Description

This is a concrete original Lincoln Highway marker with a rectangular head on top of a hexagonal shaped post. The top of the marker comes to a point. On one side is a bronze medallion with a right profile relief of Abraham Lincoln surrounded by the inscription reading "This Highway Dedicated To Abraham Lincoln." Below the medallion is a metal plaque with the logo of a blue "L:" on a white background. A blue arrow is painted on another side pointing to the direction the driver should turn to follow the Lincoln Highway. This original highway marker, installed at the north end of the Harrison Street Bridge in Fort Wayne, Indiana, was one of the Lincoln Highway markers installed on September 1, 1928, all across the United States by the Boy Scouts to mark the route of the Lincoln Highway, America's first coast to coast highway. During the following decades this marker was moved around the city for various reasons until it was salvaged from the grounds of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Clinton Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana, by a private collector. It remained in his possession until 2007 when he donated the marker to this collection. Two bronze medallions unattached to concrete markers are located one in Lincoln Inventory Box 16 and the other in Lincoln Inventory DA Box 15. For more information about the original Lincoln Highway markers go to the following Lincoln Highway Association URL: http://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/news_old/articles/markers/ Also see Lincoln Lore issue number 1852, Spring 1998, for information on the history of the Lincoln Highway. Part of The Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, courtesy of the Indiana State Museum