Long Live the Drive-In Theater!

A rapidly disappearing bit of American life is holding on in Grafton, West Virginia . . . the drive-in theater. There are not many of these outdoor movie venues still operating across the country, and even in Denver, the Cinderella Drive-In has met its demise just a few short weeks ago. Land is just too valuable in urban areas to make operating a drive-in profitable. Plus, there are so many other things that are vying for our entertainment dollars, including the ability to buy and rent movies at home.

Yet, the drive-in remains in a few places, and seems to particularly have its best chance in small towns. The Grafton Drive-In still operates to the best of my knowledge. However, it is closed for the season. This small theater is across US 119 from the Mail Pouch Barn in the previous post. Here are some pictures. As always, click the photo for a larger version. Enjoy.



Marquee for the Grafton Drive-In


Entrance / Box Office and "big" screen


Projection building and movie screen - Notice the red barn in the background

A Roadside Advertising Relic

Mail Pouch Tobacco barn just outside Grafton, WV - Click photo for larger view

One thing generated by a capitalist economy is advertising. I would not be surprised to learn that the Roman Colosseum could have had signs advertising "Flavius' Chariot Repair Shop". Wherever people are trying to reach markets and sell products, advertising is inevitable.

One place where advertising has been prevalent over the years is the American highway. Everything from the sequential roadside poetry for Burma Shave to billboards encouraging motorists to stop and see the two-headed calf, have graced the side of the highway over the last century. One such advertising medium has been the sides and roofs of barns.

I remember seeing such barn signs promoting Meramec Caverns (Jesse James' Hideout) in Missouri; to "See 7 States from Rock City"; to the product whose ad is still barely visible on this barn in Grafton . . . Mail Pouch Tobacco. For 102 years, starting in 1890, the Bloch Brothers Tobacco Company of Wheeling, West Virginia, advertised their Mail Pouch brand on barns across several states. The farmer lucky enough to have a barn near a highway would get his barn painted, along with a small payment, to allow the tobacco firm to use the barn as an advertising sign.

I don't know the vintage of the sign on this barn, but I imagine it has been many years, since the sign is so faded. Still, it was an interesting find. This one is visible on US 119 South just before you come to Grafton.

CLICK HERE to read more about the Mail Pouch Barns on Wikipedia.

Dilapidated Building

An old building that has seen better days

Despite its immense natural beauty, West Virginia is a state that has struggled economically over the years. This fact is very evident when you look at the state of disrepair of many homes. They are left with paint almost entirely gone, bare wood, broken windows, and neglect. There are beautiful old homes that have been improved and kept up, right next to ramshackle houses that may have once been very nice, but are crumbling down around their occupants.

The same is true of many agricultural outbuildings dotting the countryside. These are less of an eyesore than the homes, as these buildings don't house people. In fact, they have a picturesque quality all their own, and make interesting photographs of times gone by.

This photo's subject is a small barn or storage building standing in a field on the north side of US 50 on the west side of Grafton.

Yet Another Highway Terminus

Here we are with yet another highway terminus sign. Tracing a path of just under three miles, West Virginia State Highway 279, also known as the Bridgeport Bypass, or Jerry Dove Drive, is a short highway between US 50 on its south end, and Interstate 79 on its north end. This likely ranks as one of the shortest numbered highways in the nation, but by no means the absolute shortest. I didn't notice an "END" sign at I-79, but the photo above is heading south at the junction with US 50. WV 279 is a nice, new four lane divided road for its entire length, and passes near the Harrison County Airport. New development along the road include a couple of hotels and a new Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant. For motorists heading west on US 50, it is a much less congested route than taking 50 all the way to I-79.

End of the Road

West Virginia State Highway 310 is only about 15 miles long, and runs from a junction with US 50 in Grafton on its southern end, to a junction with US 250 in Fairmont on its northern end. About halfway between the two towns is the Valley Falls State Park, where I took the photos from a couple of posts down the page. It is a narrow, winding, mountain road for most of its journey, but passes through some very pretty scenery.

