Driving into Lexington from the north on Rt 42 there is a smooth curve in the road where Rt 97 and Orchard Park Road come in from the south and the east, but that was not always the case.
In the 1920s, at the place where 42 and Orchard Park meet, there was a fairly sharp curve in the road—sharp enough that the place was known as The Corners.
Before the era when I-71 came into being, the main north and south thoroughfare from Cleveland to Cincinnati was Rt 42, so there was a considerable amount of traffic passing through The Corners for a number of decades. Certainly there was enough traffic to make a thriving, vital establishment of the Linco filling station and restaurant located there.
In the 30s the little restaurant packed in the crowds on weekends when small bands played, and for a few years The Corners was a significant truck stop when an old retired interurban streetcar was parked nearby, to be used as a bunkhouse for crosscountry truckers.
These photos of The Corners come from Robert Carter, whose book, Tales of the Old-Timers: The History of Lexington, is a tremendous source of stories from Lexington’s past.
