I missed this thread in its entirety, sorry! The fiasco of the prior weekend's activities and trying desperately to catch up on my sleep (still not quite there yet), has left me a little behind on the threads.

 

My understanding as far as diner purists (haven't check the dictionary), is that a diner refers to a stainless steel metal diner. However, we use it a little loosely when we do Diner Days articles. We feature small mom n' pop places which might be referred to as diners or cafes, but are not necessarily housed in a stainless steel diner.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought you might recognize yourself as the mentioned "e-grouper". On Friday there were two cars parked on the spur and four or five guys fishing from its edge. I don't think I even noticed the water there before.

 

I remember the road feeling a lot more remote, and I also remember there being a guardrail dividing the EB and WB lanes. I had to drive up onto the I-70 hill to turn around. But I can't remember for sure whether there was water there or not! Well, it was 1990 or 1991. I was just a kid then. :D jim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was the guy giving the tour the owner?
No. The barn is now owned by the West Augusta Historical Society. Until now I hadn't questioned the name but the town is named Mannington and it's in Marion county. Augusta? I have no idea.

 

To repeat a question I asked Roadnmaven and Jennifer, but got no reply...must have stumped them.... :D
Naw. They probably just wanted you to benefit from working it out yourself.

 

I have an “academic” question for the diner crowd. What distinguishes a diner from a cafe?
I think I have a better chance explaining where the West Augusta Historical Society got its name.

 

I'm sure that everyone has their own idea of what a diner is. In a word association quiz, I'd probably fire off "manufactured" or "transportable" in response to "diner" but in practice there are plenty of built on site places that I whole heartedly think of as diners. Some folks consider stools and a counter essential and others think an in sight grill an absolute requirement. Age also helps and so does the owner standing at the grill or the cash register. I think the only thing that everyone includes in their definition is "locally owned" or "non-chain" but there are plenty of locally owned non-chain eateries that few, if any, would consider diners. If pressed (which is sort of what you're doing - in a very friendly way) I'll admit that Mart's probably is a diner in more than name. (But the phrase flowed so smoothly.) I guess it just wasn't what I expected/wanted it to be.

 

Reportedly, when asked about diners, even the extremely intelligent Potter Stewart could only say "I know them when I see them".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reportedly, when asked about diners, even the extremely intelligent Potter Stewart could only say "I know them when I see them".

 

OK! Then I know some diners too! :lol:

 

Denny

 

You posed an interesting question…bridge vs. ferry. Without having done the homework to justify this speculation, could it be the later route took the ferry because:

 

1. They could get more advertising along the later route and/or

2 The later route across the ferry was in keeping with their proclaimed “avoid the big cities” claim.

 

Anyway, here are some pages from the 1926 PPOO Guide. BTW Page 19 map confirms the ferry landing route as 8th..

 

ARPPOOC.jpg

ARPPOO18.jpg

ARPPOO19.jpg

ARPPOO20.jpg

ARPPOO21.jpg

ARPPOO22.jpg

 

I am enjoying your write up and photos.

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had assumed the "avoid the cities" movement had something to do with it but hadn't considered advertising. My first reaction is that the two seem to be at odds with each other. I would think that there would be more businesses thus more competition thus more advertising in cities but that is 2007 thinking and not 1926 thinking. 2007 thinking also has me believing that waiting for a ferry could easily over shadow a congested Steubenville but maybe not.

 

The detail map of Wellsburg is excellent. Not only does it show the ferry on 8th but it at least implies that the ferry went straight across the river and landed about where I was standing.

 

Besides being interesting, the ads remind me of one of my goofs. Meeks took a photo of the Neel garage building in 2005 (I think) so it's likely still there and I intended to look for it yesterday. Now it's just another reason to go back.

 

The Wellsburg-Uhrichsville map also reinforces my interpretation of the route through Hopedale. Curiously, I would have called the sharp bend (it's actually a cross roads) downtown Hopedale while the map has Hopedale quite a bit west of there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...