LINCOLN HIGHWAY
Lincoln Highway History • Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition Interpretive Gazebo Project • Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition Interpretive Mural Project • Links
The Lincoln Highway
Begun in 1913, the Lincoln Highway was the first paved, transcontinental highway, ultimately stretching 3,400 miles, from New York to San Francisco. The Plainfield portion of the Lincoln Highway was paved in 1921. In 1940 when U.S. Route 66 crossed the Lincoln Highway in the heart of the Village, Plainfield hosted the intersection of the two longest highways in the world. Ulysses S. Grant Blakely was the owner and publisher of the local newspaper, The Enterprise, at the time that the paved highway was proposed and he was instrumental in getting the Lincoln Highway routed through Plainfield. According to the Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition web site, “The Lincoln Highway was once the most famous road in America. It was the symbol that “Good Roads” supporters rallied around in their crusade to create a highway system for the country. It was the first successful transcontinental highway and served as the catalyst for the driving improvements that were being demanded by an increasingly mobile public and by the car makers of Detroit. The Lincoln Highway was the first successful, all-weather, coast-to-coast, automobile highway. The Lincoln Highway owed its success to promotion."
The idea for a “Coast to Coast Rock Highway” came from Carl Fisher, who also founded the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and owned the Prest-O-Lite Headlight Company. Fisher approached others in the automobile industry to support and fund the highway. Out of this effort, the Lincoln Highway Association held its inaugural meeting on July 1, 1913. The president of this new association was Henry Joy, president of the Packard Motor Car Company and he suggested dedicating the new paved route as a tribute to Abraham Lincoln. In 2000, the Illinois portion of the Lincoln Highway was designated as an Illinois State Scenic Byway and a National Scenic Byway largely due to the efforts of the Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition, of which the Village of Plainfield is a member. To help promote heritage tourism and celebrate the Village’s historic ties to the Lincoln Highway, the Village is currently participating in the ILHC Interpretive Gazebo and Interpretive Mural Projects. In the Village of Plainfield, from east to west, the historic alignment of the Lincoln Highway follows portions of US Route 30, Joliet Road, Illinois Route 59, Lockport Street, former US Route 30, 135th Street, and Heggs Road.
Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition Interpretive Gazebo Project
In 2006, the Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition received a Federal Highway Administration Implementation Grant and a Transportation Enhancement Grant for the construction of twenty (20) Interpretative Gazebos along the Lincoln Highway across Illinois. These gazebos will attract travelers' attention and the interior interpretive panels will establish public awareness of the historic Lincoln Highway in Illinois. The gazebos are a hexagonal shape, fourteen feet (14’) across and consist of a wood frame with cedar-shake shingled roof. Each gazebo will house four (4) interpretive panels – one highlighting the history of the Lincoln Highway, one that has stories and history related to the Illinois Lincoln Highway, one that has a map of the Lincoln Highway, and one that highlights the Lincoln Highway in the Village of Plainfield. The Village of Plainfield is participating in this grant opportunity which required a twenty percent local funding match ($3,080). MainStreet Plainfield, Inc. and the Plainfield Historical Society are also participating in the project and have pledged funding to help offset the cost of the gazebo. Plainfield will become one of the first twenty communities to receive a gazebo, which is currently under construction at the foot of the Settlers’ Park knoll on the east side of the Village Hall. The Village anticipates that the construction of the gazebo foundation and concrete path will be complete in September 2009, just in time for the gazebo structure which will be installed sometime before the end of October 2009.
Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition Interpretive Mural Project
In 2006, the Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition applied for a Federal Highway Administration grant, seeking funds to paint forty (40) interpretive murals – one in each of forty (40) communities along the 179-mile Illinois Lincoln Highway Corridor in Northern Illinois. These forty (40) new murals follow the murals ILHC previously completed and installed in Creston, DeKalb, and Rochelle, Illinois. In 2007, the ILHC was awarded a $443,000 grant, thus commencing the mural project. The Village of Plainfield was selected as one of the communities that will be the recipient of an ILHC Interpretive Mural, a gift to the community costing approximately $10,000.
In July 2007, the Village Board voted to participate in the project. Per the project agreement, the Village Board approved the Village President’s appointments of two (2) community representatives to serve as the liaisons for communication between ILHC and the Village, and to serve as members of the Local Organizational Committee (LOC). Michael Lambert, President of the Plainfield Historical Society, and Paula Terzich, Secretary and member of the Design Committee for MainStreet Plainfield, Inc., are the community representatives to the LOC, and will be responsible for overseeing the creation of a specific mural for the Village of Plainfield and coordinating with ILHC staff and the ILHC mural artist. The LOC will help determine the story and graphic elements to be depicted in the mural. There is no set date for the completion of the mural in Plainfield, but the goal of the ILHC is to have all forty murals completed by mid-2010.
The LOC held an initial meeting in March 2009 to discuss the theme and graphic design ideas for the Plainfield mural, and a preliminary sketch of the mural was recently forward to the mural artist selected by the ILHC. While the mural design is being discussed, Village staff plans to meet with the owners of several potential Downtown buildings to discuss their willingness to allow the mural to be attached to a building façade. Pending those discussions, a formal agreement will need to be executed between the Village and the building owner. The mural itself will remain the property of the Village. The mural will measure 10’ high x 20’ wide and will be painted on Dibond, a weather-resistant material, which is an aluminum-composite sheet that has an aluminum face and a thermoplastic core.
Links
Illinois Lincoln Highway Coalition
Lincoln Highway Association – Illinois State Chapter