Skip to main content

The National Road - Pennsylvania - Mason-Dixon Line and Petersburg Toll House

Image
By
The National Road travels through and plays a large part in Southwestern Pennsylvania History.  Entering the state on Route 40 from Maryland at the State Line, a remnant of Pennsylvania's automobile past can be seen.  It is an old state line marker made of concrete and was most likely at the time over 50 years old. When I took these photos in 2000 or 2001 the marker was mainly intact.  Today, the marker it appears that the marker is no longer there.  There is also a stone marker for the Mason-Dixon Line where the National Road crosses the state line.  I had never noticed it, but Pete Zapadka has. 
These concrete markers at state lines were placed throughout Pennsylvania 50-70 years.  Many still stand in various conditions.

Just a bit further west at the summit of Winding Ridge is an example of the old tourist motor lodge.  The Dixie Motel is an old-fashioned six room motor lodge and gas station.  The motel sits just north of the Mason-Dixon Line and another Mason-Dixon marker from a 1902 re-survey of the line can be found.  The Dixie Motel still offer rooms at $19/night and advertises that you can sleep or get gas on the Mason-Dixon Line.

The first town in Pennsylvania, Addison, sits a few miles west of the Dixie Motel.  Here, along an old alignment of US 40, sits an original piece of the early National Road.  The Petersburg Toll House, built in 1835, still stands today.  The toll house which collected tolls until 1906 is owned and preserved by the Great Crossings Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.  The state of Pennsylvania donated the building to the chapter in 1949. 

The Petersburg Toll House in Addison, PA.
The Petersburg Toll House was one of six Pennsylvania Toll Houses along the National Road.  Of the six, Petersburg and the Searights Toll House (to the west of Uniontown) are the only two toll houses still standing.  A third, the LaValle Toll House, is located in Maryland. The tollkeeper lived at the toll house rent free and was paid an annual salary.

The toll rates for the old National Road.
The Petersburg Toll House is constructed of native stone.  It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.  The Toll House is open to visitors by appointment only.

Site Navigation:
Sources & Links:
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I-40 rockslide uncovers old debates on highway

By
The Asheville Citizen-Times continues to do a great job covering all the angles of the Interstate 40 Haywood County rock slide. An article in Sunday's edition provides a strong historical perspective on how the Pigeon River routing of Interstate 40 came about. And perhaps most strikingly, in an article that ran just prior to the highway's opening in the fall of 1968, how engineers from both Tennessee and North Carolina warned "...that slides would probably be a major problem along the route for many years." On February 12, 1969, not long after the Interstate opened, the first rock slide that would close I-40 occurred. Like many other Interstates within North Carolina, Interstate 40 through the mountains has a history prior to formation of the Interstate Highway System and was also a heated political battle between local communities. The discussion for a road that would eventually become Interstate 40 dates back to the 1940's as the idea for interregional high
2 comments
Read more

Mines Road

By
Mines Road is an approximately twenty-eight-mile highway located in the rural parts of the Diablo Range east of the San Francisco Bay Area.  Mines Road begins in San Antonio Valley in Santa Clara County and terminates at Tesla Road near Livermore of Alameda County.  The highway essentially is a modern overlay of the 1840s Mexican haul trail up Arroyo Mocho known as La Vereda del Monte.  The modern corridor of Mines Road took shape in the early twentieth century following development of San Antonio Valley amid a magnesite mining boom.  Part 1; the history of Mines Road Modern Mines Road partially overlays the historic corridor used by La Vereda del Monte (Mountain Trail).  La Vereda del Monte was part of a remote overland route through the Diablo Range primarily used to drive cattle from Alta California to Sonora.  The trail was most heavily used during the latter days of Alta California during the 1840s. La Vereda del Monte originated at Point of Timber between modern day Byron and Bre
Post a Comment
Read more

Former California State Route 41 past Bates Station

By
When California State Route 41 was commissioned during August 1934 it was aligned along the then existing Fresno-Yosemite Road north of the San Joaquin River.  Within the Sierra Nevada foothills of Madera County, the original highway alignment ran past Bates Station via what is now Madera County Road 209, part of eastern Road 406 and Road 207.   Bates Station was a stage station plotted during the early 1880s at what was the intersection of the Coarsegold Road and Stockton-Los Angeles Road.   The modern alignment bypassing Bates Station to the east would be reopened to traffic during late 1939.   Part 1; the history of California State Route 41 past Bates Station Bates Station was featured as one of the many 1875-1899 Madera County era towns in the May 21, 1968, Madera Tribune .  Post Office Service at Bates Station is noted to have been established on November 23, 1883 and ran continuously until October 31, 1903.  The postal name was sourced from Bates Station owner/operator George Ba
Post a Comment
Read more