The image-makers of Buffalo didn’t let natural history interfere with excellent branding potential, particularly for the Pan American Exposition of 1901.
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By Eric Schaefer. More than any other form of motion picture, exploitation movies developed a symbiotic relationship with American road culture over some five decades in the mid-20th century.
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In his latest book, Tim O’Brien pays homage to the real stars of the roadside: the creators of public art and commercial display whose visions were fulfilled without the baggage of cultural influence.
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By Lisa Raflo and Jeffrey Durbin. Though it now mostly follows current corporate trends, Stuckey's was once a daring innovator whose Pecan Shoppes were the precursors of the convenience store.
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By Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, reviewed by Philip Langdon: If commercial archeology had a patron saint, it would doubtless be John Brinckerhoff Jackson.
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In this C-SPAN presentation, University of Mary Washington Professor (and SCA member) Christine Henry talks about the history of roadside attractions and her own experience traveling to a freshwater pond in Ohio called the Blue Hole.
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COLONIAL MODERN CABINS, RICHMOND, INDIANA. Cabins clustered around the home headhouse along the main road at the edge of town had become standardized by the time this 1940s postcard was produced to advertise Colonial "MODERN" Cabins just west of Richmond, Indiana. George Stewart would soon use US 40 as his "Cross Section of the United States of America," the road he felt most represented transcontinental travel in the mid-20th century. At the same time, the National Road was America's pioneer path into the Midwest. This cabin court attempted to straddle both worlds with with its reference to a more traditional colonial past with all the modern conveniences, like private showers.
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The success of Andy Greiner's 1934 bakery in Parkersburg, West Virginia, allowed him to open this state-of-the-art Streamline Moderne bakery on Dudley Avenue in 1941.
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On the pre-Interstate road to Florida, Richmond, Virginia, was a day away from most Northeastern cities and two days away from the rest. South from Richmond it was a long way to anywhere, making Richmond the place to rest-over.
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