official site
visitor's guide
history
public parks
Vacationland
Cities: Sandusky,
Vermilion, Port Clinton, Catawba, Castalia, Huron, Marblehead. Sandusky is worth a day trip, or even a Saturday morning visit to pick up some movie rentals from Satch's. The downtown is wonderfully walkable, has plenty of historic buildings, and is right on Lake Erie! Worth visiting is the Antique Stop, the movie theatre, Great Lakes Museum on Meigs Street, the docks, barber shop, and some of the best diners in the midwest: Jolly Donut, Markley's Diner and the Port Sandusky Restaurant. Most of these places are all within walking distance.
Cheesehaven: same summer sausage recipe since 1948. Vintage signs on the highway and on their property are worth photographing.
The Blue Hole
The city of Clyde, Ohio, the real-life setting of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg Ohio
Put-In-Bay: Some vintage views of the island offered by Judnick Postcards.
Marblehead Lighthouse
Henry Ford Museum (Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House)
Many times you can tour an architectural landmark by an American master, but the Snowflake motel in St. Joseph, Michigan is one you can actually spend the night in! With extremely low nightly rates and only 5 hours door to door from Cleveland, you can stay a night at a motel designed by William Wesley Peters (son-in-law and student of Frank Lloyd Wright).
But do it soon -- even though this "F. L. Wright meets the Fifties" motor inn is listed on our National Register of Historic Places, it's underappreciated by the locals and is now sadly endangered!
The Summit Diner along the Penna turnpike is one of my
favorite diners anywhere. Same
sausage recipe since 1960, great pies and
burgers, and great
neons. They have souvenir mugs with the neon likeness available
for purchase at the counter.
Summit Diner, (814) 445-7154, 791 N Center Ave, Somerset, PA
15501
More diners to discover in the Western PA diner directory.
Although it probably isn't that far of a drive from Cleveland, I've
never been to the Tri-State Antique Center's "Modern Living" section,
but they have some interesting vintage furniture for sale (check their
website
for shop hours).
The Tri-State Antique Center, (724) 745-9116,
47 W. Pike St., Canonsburg, PA 15317
Hala Kahiki
2834 River Road,
River Grove, Illinois
best steakhouses http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/food/steak.html
New York City Bartenders & Patrons
McHale's at Eighth and Restaurant Row is one of the few remaining authentic "Irish '30s New York" bars. Last time we were there we had the old Rheingold beer [good history] and a three-hour informative and interesting conversation with the bartender.
More rheingold images: http://www.beercans.com/collection/RheingoldBock-112-34(Liebmann-NewYork).jpg http://www.beercans.com/collection/RheingoldBock-112-35(Liebmann-Orange).jpg http://www.beercans.com/collection/RheingoldBock-C-43-7.jpg http://www.forgotten-ny.com/
Hurley's at the foot of the RCA Building in NYC, a New York journalist tradition, Kerouac drank there-- now a despicable yuppie restaurant (the current owners moved it to a new location, so the restuarant goes on, but the journalist days are over) http://www.gvny.com/columns/thomas/thomas9-37.htm http://www.hurleyssaloon.com/history.htm http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=6HSz3.1824%24765.3223%40newsr2.maine.rr.com
To learn more about New York City's last century, check out the New York Times' NYC*100 -- an interesting collection of articles, images and a timeline (beginning with 1898).
Treasure Island, Florida is a vintage vacation mecca! For affordable retro-tourism, nothing beats it -- this area was the most space age in Florida, with mid-century moderm motels galore, all on the Gulf of Mexico. Many are still around today. The area is loaded with tiki lounges, historic restaurants, parks, and notable architecture -- even a tiki putt-putt course, tiki bookstore with attached open-air bar!
F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda visited St. Petersburg in the 1920s. Their favorite hotel was the Don CeSar, a luxury resort which is still open today. You can see postcards from the time when they stayed there.
Randy Garbin's by the way magazine bytheway.com roadage.com
American Highway Project: Americana alongside the road.
Remember to say you saw it on moderncleveland.com!
Did I leave anything out? Let me know!
Most recent update: $Date: 2004/01/06 03:40:15 $
-112-36.jpg){kind=link}