Many oddball attractions grew up along the old Lincoln Highway, the great cross-country highway that ran coast-to-coast beginning in 1915, and one of the best-beloved is the Haines Shoe House, which stands above the modern four-lane US-30 freeway, west of the town of Hallam. This landmark of programmatic architecture was built in 1948 by Mahlon “The Shoe Wizard” Haines, who owned a successful shoe company that proudly claimed to make boots “hoof-to-hoof,” from raising the cattle to selling the finished products. The seven-room structure is shaped like a giant cartoon boot, and can be reached by following Hwy-462 (the old Lincoln Highway, which runs just south of current US-30), to Shoe House Road, then winding north for a quarter mile. (The turnoff is easy to miss, so keep an eye out for the Shoe House Mini-Storage, which stands on the corner.) The Shoe House has been bought and sold a number of times over the years. If you’re lucky, the owners will be there to let you tour the interior.
Just east of Hallam on US-30, Jim Mack’s Ice Cream (717/252-2013) at 5745 Lincoln Highway has been attracting fans for its ice cream—and its adjacent mini–golf course and mini-zoo, complete with a pair of rather sad-looking brown bears. Next door: a bowling alley.
