Traveling back and forth to my hometown of Bloomsburg, I have passed it a million times without stopping to enjoy this gift of history. Tucked in a small glade just a few yards off Route 11 between Bloomsburg and Berwick lies Bill’s Old Bike Barn. This museum of wondrous stuff is located just behind Bill’s Custom Cycles. Both are unassuming buildings filled with myriads of treasures. You just have to stop, take some time out of your busy schedule and enjoy a walk through history.
Bill Morris is the owner of the Custom Cycles shop and the Old Bike Barn. He has filled the buildings with things not from antiquity but from America’s last century. A time that was slower than now when people visited the shop instead of using eBay.
“People in their 50s and 60s come here and forget all the plastic and get into the old stuff,” he said. “Everybody thinks I’m crazy.”
And he might just be a little bit crazy indeed. He’s got more than 180 assorted bikes and scads of other interesting mementos that each tells its own story on how it got into this collection as well as the story of its place in history. Take, for example, the old camera collection.
“There was this lady that came in, her husband had passed away, she toured the barn, and then came back the next Sunday in this old station wagon filled with cameras,” he recalled. “She just gave them to me. Her husband collected cameras, and when he died, she didn’t want them. So, there they are.”
In Billville, a new part of the museum that resembles a small Victorian-era town, there are sights to behold. One of the most interesting is what Morris calls “The World’s Fair Bar,” it has a tin ceiling and old bar. What is most interesting is the Pabst Blue ribbon sign that has people’s signatures from all over the world. They come all the way to Berwick to see this place, and so many of us drive right by ignoring a treasure that is so close to us.
Morris’s girlfriend, Judy Laubach, helps him run the place. They are busy all the time, even bus trips come to see what the barn holds beneath its eaves. Morris admits, though, that times are changing.
“The people that used to come once a week to get bike parts, now come once or twice a year to see what I’ve got new,” he said. “With $100 for gas for your truck, it’s easier to pick up the phone.”
Morris even salvaged the ornate bar that was once part of the Berwick Hotel. It now has found a home in Billville, saved from becoming part of a landfill. History preserved and made useful once again.
This place is something that you really have to see for yourself, this column does not do it justice. Two things that really caught my eye were the Harley Davidson scooter — yes scooter — and the motorcycle tank.
Morris says that what he thinks is unique or a draw for his place is that so many people who come can relate to some of the things in there, as they were part of their own history. So even if you aren’t into motorcycles, there is something that will draw your eye and remind you of a story from your own past.
Take some time, slow down and visit the Old Bike Barn, you’ll come away in a wonderful mood, and you’ll see something you haven’t seen before. Get more info at billsbikebarn.com or call 570.759.7030.
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