Breezewood

[lepidopteran]

My son's class is heading to Gettysburg and Washington, DC next week. 

Guess where the buses are stopping for gas...

I seem to recall that Greyhound had a station stop in Breezewood at one time.  IIRC, the facility had sort of a "colonial" style of architecture, and was located on Breezewood Rd., just up the hill (and a hillside flight of stairs?) from the McDonald's there now.  But Google Maps shows this structure as demolished, and I thought I read a news story somewhere about when this place closed.

I also read an article once about how people, en route to some protest in DC, were pleasantly surprised at meeting groups of like-minded folks when all their buses stopped there in Breezewood.

[Mr_Northside]

The time I (and some friends) took the Greyhound from PGH to NYC - in 2002, we stopped in Breezewood, but I can't remember exactly where.... I'm pretty sure it's where the "Flying J" is now.

[hbelkins]

I also read an article once about how people, en route to some protest in DC, were pleasantly surprised at meeting groups of like-minded folks when all their buses stopped there in Breezewood.

I think it was that stupid rally Jon Stewart and Stephen Pretentious Pronunciation Of His Last Name held a few years ago.

[lepidopteran]

It appears that the place in Breezewood where the Greyhound -- and pretty much every other bus, including charters -- stopped, was called the "Post House Cafeteria", and was in fact located where the Flying J is now.  According to article linked below, the Post House opened for Greyhound in 1964, and closed in 2004.  The article attributes its closure to "a lag in tourism after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "It just hasn't been profitable"

http://www.post-gazette.com/frontpage/2004/06/27/Breezewood-s-Post-House-is-closing-its-doors/stories/200406270150

Breezewood, with a faded sign proclaiming it the "Town of Motels" and the "Traveler's Oasis," boomed after the Pennsylvania Turnpike opened in 1940 with one gas station and the first traveler's stop, the Gateway Motel and Restaurant.

The profusion of businesses competing to make their signs most prominent has overwhelmed the small Post House Cafeteria sign, with an arrow pointing up the hill.

From the outside, the red-brick, one-story Post House contrasts with the new, brightly lighted restaurants on the highway just below. It feels dated on the inside too.

Computer-generated, paper signs cover the doors and windows, announcing the specials for the day and the prices.

The dining room is divided into sections by large, stained-glass windows depicting scenes from the early days of Pennsylvania: a woman wearing a bonnet stoking a fire; a blacksmith in suspenders working a piece of metal.

Those walls separate rows and rows of wooden tables, many with slightly mismatched chairs and black plastic ashtrays. Smoking is permitted just about everywhere in the building, except a small area near the front door.

In an effort to entertain the children who pass through the doors, there's a room of arcade games, including the classic Ms. Pac-Man.

In an age of wireless communication, where it's sometimes difficult to find a single pay phone, the Post House offers a bank of them against the back wall.

I'm still not sure what the restaurant was that was up the hill from the McDonald's on Breezewood Rd.; a Howard Johnson's, perhaps?  Google Maps shows a rather clear floor-plan that resembles a family restaurant, albeit now-demolished.

[Alps]

I also read an article once about how people, en route to some protest in DC, were pleasantly surprised at meeting groups of like-minded folks when all their buses stopped there in Breezewood.

I think it was that stupid rally Jon Stewart and Stephen Pretentious Pronunciation Of His Last Name held a few years ago.

You mean the bipartisan Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear? I guess you dislike Sanity.

[briantroutman]

I seem to recall that Greyhound had a station stop in Breezewood at one time.  IIRC, the facility had sort of a "colonial" style of architecture, and was located on Breezewood Rd., just up the hill (and a hillside flight of stairs?) from the McDonald's there now.

The Breezewood Post House is behind the Flying J and still standing today (I saw it in Breezewood a few weeks ago). It's on Post House Road, logically enough. The building is unremarkable, not colonial or really distinctive in any way: just a fairly generic looking '60s box of a building with long canopies extending out of the left and right sides where busses would pull up and discharge their passengers. You can see it on Google's current satellite image–grass is growing between the cracks in the pavement, but the canopy wings and diagonal bus parking spaces are very easy to see: https://goo.gl/maps/LXfhrYsc9b12



Sometime after the '60s postcard picture above, the Post House sign on top of the roof was removed and a towering yellow sign reading "Post House Cafeteria"  was added behind the building–visible from US 30. Even though it's been closed for more than a decade, the sign is still there, and you can barely see it on Street View (you can make out the word CAFETERIA): https://goo.gl/maps/db6xWQbFjqy There's another Post House sign mounted at ground level, ironically still proclaiming: "Always Open" . I didn't take any photos while I was there, but someone sketched a drawing that's fairly accurate:

I'm still not sure what the restaurant was that was up the hill from the McDonald's on Breezewood Rd.; a Howard Johnson's, perhaps?

I'm not sure about the demolished building on South Breezewood Road was, but it wasn't a Howard Johnson's.

There was a Howard Johnson's Restaurant in Breezewood on US 30, and the building is still there–occasionally vacant, occasionally occupied–most recently doing business as Your Game Bar and Grille as of a couple of years ago (https://goo.gl/maps/tDhpsECDEZS2).

