Bedford, Pennsylvania's Coffee Pot: The Greatest Joe on Earth!

The Coffee Pot, back in the day

In the 1930's, the Lincoln Highway was the road you took to get places from coast to coast in America. There's a very rich stretch that runs through Pennsylvania (Route 30), and a fantastic effort has been made by the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor to restore and maintain its roadside treasures. One of the best eccentric roadside attractions you'll see along here is the Coffee Pot, a structure that dates back to 1927. Car travel was becoming more and more popular then and proprietors of gas stations, cafes and motels were experimenting with attention-getting ways to lure motorists off the road and into their establishments. Buildings in the shapes of objects were all the rage but precious few still exist today. In 1927, Bert Koontz erected the Coffee Pot to attract visitors to his adjacent gas station. The early restaurant served hamburgers, ice cream and Coca-Cola. Over the years it became a bar and a regular Greyhound bus stop, until falling into disrepair and neglect. The Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor rescued it from the bulldozer, moved it to a sunny new location, and lovingly restored it back to better than new condition in 2004, making it a real "perk" for eccentric roadside fans everywhere. Here's some more information: http://www.lhhc.org/content/subpag/pot.htm