The Coffee Pot
Posted by: Lux
N 40° 01.376 W 078° 31.034
17T E 711868 N 4433255
A 1927 Coffee Pot Shaped building.
Waymark Code: WM3N
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 08/16/2005
Published By: Lux
Views: 122
The “super-sized” 1927
Coffee Pot measures 18' in diameter - one of Pennsylvania's premier examples of programmatic architecture along the Lincoln Highway. The shape of the building is what drew weary travelers on Route 30 to the small lunch stand, originally built by David Koontz.
In the 1940s, after the construction of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, there were just enough customers from the bus station to keep things going for awhile. But with declining traffic on the Lincoln Highway, the Coffee Pot went from lunch stand, to Greyhound station, to seedy bar in the 1970s, to a diner which closed in the mid-1980s. It sat abandoned and deteriorating next to a beer distributor for many years. The windows were broken out, torn-up carpeting and broken furniture were visible inside and a big "Lot for Sale" sign begged for someone to buy it.
Years of neglect had taken their toll on the structure to the point that in 2001 the Coffee Pot was named one of the Commonwealth's Most Endangered Historic Properties. Then in 2004, through grants and donations, the Coffee Pot was completely restored and moved to it's new location in front of the Bedford Fairgrounds, where it stands today as that institutions museum.
This building remains one of only five coffee/tea pot shaped structures left in the United States, a significant decrease from the fifteen that once existed.
- The Coffee Pot Bedford, Pennsylvania
- The World's Largest Tea Pot Chester, West Virginia
- Bob's Java Jive Tacoma, Washington
- Waymark not yet listed
- Waymark not yet listed