There had also been a Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge behind the restaurant, part of which (including the motor lodge office) was demolished to build the Holiday Inn Express around 2000. Sometime after that, more of the motor lodge was demolished to create parking space for the HIE, leaving only one motor lodge building with about 15 rooms standing today. It's apparently owned by the Gateway Travel Plaza, and the HoJo remnants were just relabeled as the Gateway Travel Lodge and rooms were rented from a counter in the truck stop. The Gateway Travel Plaza website used to list the HIE and Gateway Travel Lodge as separate options under Lodging, but the Travel Lodge was dropped from the website between 2013 and 2014. The last building is still there as of a few weeks ago and appeared to show signs of life, but perhaps the Gateway owners are using the rooms as cheap housing for employees (?).

The guy who maintains "America's Landmark"  Howard Johnson history website has a detailed write-up on the Breezewood complex: http://www.highwayhost.org/Pennsylvania/Breezewood/breezewood1.html

[Avalanchez71]

Should have they been fixed previously?  Sure.  But that and a dollar will get you a dollar.

The one that needs fixing above all of them is the Breezewood. 

Why?

As I suggested above, crashes on I-70 westbound (compass nearly north) approaching the signalized intersection at U.S. 30.  That is (or should be) unacceptable.

Citation please.

[Alps]

Should have they been fixed previously?  Sure.  But that and a dollar will get you a dollar.

The one that needs fixing above all of them is the Breezewood. 

Why?

As I suggested above, crashes on I-70 westbound (compass nearly north) approaching the signalized intersection at U.S. 30.  That is (or should be) unacceptable.

Citation please.

First cite where crashes are acceptable.

[Avalanchez71]

Why not just use US 30 and shunpike anyway? 

[PHLBOS]

You mean the bipartisan Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear?

and/or Fear?   

This is one case where a typo can send a contradictory message.

[cpzilliacus]

Why not just use US 30 and shunpike anyway? 

Plenty of steep grades and sharp curves on U.S. 30 between Breezewood and Chambersburg for starters - and most of it is one lane each way.

[froggie]

^ Nevermind that one still has to get to US 30...of which the most direct route is to stay on I-70 West right through the high-crash zone.

Of course, folks could try Exit 149 and take South Breezewood Rd up to US 30, but then they'd be sitting at THAT stoplight forever...

[Alps]

You mean the bipartisan Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear?

and/or Fear?   

This is one case where a typo can send a contradictory message.

There was no typo.

[Bitmapped]

Why not just use US 30 and shunpike anyway? 

It depends where you are going. For people heading to Bedford and the US 220 corridor, I'd say many or maybe even most do just take US 30 which is 4-5 lanes between there and has better access to I-99. West of Bedford and east of Breezewood, US 30 is not particularly good as a through route.

[cpzilliacus]

It depends where you are going. For people heading to Bedford and the US 220 corridor, I'd say many or maybe even most do just take US 30 which is 4-5 lanes between there and has better access to I-99. West of Bedford and east of Breezewood, US 30 is not particularly good as a through route.

Once past the miserable signal at I-70 and U.S. 30, U.S. 30 west of Breezewood is indeed a pretty good road, and traffic there seems rather heavy (there's the issue of why PennDOT spent money to turn that part of U.S. 30 into a near-freeway parallel to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but the whole reason of why Pennsylvania converts roads that do not need to be freeways into freeways or near-freeways (excluding ADHS corridors) is broader than U.S. 30).

[Mr_Northside]

there's the issue of why PennDOT spent money to turn that part of U.S. 30 into a near-freeway parallel to the Pennsylvania Turnpike

I could be wrong, cause I don't have the timelines in front of me, but I think the planning and funding was done while Bud Shuster was still in power (even if he was out/deceased by the time all the construction was done)

[Beltway]

there's the issue of why PennDOT spent money to turn that part of U.S. 30 into a near-freeway parallel to the Pennsylvania Turnpike

I could be wrong, cause I don't have the timelines in front of me, but I think the planning and funding was done while Bud Shuster was still in power (even if he was out/deceased by the time all the construction was done)

I wouldn't call it a "near freeway" as most the length is nonlimited-access, but it is a good 4-lane highway and I use it when connecting between I-70 and I-99.  It certainly has the traffic warrants for 4 lanes.  That long-phase signal at I-70 and westerly US-30 is no worse that taking US-30 to the Breezewood turnpike entrance.  And as pointed out US-30 makes a direct connection to I-99.

[bzakharin]

I seem to recall that Greyhound had a station stop in Breezewood at one time.  IIRC, the facility had sort of a "colonial" style of architecture, and was located on Breezewood Rd., just up the hill (and a hillside flight of stairs?) from the McDonald's there now.

