Monday, April 27, 2009

My blog about the Greyhound Post House in Breezewood this past week created quite a bit of interest so I went looking for the history of these Post House Restaurants. They originally began them as lunch counters and table service and then with cafeteria lines. Self-service speeded up eating, which was essential to keeping buses running on schedule.

Post Houses were decorated in knotty-pine paneling. Those located in small towns, usually at important junction points in the Greyhound network, were configured both inside and out to resemble stagecoach stops, with buildings tending to follow a standard format: 1-1/2 stories, gable roof with front-facing dormers, windows with shutters and front porches. the restaurant's city locations bore a kind of early American styling that owned much to Colonial Williamsburg's 1930s restoration. In 1955, Greyhound operated 147 Post Houses.

In our Gift Shop (or from our Gift Shop page of our website (http://www.busmuseum.org/GiftShop.html) you can purchase a book that features many of them: GREYHOUND in POSTCARDS - Buses, Depots and Post Houses, Collection of John Dockendorf, Dylan Frautschi, Editor. 78 pages. Soft Cover. $20.00 + $3.50 shipping/handling.

Checkout the rest of the items we have online in our gift shop while you are there.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

If you have ever traveled the PA Turnpike towards Pittsburgh, you should be familiar with the Breezewood exit. I was recently reading about the Greyhound Post House that was there for many years.

In 1964 nearly 100 Greyhound trips a day pulled off the turnpike at Breezewood. By 1968, after schedule consolidation, 14 of the 16 westbound trips from NY City--most bound for Pittsburgh and points west--stopped at Breezewood, as did all seven daily westbounds from Baltimore and Washington (plus two extras on weekends). Eastbound, 14 of 15 Pittsburgh-NY City trips and all seven Pittsburgh-Baltimore/Washington runs (one additional on Sundays) pulled into Breezewood. For some trips, Breezewood was the last stop before NY City (a 4-1/2 hour run) and in the opposite direction it was the first scheduled stop after departing Manhattan. In addition there were three Pittsburgh local trips in each direction travelling via Johnstown of which one pair originated and terminated at Breezewood. Altogether 48 daily trips departed from this small PA community. By 1992, the count was down to 15 a day, all but three enroute to or from Baltimore and Washington.

The big attraction at Breezewood was, of course, the Greyhound Post House, the company-owned chain of cafeteries where passengers could grab a snack or eat a hearty meal, all chosen from a Greyhoud menu and consumed on Post House crockery. The Greyhound Post House opened in 1964 replacing three other meal stop locations along the Turnpike, at Brandywine, Midway (Bedford) and Butler. The end came at 11 pm on Sunday June 27, 2004, when the doors closed and were actually locked--possibly for the first time in 41 years. Aramark, a national restaurant operator, took a lease on the Post House in December 1998 and it was expiring on June 30. The property owners wanted to sell the land and buildings and Aramark wasn't interested. Within days of its closing, movable metal gates barricaded the driveway into the darkened Post House and signs bore a start and unprecedented message: "Keep Out."