Lillian’s- Cumberland, MD

Lillian’s was a girl’s shop. Source

Spear’s – Cumberland, MD

Spear’s was a Jewelry Store. Here’s a picture before the original signage was covered up.

Ormond- Cumberland, MD
I’m afraid I’m not sure what Ormond was.

Thom McAn – Cumberland, MD

Thom McAn was a shoe store. I just bought a pair of spectators made by them in the 1950s, back when they still made a high quality shoe. Their quality dropped off considerably in the ’70s and now they’re the bottom of the barrel K-Mart brand.

Peskin’s – Cumberland, MD

Peskin’s was a large clothing store. It closed its doors in 1992.

Coyle Bros. – Cumberland, MD

Coyle Brothers was a supermarket, located at Virginia and 3rd

Hotel Titlow – Uniontown, PA

George Titlow opened the Hotel Titlow in 1905. At the time, the hotel cost $200,000 to build.
As business prospered a fourth floor was added and the hotel extended back to Peter Street. The Titlow Hotel earned a statewide reputation as headquarters for wealthy politicians and coal barons.
During prohibition, Titlow the hotel, saying, “You can’t run a hotel without spirits.”
Source: Titlow Tavern

Arrow at a Jewelry Store – Uniontown, PA

I can’t say I’ve ever seen one like this. I love it for it’s simplicity. It’s the Terrazzo equivalent of the neon “EAT” arrow. Stop looking at your feet and come on in and take a look around. It’s the door terrazzo inlay that’s always relevant, no matter the current tenant of the building. This is located at the corner of Rt. 40 and Morgantown St., right in the heart of downtown. The building is occupied by Hostetler’s Jewelers, which has been in the building since 1969. I’m not sure what was there before that, but the building itself dates back to before the civil war.

I got the “Vulcan Mind Meld” — Primanti Bros. Style (the Anti Lent special) Pastrami, corned beef, slices of pickles, Swiss, provolone, slaw, skinny fries, hots,
tomatoes, and Thousand Island dressing on toasted rye, and some of the root beer they brew on site. How could you pass up a sandwich like that?

And it turned out to be a MONSTER!

Really delicious, with the appropriate amount of pickles (a lot), a really hot kick from the peppers and a super texture from the skinny fries. It was a pastrami sandwich that started hanging out with the wrong crowd and got an attitude.

Pleasureland RV Camping Center Richmond Highway

Anyone need a CB radio? A VCR? Apparently not. This Zenith sales and repair shop is now closed. Looks like it’s in a former gas station.

Fairview motel

Alexandria Motel

Broken Arrow

St. Clair ghost. Folded Plate

Virgina Lodge

Know what’s great kids? Drinking and driving! Especially when you’re talking large trucks! One stop shopping doesn’t get any easier.

Here are some shots, mostly Rt. 1 in VA, with some additional ones in Alexandria and the District that I took yesterday.

Colonial architecture

The Real Deal: Woodlawn- built between 1800 and 1805

The Rt. 1 Roadside Versions
Currently a Wachovia Bank. Built 1941.

Hybla Valley Vet. Built 1948.

Suburban Drive In Cleaners. Colonial meets mid century modernist architecture. 1950s?

Barn inspired
El Amanecer. Gambrel Roofed little place. Looks like it may have been an ice cream stand or something of the like in a former life.

El Pollo Primero. Straight up barn style right down to the weathervane.

Islas Restaurant and bar. Not sure what to really classify this one as, other than roadside mish-mash.

Mansard

The Peking Duck: Detached chimney, mansard roof and front porch give this place a Southern vibe in my eyes. I want it to be a BBQ place or some kind of southern family restaurant- the kind with sweet tea in enormous glasses.

Looks like the Peking Duck has been in the building since 1982.

Pseudo-ranch.

Ranch House Restaurant. Looks pretty vacant. Windows follow the traditional diner layout.

Tudor

Midcentury Modern

Folded plate and concrete I beams

Rhode Island Reds Cafe

Hamlin Liquor Store

Tivoli Theater

Bacon Funeral home. Not a fantastic sign. Just a fantastic name.

Nice painting on this one. Take a look- the two sides aren’t identical. Same image, but all the elements are shifted around a tiny bit. These are painted directly on, not just one image done and reproduced.

This 1950s Kullman dinette recently reopened as the Island Hut. They’ve done a lot of work on it- not top notch, but it looks a lot less trashed than it did. The color bands between the stainless are painted 2x4s, the bottom stainless has been replaced with some kind of plastic, as has the curved section over the door. The top stainless trim like some kind of hardware store jerry-rig. But I have to say I much prefer it to just stucco or stoning over the whole place like they could.

http://popeleighey1940.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope-Leighey_House

We visited this diminutive 1200 square foot Usonian today. The most striking thing to me about the house is its 6’8″ ceilings and pullman corridor width halls. This manipulation of space made the 11-1/2 foot ceiling-ed living room seem enormous.

There’s a lot of Usonian and Wright influence in a house in Rockville, which I’m still trying to find out more about.

We ran across some interesting stucco moderne architecture today. It has interesting stacking volumes.

This first one , a 2628 sq ft, 2 bedroom house on Flower Avenue was built in 1935.

The second, just around the corner, was built in 1938.