Chester County and its people .. . er rooms. These tavernswere usually conducted by their owners and were remarkable fortheir good order. But the glory of this great route of travel and of its hotelswere doomed to disappear, for when the Pennsylvania Railroadwent into operation about forty years after its construction, ittook away the travel and the transportation of merchandiseover this turnpike, and its income from tolls diminished and thenumber of its hotels as gradually, or perhaps it would be betterto say as rapidly, decreased, until at the present time the use ofthe road is only local, a
Chester County and its people .. . er rooms. These tavernswere usually conducted by their owners and were remarkable fortheir good order. But the glory of this great route of travel and of its hotelswere doomed to disappear, for when the Pennsylvania Railroadwent into operation about forty years after its construction, ittook away the travel and the transportation of merchandiseover this turnpike, and its income from tolls diminished and thenumber of its hotels as gradually, or perhaps it would be betterto say as rapidly, decreased, until at the present time the use ofthe road is only local, and the traveler may pass over many amile of it without seeing a single sign inviting him to refreshmentor to rest. Other early turnpikes were as follows: The Downingtown, Eph-rata and Harrisburg, otherwise known as the Horseshoe Pike, char-tered March 24, 1803; the Gap and Newport, taking the place to agreat extent of the old Gap and Newport Road, chartered April 7,1807; the Little Conestoga, running from the Philadelphia and Lan-. ^S^^M^, AND ITS PEOPLi:. 499 caster TiuDitike, near the Warren Tavern, to a point in BerksConutT, Avliere the Reading Road intersects the Morgantown Road,chartered March Ifi, 1809. In 1811 a survey was made for a turnjjilce from the Phihidel-]ihia and Lancaster Turnpike at or near the twenty-sixth milestonethrough Westchester to Wilmington, laws being passed by bothPennsylvania and Delaware authorizing the work; but the peopleof Delaware declined to take stock in the enterprise and the peopleof Pennsylvania then felt justified in abandoning the project. Thepeople of Delaware then constructed a turniiike from Wilmingtonto the State line, a distance of about six miles, in the direction ofWest Chester. The West Chester and Wilmington Plank Road Company wasorganized in 1854 and a plank road constructed from West Chesterto Dilworthtown, and in 1858 this road was converted into amacadamized road. ]Much of this information on early roads, with the exception
Size: 2283px × 1095px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidchestercount, bookyear1898
