Original Truckstops of America

At one time they also had a Dixie Truckers Home at Tuscola, IL on I57. It was just west of the Road Ranger.

 

Dixie Truckers Home

Established in 1928 at the intersection of U.S. Route 66 and Route 136 in McLean, Illinois, Dixie Truckers Home is the oldest truck stop in America. Founded by a partnership between J.P. Walters and John Geske, Dixie Truckers Home stood for southern hospitality. Walters wanted truckers to know they had a home away from home.

Dixie Truckers Home on Route 66 | Road Ranger

 

Early 1900's did they need truck stops?

 

Before truckstops there were stagecoach hotels. I've chased down a few in suburban PA but not seriously. Yellow House (about 90 minutes outside of Philly) on the rural Route 662, is a "town" that consists of a traffic light, an intersection and a hotel/restaurant. Dated back over 100 years old. It was midway between the towns (cities) of Reading & Boyertown and Douglasville & Oley.

I figure a horse & carriage could make the 30 something miles in a half a day. Stop for lunch, water & feed the horses and move on.

There are many more I've discovered but Yellow House stands out because:

1.) 100 years later there's STILL not much else there
2.) it's pretty well preserved, food is good too but it ain't cheap.
3.) when our HQ was in Reading, I'd pass it frequently. (Reading is notoriously far from major highways as it was a rail hub in the early 20th century, so most of the Eisenhower Highway system passes nowhere near it.)

 

I believe at least the one in Baltimore was a travel port, not sure if the one in Jessup was as well.

 

If you refer to the one just east of the McHenry Tunnel, that was a travel port I think. But I think they were a independant.

Now the food is not always good depending on the help they had but I enjoyed that truckstop quite a bit, there is a parking spot there I check on via google earth from time to time I considered my spot. The 76 in Frederick off the 54 mile marker exit was my home stop though for everything Maryland in my time until Costco buried it with one of their parasitical stores. They took away what was a small city with everything with a joyous and happy people passing through eating and taking care of what needs to be done day and night. and turned it into a store that preys on people and thier money.

Jessup is a older stop and I personally never really had problems there with the exception of thuggies from downtown eyeballing me at the fuel desk armed as hell waiting to see me cash a comcheck for a thousand dollars or something really stupid.

I cannot absolutely stand them eyeballing me and my business in arms reach. At some point I pretty much discarded Jessup as a place to do business. Times have changed quite a bit. Someone some time ago posted a Jessup picture from 1984. One of my tractors is there in the row closest to the street. (A white cabover with the half air dam above the cab...) That was a great picture. And a reminder of happier times.

 

When I was a kid my Dad was a member of Costco's predecessor Price Club. Originally it was kind of exclusive, you had to own a business to get a membership. It was so you could get wholesale prices on things like toilet paper, coffee filters, and other expendables for your office. The benefit was once you were "in" you could extend your membership to family members or certain authorized employees. So it became a place where you could get maybe some cleaning supplies for the house or maybe some bulk underwear.

Anyway back in the early days it was kinda professional, and no frills. I don't know when exactly it started to change and I still find they have good bargains and customer service, but there are a lot more screaming babies and people rushing to get $10 off a flat screen than there used to be.

It's still a great place to go for non-perishables, (paper goods, canned foods, sodas, cleaning supplies, pet food,) but the other stuff isn't as good a deal.

 

The bar next to the Evergreen was "GeeGee's".The bar in Indy was "The Investment Lounge".
There was a bar in the basement of the Motel at the Frederick,Md 76.The bar at the TS in Jessup was permanently closed after a drunken trucker left there, got in his truck and ran over and killed a Md State Trooper sitting in his car in the median on I-95 North in Harford County.

 

The one in Frederick was called the Silver Dollar a whole motel was built around it above it and so on.

I don't know if they were able to stay open, I would venture to guess not once the truckstop went away.

I do recall the motel being somewhat overpriced for the situation in that building. typical yankee gouging.