Skip to main content

Where was this old sign photo taken?


A reader sent me the photograph above trying to locate where in Pennsylvania it would have been taken.  The photo was on the William Penn Highway (today's US 22), along the Allegheny Mountains at an elevation of 2430 feet.  The question is, what is the name of the summit, it is "(blank)N RIDGE SUMMIT".

I know of two major summits along the Alleghenies - Laurel Hill and Chestnut Ridge.  A look at the DeLorme Pennsylvania Atlas & Gazetteer doesn't show any ridges in the Alleghenies ending in 'N'.  So what ridge is it, and where along the William Penn Highway would this have been shot at.

Also, is there a modern version of this same highway sign standing today?

Comments

Brian said…
Wikipedia lists a Penn Ridge (no article) with a ZIP code of 15235 (a Pittsburgh ZIP) in Allegheny County, but I wouldn't have any idea if that's anywhere close to where the photo was taken.
Adam said…
Brian,

Penn Ridge would not be at an elevation of 2430' if it was with a Pittsburgh zip code. I think the highest point in Allegheny County is just over 1400' near where I grew up.

Penn Ridge and 15235 is in the Penn Hills area of Allegheny County.
Froggie said…
Cresson Ridge (naturally in Cresson Township), just east of the US 22 freeway, and just west of the Cambria/Blair County line. There is a modern version there, lacking the keystone shape and the "William Penn Highway", of course. Don't have a photo of it, but that's the one.
Larry G said…
well, I had no luck but another interesting thing about this locale is that it is near a place called Portage and Hollidaysburg which were the connect points for the Rail Portage for the Pennsylvania Canal that was supposed to connect eastern and western PA and compete with the Erie Canal in NY.

The Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site is accessed from U.S. 22 by the Admiral Peary Hwy out of Cresson.
NateOMatic said…
You can see it on Street View; here's a link showing the modern sign and even the same high-tension line tower in the background. (Take one step to the west to actually read the sign!)

Link: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Pittsburgh,+Allegheny,+Pennsylvania&ll=40.456091,-78.559885&spn=0,359.89048&z=14&layer=c&cbll=40.456101,-78.559779&panoid=lSor0LYW0NuzPBrrB7wcpA&cbp=12,322.7,,0,-3.53
Doug said…
Cresson Ridge sounds right in this case, considering that there is a ridge to climb to get to Cresson from the Altoona area.
Unknown said…
Looks like the Wm Penn Highway used to take that older route over the ridge before the freeway was put in, then. But forget that... what's with calling William Penn Highway the "Admiral Peary Highway?!?"
mike said…
Can someone around Charlotte help me out? Got an old postcard of a "Mary Lynn Motel" on Hwy US 601 and US 74 in Monroe, NC. It also showed a diner in the pic. Could someone see if the motel and diner are still there on your next drive through Monroe?

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida.  One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region.  For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate.  Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century.  Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area.  The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...