Penn Lincoln Hotel site

125 business leaders of Wilkinsburg met at Dudley’s Tea Room in the Shields Building on September 24, 1925, and unanimously agreed to build a $650,000 hotel for travelers along the Lincoln Highway and the Pennsylvania Railroad. A 21-person committee was appointed to start on plans for the new 150-room hotel, tentatively called the Lincoln-Penn. The Wilkinsburg Hotel Company was formed and architect Benno Janssen of Janssen & Cocken, who was also the architect for the William Penn Hotel, Pittsburgh Athletic Club and the former Kaufmann’s Department Store in downtown Pittsburgh, was hired to design the building.

When the Penn-Lincoln Hotel opened in 1927, the six-story red brick building billed itself as “Pittsburgh’s Most Modern Suburban Hotel.” The outside of the hotel was adorned with 12 iron lamps--designed by famed ornamental blacksmith Samuel Yellen--as well as various cupids, ram’s heads, and rampant lions.

When the hotel was completed, it was over 70,000 square feet and had 150 rooms. It served guests who were utilizing the Wikinsburg Pennsylvania Railroad Station as well as those who were traveling along the Lincoln Highway (Route 30) as it followed Penn Avenue. The Penn-Lincoln sat at the junction of these two very important transportation routes.

Eventually, the Pennsylvania Railroad stopped operating, closing the Wilkinsburg Station. Travelers started opting for Turnpike travel as opposed to taking the Lincoln Highway.This ultimately led to the hotel’s closure.

In 2014 the decision was made to demolish the Penn-Lincoln Hotel.The building had deteriorated so badly that bricks were beginning to fall to the sidewalk below. Additionally, there was no market for hotels, offices, shops, or apartments in Wilkinsburg, further sealing the building’s fate.

-https://www.thirdstopontheright.com/wilkinsburgs-penn-lincoln-hotel/

https://abandonedonline.net/location/penn-lincoln-hotel/

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