This picture is taken on 310 South at US 50. If you look closely, you will notice little marks in the lower right-hand corners of each sign. I thought the one on the 310 shield was a bullet hole at first, but when I examined the high resolution picture from my camera, I saw it is a sticker with the shape of the state of West Virginia on it, probably a WVDOT asset sticker of some sort. The other signs also have a sticker, but it appears to be different from the other one. Even at 8 megapixels, I couldn't tell what they say.

Grafton's US 50 Drive Ins

Let's take a little tour of the drive-in fast food establishments along US 50 in Grafton. Of course, what is a fast food tour without a stop at Dairy Queen? This DQ has an old sign that is in great shape, showing an Eskimo girl in a parka, holding a cone of DQ Ice Cream. Unlike a lot of places where people eat ice cream year round, this DQ was already closed for the winter season. It would seem to me that the first half of the "Hot Eats, Cool Treats" slogan would apply all year long, but not here. It makes me wonder how the owners get by during the winter with a commercial building not producing any revenue for much of the year.

Our next picture is the other half of the Dairy Royalty, the Dairy King. The King is about a mile or less from the Queen, so maybe that is convenient for their late night frosty rendezvous. Makes me wonder if the Dairy Queen has bigger cups than the Dairy King! Yeah, it IS a bad attempt at humor.



In between them lies one of Grafton's oldest drive-ins, Biggies Hamburgers & Hot Dogs. Biggies has been around for a long time, and continues to serve both local Graftonians and hungry travelers motoring down Route 50.




Finally, we come to the T&L Oldies Diner. T&L has several locations, and this one is located beside the roadside cabin motel pictured in one of my earlier posts. In fact, the restaurant is where you rent the cottages, as noted on the banner.

Tour of Downtown Grafton

Here are some more pictures from the historic town of Grafton. Sadly, Grafton is in a state of serious decline, as evidenced by the condition of its central business district. Even more sad is the fact that this is a common state of affairs in small towns across the nation, as the jobs of American workers continue to be exported to slave labor in China and other developing countries.

In any case, let's take a look at a few pictures. As always, click on them for a larger version.

This first one is the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, also known as the International Mothers Day Shrine. This is where Mothers Day originated, when Anna Jarvis started the holiday in honor of her own mother. Ironically, Ms. Jarvis was never a mother herself. Today, Mothers Day is celebrated in many countries, and this is where it all started.


International Mothers Day Shrine - Andrews M.E. Church


Taylor County Courthouse. Notice the doors at the top of the tower on the left. Watch your step!


Taylor County Clerk's Office inside the county courthouse


Typical brick alleyway in Grafton


An odd, hand-painted flag with 22 stars & 11 stripes in a Grafton storefront.


A signpost for every sign means a forest of posts at the corner of US 119 & US 50 in the Blueville area of Grafton.


US 119 South heading out of downtown Grafton


The US 119 shield on Main Street is long gone, but at least you still know which direction you are going.


On the south end of downtown is St. Matthias Episcopal Church.


Grafton's Post Office, built in 1913


A typical house in downtown Grafton


Watch that first step! Grafton seems to have a lot of doors with a big first step!!


A downtown law practice


A rusted bridge over the railroad tracks


An asset plaque on the bridge shows it was built in 1950. Guess they couldn't afford paint.


The Grafton B&O Station

US 50

US Highway 50 has been dubbed "The Loneliest Highway in America", because in its journey across the country, it goes through very few large cities. Its eastern terminus is in Ocean City, Maryland, and its western end is in West Sacramento, California. One of the towns it passes through is Grafton, West Virginia, where it crosses US 119. Just to the west of Grafton, US 50 has a short duplex with US 250.

Today, I went out and about a bit around the Grafton area, and took way too many pictures. I have processed just a few for the web, so here they are. As always, click on the small photos to view full size.


