Basics
- Length:
- 241.4 miles (388 km)
- Time:
- It only takes 6 hours to drive the byway, but to discover the secrets of the byway, plan on spending two or three days on your trip.
- Fees:
- Fifty-cent toll bridge to enter the byway from West Virginia.
Description
For a taste of down-home America, visit the Ohio Lincoln Highway Historic Byway. The byway captures America from past to present; it combines history that predates Ohio's statehood with how America changed and grew with the advent of automobile travel. An early trace of America's history is in Lisbon. Here you can visit the Old Stone House -- one of the earliest (preserved) homes built on the frontier. You can just imagine the family that lived here and the bison that ranged on the nether hills. In Akron, visit the First Ladies National Historic Site. Women dressed as first ladies give tours of the museum/library that features America's first ladies and their many contributions.
The Lincoln Highway cuts across the entirety of Ohio. Realigned multiple times over the years for smoother, faster, and safer travel, parts of the initial road still exist. Some places exhibit several generations of alignments within yards of each other, containing surfaces like brick, stone, or macadam and varying roadbed widths. The road itself fosters a sense of history and evolution. You can see the cars that drove these roads at the Canton Classic Car Museum.
From beginning to end, the road offers the traveler distincts tastes of America and its history. Watch for early, auto-era remnants like remodeled motor hotels, restaurants, gas stations, theaters, and drive-ins. Stop at Balyeat's Coffee Shop, where they've been serving coffee since 1923. Canton is the largest city on the Ohio route, and you'll find many Lincoln named businesses with architectural leftovers of the highway's peak years. Traveling west through Dalton to Wooster, the countryside changes to rolling pastures. Wooster exemplifies the Lincoln Highway's best-known slogan, "Main Street Across America," with its tree-lined streets, magnificent courthouse, and historic business district. Unlike larger cities that were forced to raze historic buildings for growth, these towns still claim grand churches, school buildings, and homes that reflect the boom times of the Lincoln Highway.
Approaching the Indiana state line you will have completed an experience of Ohio history from the opening of the Ohio frontier through the building of World War II tanks in Lima. You will have seen several remnants of earlier transportation systems, including canals and railroads, and you will have experienced the very road that ushered in the automobile age.
Tourism Resources
Helpful Links
Tourism Resources
Points of Interest
Points of Interest Along The Way
Balyeat's Coffee Shop and Sign (OH)
Balyeat's Coffee Shop and its striking neon sign have been open since 1923. They serve delicious homemade cookin' for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Baywood and Cindell Streets (OH)
In Eastern Stark County, Baywood and Cindell Streets are examples of several sections of the byway that are paved with their original surface material: not asphalt, but red brick! These streets run parallel to and reconnect with US Route 30.
Directions
Traveling west out of Minerva, bear westerly at the U.S. 30/Lincoln Street near the Paris Avenue intersection. Follow this for 2 miles.
Bon-Air Motel and Sign (OH)
The literally crumbling Bon Air Motel stands on Route 30 near Williamstown and Mt. Blanchard. A remnant of the past, the motel has been abandoned and is in disrepair.
Bucyrus Hopley Monument (OH)
A significant Lincoln Highway monument created from stones from the world over, dedicated to local John Hopley, first Ohio Consul to the Lincoln Highway.
Canton Classic Car Museum (OH)
Canton Classic Car Museum features Lincoln Highway related signage and memorabilia as well as that era's autos.
Directions
Turn south onto Market Street. There is ample parking behind the McKinley Grand Marriott Hotel. Walk a block west to the facility.
Downtown Van Wert (OH)
In downtown Van Wert there are several buildings remaining that are significant to the Lincoln Highway era, creating a historic streetscape. The Marsh Hotel,opened in 1915, was a control station for the highway. Across the street is the grand Second Empire County Courthouse. Two blocks west is the Brumback library. Established in 1903, it's the first county library in Ohio.
First Ladies National Historic Site (OH)
The National First Ladies Library and Research Center functions as a national archive of the contributions of America's first ladies and other notable American women.
Directions
There are two buildings; one at corner of Market Street and 2nd St SW, one block south of, Tuscarawas Avenue (the Lincoln Highway) and the Ida Saxton McKinley House is located, further down Market at 4th Street SW.
Gomer Welsh Museum (OH)
Gomer Welsh Museum includes a collection of Admiral Byrd's lost Snow Cruiser memorabilia which was mired on the Lincoln Highway near here in 1939.
Hanoverton "Heights" (OH)
Hanoverton, Plymouth Street "Heights" -- originally the wealthy canal operators' homes -- is a small neighborhood of brick, Federalist-style homes similar to Georgetown andWilliamsburg.
Directions
Turn right or north of the Lincoln Highway onto Plymouth Street (about .2 mile).
Lisbon, Old Stone House (OH)
Directions
Built in 1805, Lisbon (Historical Society) Old Stone House is one of the earliest Ohio dwellings. Pedestrians may take a one-block circuitous route from the Lincoln Highway south and clockwise to see this and other historic sites including a restored Erie train station and the Columbiana Courthouse.
