Bedford County cottages are last of their era in Lincoln Highway overnight stops

Nearly 40 years ago, Virginia natives Bob and Debbie Altizer got a map and drew a circle with a 200-mile radius centered on Washington, D.C.

They were looking to operate a hospitality or retail business within that territory, and in 1983 they purchased the Lincoln Motor Court. Now the last surviving business of its type along the Lincoln Highway, the U-shaped array of a dozen small cottages has been welcoming travelers in Bedford County since 1940.

“We decided that making beds was very easy,” Debbie Altizer said. Their investment in the Route 30 property turned into a labor of love as well as their livelihood.

“I didn’t realize I was going to become a plumber and electrician and everything else,” said Bob Altizer.

The couple has had the longest tenure of any owners of the Lincoln Motor Court. But, looking ahead to retirement, they placed the property on the market a little over a year ago, hoping to find someone to take over care of the vintage roadside stopover.

It is the last such place for overnight guests along the Lincoln Highway — the first coast-to-coast route for motorists when it debuted in 1913.

The Society of Commercial Archaeology added the Lincoln Motor Court to its “Falling by the Wayside” list in 2016. It also has been recognized as a roadside icon by Preservation Pennsylvania.

According to Debbie Altizer, it retains all the hallmarks of a once-typical motor court. That includes the layout of the 12 cottages, which allows guests to park directly in front of the one in which they’re staying. Another distinction is the fact that the proprietors live on the premises, in a centrally placed dwelling.

The motor court was an ideal location where the couple could raise their two daughters while also taking care of business.

“It was important to me to be a stay-at-home mom,” Debbie Altizer said.

1940s heyday

Motor courts were in their heyday in the middle of the 20th century, before motels that consolidated guest quarters into a single building became more prominent.

“They had a 20-year run from about 1935 to 1955,” Bob Altizer said, noting the cottages early on offered unfamiliar luxuries to many rural travelers. “They actually experienced their first flush toilet in a motor court,” he said.

With the exception of a few modern conveniences such as cable TV and WiFi service, the Altizers have retained the 1940s period integrity of their 224-square-foot cottages — including solid knotty pine walls, gray Insulbrick siding and plastic tiles in the bathrooms.

There are fans instead of air conditioning units and no individual landline phones. “We had a pay phone, but they took it out because it wasn’t getting enough use,” Debbie Altizer said.

Nostalgic appeal wasn’t a strong factor when the Altizers initially took over operation of the motor court. Guests included “drive-bys” in search of an affordable place to stay and outdoors enthusiasts.

“What we got were trout fishermen in April and deer hunters in November,” said Debbie Altizer, who noted the motor court is a short distance from Shawnee State Park and Shawnee Lake.

The couple’s business shifted into a higher gear in the 1990s, when Lincoln Highway tourism enjoyed a boost from the re-energized area chapter of the Lincoln Highway Association and the newly formed Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor, a nonprofit that works to promote and preserve a segment of the highway that crosses Bedford, Westmoreland and four other neighboring Pennsylvania counties.

“That’s when we found our specialty, when we first started specializing in retro,” said Bob Altizer. “Our niche is for anybody who likes the 1940s or 1950s atmosphere.

“People who are into classic cars, antique diners or jazz music, anything like that, this place draws them like a magnet.”

Members of a car club from Baltimore arrived in their vintage wheels for a recent weekend gathering at the motor court. Another group reserved all of the cabins for a themed Christmas in July celebration, sending an advance team to bedeck the buildings with appropriate holiday decorations.

Guests delight in trying on vintage clothing the Altizers have placed in the cottage closets. They also can listen to recordings of old-time radio programs or peruse National Geographic magazines from the 1940s.

When the weather suits, they can lounge in front of their cottages on vintage metal chairs featuring a clam shell design. Behind the Altizer dwelling, amid a small grove of arborvitae bushes that have matured into trees, guests can fire up a grill for a barbecue or play a game of cornhole.

“Seventy to 80% of our customers are repeats,” said Debbie Altizer.

After a decades-long gap, an older woman returned to stay in Cottage No. 6, where she and her husband spent their honeymoon in the 1940s, before he left to serve in World War II.

In addition to overnight guests, the Altizers have been visited by tourists from across the country and across the ocean who simply want to snap photos of the court’s retro buildings and signage.

Many make a point of stopping as part of a Lincoln Highway road trip. One group clad in leather roared in on motorcycles.

“They looked like a rough bunch,” Bob Altizer recalled. Once he was able to break through a language barrier, he learned that “they were all motorcycle policemen from Germany.”

In recent years, the Altizers have closed the motor court from December through March so they could head south to spend time with their daughters, now grown and relocated to Virginia, and their grandchildren.

They’re planning to join them permanently once they can sell the court. So far, there have been no solid offers for the property, which is listed at $224,900.

“When I leave here, I’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that I tried to keep a part of history alive,” said Debbie Altizer.

“It’s been quite a ride,” Bob Altizer reflected.

Visit lincolnmotorcourt.com to learn more.