Old house on US 50

Perfect for Halloween, this looks like it would make a perfect haunted house. This structure was probably a very nice home back in its time, but with neglect and vacancy, its time has come and gone. Still, I think it makes a nice picture.


A once-common sight . . . roadside cabin motel

Back in the middle of the last century, America took to the highways. As motorists traveled across the country, they needed accommodations for those nights on the road. This little cabin-style motel could probably tell quite a few tales if it could talk. This is located on US 50 just a stone's throw from where US 250 branches off to the north toward the town of Fairmont.


US 50/US 250 split near Grafton

The next picture is looking toward the west from a vantage point near the motel. This is US 50 West toward the towns of Bridgeport and Clarksburg, some 12 miles or so ahead. At the curve, the road you see branching off to the right is US 250 North.


An old fruit stand on US 50

This old fruit stand is on the north side of US 50, just to the east of the old house in the first picture. I believe this one is still in use during part of the year, but it would be hard to tell from the way it looks neglected and abandoned. I would imagine this location would be quite a good spot to sell fruit to motorists on the old highway.

Roadgeekin' in the Alleghenies

Alrighty, we are cooking on high-speed Internet in rural West Virginia. I got my mother-in-law's cable modem set up, hooked up a wireless router, and now we are on a faster connection than I have back in Colorado. So let's take a look at the first batch of roadgeekin' photos. Bear in mind, these are not the quality I would be proud of for any photo contest. They are taken with my little "point and shoot" digital, through a dark windshield, and with a sun low in the sky; all while driving down the highway. But all that aside, I think I did pretty good with these. As always, click on the photos for the large versions.



Let's get started as we leave Pittsburgh International Airport. These signs are a dark gray color with arrows on green stick-on panels. A bit unusual. Also, you see on the sign to the right, a reference to "Moon Beaver". No, it's not talking about any kind of moon beaver...it refers to two little towns, Moon, PA and Beaver, PA.



Once we get off the airport property and onto PA 60, we see the signs look more traditional. Pennsylvania is installing some road signs in Clearview font, but these are not them. But you will notice that the exit tabs have rounded cornered borders. Looks a little strange to my eye.




PA 60 Business route goes into Moon Township at Exit 3.




PA 60 is a fairly short highway between the Airport and two Interstates, I-279 and I-79. These unusual orange directional signs are in a construction zone along PA 60 eastbound. We will be taking the right lane to get onto I-79 South toward West Virginia.




Once on I-79, the first city indicated as a destination is Washington. If you are not a local, you might think this means Washington, DC, which is about 230 miles away, but you'd be wrong. It is Washington, PA, a town where I-79 duplexes with I-70 for a few miles.




Here is a reassurance shield mounted on two wooden posts. I almost missed this one, since the shutter lag on the little camera is significant, unlike my DSLR. However, the live view on the small camera's screen makes it more suitable for shots while driving.




Apparently, Pennsylvania used to number exits consecutively, rather than based upon the mile marker number. This was changed, and the state has little signs indicating the old exit number below the main sign. Here we see that current Exit 45 used to be numbered as Exit 10.




Here is a sign anticipating the merge with I-70, which will duplex with I-79 as we go through the town of Washington. If I was so inclined, I could take 70 West from here and go back to Denver. I think I'll pass on that for now, although that road is very familiar to me. I have made that drive many times in the past.




Here we are approaching the merge with I-70 one mile ahead. I-70 West to Wheeling, Columbus, St. Louis, Kansas City and Denver. East will take you down the Pennsylvania Turnpike though New Stanton, PA and the Maryland cities of Hancock, Hagerstown, and Baltimore. I-79 South will split back off in a few miles and head south toward Morgantown, Clarksburg, and Charleston.




And speaking of how I-79 splits off, here is where it happens, just east of Washington. We'll be exiting to the right.




As noted in my previous posts, we see here that West Virginia is "Open for Business" as we leave the Keystone State and enter the soon again to be Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.




