12/4: Indiana chapter holiday gathering in Kimmell

The public is invited to the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association’s Holiday Gathering and House Tour at the Kimmell House Bed & Breakfast on the historic Lincoln Highway!

Kimmell House Inn Bed & Breakfast
1397 N US Highway 33
Kimmell, IN 46760

Saturday, December 4, 2010 at 2 p.m. EST
(pre-register by Wednesday, December 1)
Cost: $16 (includes entrée, beverage, tax, and gratuity)
Bring a friend!

This unique event includes food and drink; a tour of the historic rural property, which is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places; and auctioning of holiday gift baskets. Lincoln Highway merchandise will be for sale, and attendees are invited to share news from along the Lincoln Highway. An update on the Indiana Lincoln Highway byway application with INDOT will be given. Come join the holiday festivities in grand style and get acquainted with members of this non-profit organization that are working to preserve and promote the Lincoln Highway and bring economic development to northern Indiana! Casual attire. Antiques autos are welcome!

Please pre-register by December 1 by mailing a check payable to INLHA and mail to:

Indiana Lincoln Highway Association
402 W. Washington Street
South Bend, IN 46601

For more information, call (574) 210-6278 or go to www.indianalincolnhighway.org.

The association is delighted to hold this year’s holiday event at the Kimmell House Inn in Kimmell, Indiana. This unique historic property welcomes overnight and casual dining opportunities to travelers, and we are so fortunate to have it on the corridor.

This bed and breakfast, owned by Dean and Deb Stoops, is one of several bed and breakfasts along the Lincoln Highway corridor in Indiana. It is certainly a beautiful and unique setting for tourists and locals alike. The owners will provide a personal tour of the property to all of those attending.

Places like this lure tourists off the interstates to experience the wide variety of local people, food, and culture across northern Indiana. We hope the public will support the inn and our association’s mission.  The Indiana Lincoln Highway Association works to increase the public’s knowledge about America’s early auto highways and Indiana’s role in auto and travel history. These efforts bring tourism and economic development to northern Indiana.

So, come spend a bit of time in Kimmell, Indiana!

– Jan Shupert-Arick, President, Indiana Lincoln Highway Association

Introduction to Kimmell


Post card courtesy of Russell Rein

Kimmell is located Noble County, Indiana. The first county seat was in Kimmell, which was known as Sparta at the time. The town is located on the old Fort Wayne-to-Goshen Trail, which later became part of American’s first coast-to-coast auto highway, the Lincoln Highway, in 1913, and is now US 33.

Today, Gaerte Grain is the hub of rural Kimmell, with huge silos standing as monuments to this tiny town’s rural past and present. Once one of the largest distribution points in the nation for onions, old warehouses still line the tracks of the B & O railroad. Noble County’s soil made both onion and mint crops some of the country’s best. Popcorn was also stored and shipped from Kimmell warehouses, but today’s commodities are corn and soybeans.

Noble County is also home to the last remaining brick paver section of the Lincoln Highway in Indiana, just south of Ligonier.

Just to the south of Kimmell is the Kimmell House Inn, a stately solid brick Italianate mansion built in 1876. For more information and for driving directions, visit kimmellhouseinn.com.

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