Lincoln Highway Talk: "Good Neighbors: Benedictine Monks Along the Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania,"
at the Lincoln Highway Experience, Saturday, February 12, 1 – 3 p.m.
Latrobe, Penna—The Lincoln Highway Experience will host the first of four “Lincoln Highway Talks” on Saturday, February 12 at 1 p.m.
Saint Vincent College's Fr. Brian Boosel will be presenting his talk, "Good Neighbors: Benedictine Monks Along the Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania," about the interwoven history of the Lincoln Highway, Saint Vincent Archabbey, and Saint Vincent College.
Fr. Boosel’s talk will not only explore the history of the monastic community and college at Saint Vincent, but it will also talk about how Saint Vincent itself tried to attract tourists along the Lincoln Highway, the nation’s first coast-to-coast highway.
“As a native of the Latrobe area, 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 Lauren Koker, Executive Director of the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor. “There was even a boathouse on the lake.”
The price of admission is $5 admission per person. No reservation required. Coffee & cookies will be provided for a small donation.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and Saint Vincent Archabbey’s requirements for Fr. Boosel and their other monastic community members, the museum is requiring all attendees to wear masks to this talk and practice social distancing as much as possible.
Other topics and dates schedule for future talks will include:
- May 2022: Tom Davidson of York County, PA will discuss the Golden Triangle Tour of 1921.
- August 2022: Ralph Scalise will talk about the history of the Johnston House (the historic 19th century farmhouse that currently houses part of the Lincoln Highway Experience museum at Kingston Dam) and its property.
- December 2022: Topic TBD
For more information, contact Lauren Koker, Executive Director of the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor at lauren@LHHC.org or 724-879-4241.
About Father Brian Boosel
Father Brian Boosel, OSB, PhD., is an Assistant Professor of History at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. He has a Master of Divinity from Saint Vincent Seminary, a Master of Arts in European History from Slippery Rock University, and earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Early Modern European History at the Catholic University of America. His focus in history is France and England from the Renaissance and reformation periods through the Victorian age. Father Brian is also interested in the local history of Saint Vincent and its neighbors.
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The Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor is a nonprofit organization that identifies, conserves, promotes, and interprets the cultural, historical, natural, recreational, and economic resources along the 200-mile Lincoln Highway in Westmoreland, Somerset, Bedford, Fulton, Franklin and Adams counties in Pennsylvania. For more information, visit www.LHHC.org.
CONTACT: Lauren Koker
Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor
724-879-4241