The Breezewood Post House is behind the Flying J and still standing today (I saw it in Breezewood a few weeks ago). It's on Post House Road, logically enough. The building is unremarkable, not colonial or really distinctive in any way: just a fairly generic looking '60s box of a building with long canopies extending out of the left and right sides where busses would pull up and discharge their passengers. You can see it on Google's current satellite image–grass is growing between the cracks in the pavement, but the canopy wings and diagonal bus parking spaces are very easy to see: https://goo.gl/maps/LXfhrYsc9b12



Sometime after the '60s postcard picture above, the Post House sign on top of the roof was removed and a towering yellow sign reading "Post House Cafeteria"  was added behind the building–visible from US 30. Even though it's been closed for more than a decade, the sign is still there, and you can barely see it on Street View (you can make out the word CAFETERIA): https://goo.gl/maps/db6xWQbFjqy There's another Post House sign mounted at ground level, ironically still proclaiming: "Always Open" . I didn't take any photos while I was there, but someone sketched a drawing that's fairly accurate:

I'm still not sure what the restaurant was that was up the hill from the McDonald's on Breezewood Rd.; a Howard Johnson's, perhaps?

I'm not sure about the demolished building on South Breezewood Road was, but it wasn't a Howard Johnson's.

There was a Howard Johnson's Restaurant in Breezewood on US 30, and the building is still there–occasionally vacant, occasionally occupied–most recently doing business as Your Game Bar and Grille as of a couple of years ago (https://goo.gl/maps/tDhpsECDEZS2).

There had also been a Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge behind the restaurant, part of which (including the motor lodge office) was demolished to build the Holiday Inn Express around 2000. Sometime after that, more of the motor lodge was demolished to create parking space for the HIE, leaving only one motor lodge building with about 15 rooms standing today. It's apparently owned by the Gateway Travel Plaza, and the HoJo remnants were just relabeled as the Gateway Travel Lodge and rooms were rented from a counter in the truck stop. The Gateway Travel Plaza website used to list the HIE and Gateway Travel Lodge as separate options under Lodging, but the Travel Lodge was dropped from the website between 2013 and 2014. The last building is still there as of a few weeks ago and appeared to show signs of life, but perhaps the Gateway owners are using the rooms as cheap housing for employees (?).

The guy who maintains "America's Landmark"  Howard Johnson history website has a detailed write-up on the Breezewood complex: http://www.highwayhost.org/Pennsylvania/Breezewood/breezewood1.html

So where do Greyhound buses stop there today? Or are there no longer routes through there?

[briantroutman]

So where do Greyhound buses stop there today? Or are there no longer routes through there?

Greyhound surely still runs busses through Breezewood in some fashion. Though not labeled, you can easily see the Breezewood juction on Greyhound's route map where routes 202 (Pittsburgh-Harrisburg) and 200 (Pittsburgh-Baltimore) diverge.

I notice that Greyhound's website doesn't allow Breezewood as an origin or destination–nor does the bus line provide service to any of the other small communities between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh (Carlisle, Bedford, Somerset, etc.). I've never been in a Post House (or on a Greyhound bus, for that matter), but I'm inclined to believe that they served a dual purpose as dining facilities and also as bus stations. (in other words, I assume that if you broke down in Breezewood, you could walk into the Post House and buy a bus ticket home.) If that's the case, then Breezewood was taken off Greyhound's map with the 2004 closure of its Post House.

[sbeaver44]

Greyhound puts RS Sliding Rock on some Pittsburgh-Harrisburg schedules and judging from the name and time, I think they mean Sideling Hill Service Plaza.

Nexus 6P

[kphoger]

Neither Breezewood nor Sideling Hill is listed on the current Greyhound timetable (dated 06/21/2017, available as a 292-page .pdf here).

The "RS Sideling Hill" that apparently used to appear on the 1683 (NYC—LA) schedule did indeed refer to the Sideling Hill Service Plaza–but only as a rest stop (that's what "RS" stands for), not as station stop.  You couldn't actually buy a ticket to or from there, in the same way you cannot buy a ticket to or from the Delaware House Travel Plaza in the median of I-95 today, even though it's listed on the 124 (NYC—Fayetteville) schedule.

It appears Greyhound hasn't stopped in Breezewood since June 2004, when the Breezewood Post House closed its doors.

[Marf]

I know I will be roasted for this, but why is it so important? It is just a freeway not up to standards, basically. We have something like it up here too. How is it relevant or very interesting?

[hotdogPi]

I-70 is on a surface road in Breezewood. It's not just substandard; it's an Interstate on a normal road.

[nwi_navigator_1181]

In Breezewood, there exists an anomaly in the interstate system, I-70 in this case. Because of an impasse between the private operators of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the builders of I-70, there's a "gap"  in the interstate instead of a direct ramp. To continue on I-70 toward Baltimore after it breaks from the Turnpike, you have to follow a ramp to a surface street (US 30) then make a left turn at a traffic light (and the reverse applies for the opposite direction). It will most likely stay that way because businesses along this gap have thrived from it.

There are other gaps in the country, but this is among the most notable (if not the most).

[Marf]

How is https://imgur.com/a/UaD7Q (Breezewood) not alike https://imgur.com/a/4z01x (I-495 ME) and https://imgur.com/a/t93Wr(I-180)?