Morgantown is home to the University of West Virginia. Here is the main exit off I-79 to WV 7 that takes you to the campus. The funny thing is, the two interstates in this town run along the edges, and you wouldn't know there was a town nearby if you were just driving by. It appears to be far out in the country as you drive down either I-79 or I-68.




On the southwest side of Morgantown, we come to one end of one of America's shortest Interstate routes...I-68. It runs from its western terminus here at I-79, east through Cumberland, Maryland, over Sideling Hill and joins I-70 at Hancock, Maryland. It is promoted as a free alternative to the Pennsylvania Turnpike.




And just a few hundred feet down the road from the last picture is the actual split. I-68 begins at this exit, while I-79 continues south with the next major towns being Fairmont and Clarksburg.

More photos to come as I take them.

My Interstate Highway Travels

In my perusing of various web sites put up by other highway aficionados, I have seen maps of Interstate Highways they have traveled. There is a very good version out there where you can build a data file that will generate a map for you, but for me, it seemed like too much work for what I would get. Still, I thought it would be nice to get a visual of the Interstates that I have traversed in my travels.

I found a map on the web that is a bit different than what you usually see. This one is not to scale, nor is it geographically precise, but it sets out to show the highways as either vertical, horizontal, or diagonal lines. This seemed to fit the bill.

So, I took this map, used Photoshop to draw semi-transparent overlays to denote my travels, and the result is below. Not too bad, if not as precise as other efforts I have seen. It shows that I need to do some more road trips to cover some territory I have never driven. My coverage is shown in red.


Click the map for an enlarged view

A Few More Denver Road Shots

An odd mile marker, but at least it has the correct shields

A few posts down, I showed a mile marker on Interstate Highway 76 that incorrectly bears a U.S. 76 shield. I see my buddy, R-Dub thought the mistake was worthy of his road geek blog as well, so I am glad he was able to get a picture of it too. You never know how long such goof ups will stand before they eventually get corrected. A few miles before the one in the previous post, there is this odd one. The shields are correct, but this one bears what seems to be tenths of a mile numerals, but rather than matching the white type on green, the tenths are black on white.


An unusual sign for a sweeping loop exit

This 30 mph exit sign caught my eye, but even more unusual is the exit number. It is more clearly caught in the closer photo below. The first exit on a highway is usually Exit 1, but here we have Exit 0. Almost sounds like a good title for a sci-fi story . . . Terror Off Exit Zero!


Seldom seen Exit 0

Lots of freeways now have the high-mast lighting with an array of beams to cover large areas of the highway or interchange. These are so high that the typical man in a cherry picker can't change the bulbs. How do they do it? They bring the bulbs down to the man.

This bulb array was lowered, but no crew was in sight. Still, it afforded the rare opportunity to capture the array at near ground level. In the background are the same arrangement with the beam array fully elevated to the top of the mast.


Low Beams!

Finally, here it the answer to how the tolling authorities differentiate between free carpool traffic and tolled single-occupancy vehicles when a HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) Lane is also made into a HOT (High Occupancy - Toll) Lane. These are also commonly known as "Lexus Lanes", as they give a class distinction in that those who can afford to avoid traffic tie ups can use them, while the rest of us stay stuck in traffic.

On I-25 on the north side of Denver, single occupant cars may now make use of the old HOV lanes by paying a toll. There are no toll booths, but require a transponder to decrement the toll amount from the driver's account. I have wondered if someone with a transponder who happens to have an extra occupant ends up paying a toll anyway. Apparently the problem is solved by signs directing HOT traffic to a transponder-reading lane under the structure in the photo below, while free HOV traffic goes through on a lane that doesn't read the transponder. Skeptic that I am, I am not sure I would trust it not to charge me anyway!


HOV/HOT Tolling Gantry

So, what better way to finish off the month of August than with yet another road geeky post! Now, it's on to September!