The Ship Hotel

Book excerpt: The larger-than-life hotel shaped like a ship, once lodged in Pennsylvania's Allegheny Mountains along the coast-to-coast Lincoln Highway, is one of the country's all-time favorite roadside attractions. In this fascinating book--liberally illustrated with vintage postcards, photos, and blueprints--author Brian Butko weaves together interviews and surviving documents to tell the eight-decade story of this beloved icon of the road that was also a monument to grand ideas, whimsy, and good old hucksterism.