Former North Huntingdon diner featured at expanded Lincoln Highway Museum
Charmaine Forsythe grew up in North Huntingdon, across the street from the diner where she often enjoyed scratch-made pies.
On Wednesday, she dug into another slice — only this time seated in Unity.
“I’m so excited and have lots of good memories,” Forsythe said. “Used to walk over and get a pie, and then take pie pan back the next day.”
The restored 1938 diner is now part of the Lincoln Highway Experience transportation museum, serving as the central feature in a new wing of the facility along Route 30 eastbound.
The wing opened last week and doubles the museum’s space by adding about 3,570 square feet. It houses the 46-foot diner, with two booths and seating for more than 16 patrons on restored bar stools. It also has the original tile flooring, a marble counter and stained glass windows. Tables and chairs donated from a turnpike service plaza expand total seating to 60 in the new wing.
The addition also includes several vintage gas pumps, neon signs and a 1937 Packard.
The diner was moved to the museum in April from a storage space in Latrobe. Its approximately $500,000 restoration was paid for with money from the Federal Highway Administration.
The Serro family operated the diner off the Pennsylvania Turnpike on Route 30 in North Huntingdon from 1938 to 1958. The Monarch-style diner was built by the Jerry O’Mahony Diner Co. in Elizabeth, N.J. The Rolka family, who later owned it, moved the diner near Youngwood and renamed it The Willow. The Sen. John Heinz History Center purchased the deteriorating eatery in the 1990s and later donated to the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor.
The museum is dedicated to the nation’s first coast-to-coast highway, which opened in 1913 and connected New York City to San Francisco mainly by linking existing roads. It was completed in 1925.
Among the museum’s exhibits are 30 black-and-white photographs of the Lincoln Highway, or Route 30, across Pennsylvania. Also on display are the facade of a filling station and a restored 1939 tourist cabin that once stood at Routes 30 and 259 in Ligonier Township.
The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Admission is $14, or $10 for group tours. Paid admission includes coffee and a slice of pie in the diner. Visitors also can get ice cream.
Joe Napsha is a Tribune-Review staff writer.
You can contact Joe at 724-836-5252 or jnapsha@tribweb.com.
