Saint Vincent Drive serves as the main entrance to the same-named college and archabbey from modern Route 30, also known as the Lincoln Highway.
The interwoven histories of the highway and Saint Vincent’s neighboring educational and monastic communities will be explored in a Feb. 12 program at the Lincoln Highway Experience museum.
Father Brian Boosel, an assistant professor of history at the college, will present “Good Neighbors: Benedictine Monks Along the Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania” at 1 p.m. — the first in a series of talks at the museum, on Route 30 near Route 217 in Unity.
Through the years, many establishments have served tourists and other travelers along the highway, the nation’s first coast-to-coast connection for motorists.
Saint Vincent likewise has been a destination for motorists — most recently before the covid pandemic, when fans came in droves to attend the Pittsburgh Steelers summer training camps at the college.
But Saint Vincent’s appeal to travelers began well before than, notes Lauren Koker, executive director of the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor, which has its headquarters at the museum.
“I was greatly surprised to learn from Father Brian that the Saint Vincent Lake was a man-made lake originally built to attract tourists in the 1920s,” says Koker. “There was even a boathouse on the lake.”
Just as the Lincoln Highway was America’s first nationwide traffic artery, Saint Vincent became the first Benedictine college in the United States when it was founded in 1846 by Boniface Wimmer, a priest who emigrated from Bavaria.
The early Lincoln Highway had a different path in the vicinity of Saint Vincent than that followed by current Route 30.
“The alignment was totally different,” says Koker. “From Youngstown, it went past the Latrobe Country Club and cut across where the runway is at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.”
Because of the ongoing pandemic and Saint Vincent Archabbey’s requirements for its monastic community members, the museum is requiring all attendees to wear masks to Boosel’s talk and to practice social distancing.
Admission costs $5. No reservation is required. Coffee and cookies will be provided for a small suggested donation.
Other talks are planned at the museum this year.
Tom Davidson of York County is expected to discuss the Golden Triangle Tour of 1921 sometime in May.
In August, Ralph Scalise is slated to talk about the history of the Johnston House, the historic 19th century farmhouse that houses part of the Lincoln Highway Experience museum.
For more information, contact Koker at lauren@LHHC.org or 724-879-4241.
