Old York Road

Old York Road
Old York Road
Route information
Existed	1711–present
Major junctions
South end	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
North end	Elizabeth, New Jersey, U.S.
Location
Country	United States
Highway system

Old York Road, originally York Road, with reference to New York, is a roadway that was built during the 18th century to connect Philadelphia with New York City.

The road was built along the

Raritan tribe's Naraticong Trail, also known as the Tuckaraming Trail. A memorial plaque to the friendship of the Naraticong tribe, who permitted the road to be built over their trail, is located at the intersection of Old York Road and Canal in Raritan, New Jersey

. The Swift Sure Stage Coach Line completed the journey between the two cities in two days.

A ferry left Elizabethtown Point for

Exchange Place in Jersey City via Bergen Point Plank Road/Newark Plank Road.^[1]

Pennsylvania route

Old York Road was laid out from New Hope, Pennsylvania to Philadelphia between 1711 and 1771. Its start (or end) point was at the intersection of Fourth and Vine Streets.

Motorists demanded the abolition of the road's tolls from City Line Ave to Bucks County in 1916.^[2]

An urban redevelopment project during the 1960s removed most of Old York Road between Vine and Spring Garden Streets, although a remnant remains as the unmarked alley midway between 5th and 4th Streets at

Willow Street.^[3] North of Spring Garden Street, the Old York Road went through what is now lower North Philadelphia on a roadbed that is now Fifth Street.^[4]

A section still named Old York Road begins at the intersection of

East Oak Lane in North Philadelphia

.

Old York Road (known as York Road north of the border between

cyclone fence at each end in 2010. The section of PA 263/York Road from Sugar Bottom Rd. to PA 413

in Buckingham Twp. was resurfaced in 2008-09 for the first time since the 1965 widening, and the section through Warwick Township was scheduled to be repaved in 2010–11, but as of the autumn of 2012, that repaving had not yet taken place.

In

New Hope-Lambertville Bridge

, into New Jersey. The original bridge was built in 1814 and replaced twice after floods. The newest bridge was built in 1904 and provides the closest route to the original Old York Road.

Ferry Street ends at the location of the first ferry dock of John Wells.[5] In 1719, John Wells was given a license to establish a ferry at this location, two years after he bought the land.^[6] The Pennsylvania Assembly eventually gave John Wells sole right to operate a ferry from this spot after Thomas Canby attempted to compete with the service. The small village became known as Well's Ferry. Thomas Canby's son, Benjamin later bought the ferry service from Wells. In 1764, John Coryell, who operated a ferry from New Jersey bought the Pennsylvania ferry service from Benjamin Canby. The village later had the names of Canby's Ferry and Coryell's Ferry before receiving the name New Hope after a 1790 fire.

New Jersey route

Old York Road began at Coryell's Ferry, which was on Emanuel Coryell's property between Church Street and Swan Creek (for which Swan Street is named) in

New Jersey Route 179

, the modern Old York Road.

It continues on NJ 179 with three deviations, including one at Mount Airy, before crossing under US 202. NJ 179 ends in

Branchburg

.

CR 637 across US 202 again and joins CR 567 until Raritan

.

In Raritan, it follows Somerset Street (

CR 626) and joins with Main St (NJ 28) in Somerville. Old York Road continues to follow East Main Street, which becomes concurrent with CR 533 in Finderne in Bridgewater

.

After going through

Droeschers Mill.^[9] Much of the road from there to Elizabethtown was eliminated, though parts survive as Colonia Road and Jersey Avenue.^[10]

A ferry left from

Elizabethtown Point in Elizabeth to Holland's Hook (now Port Ivory) on Staten Island beginning in 1736 by Adoniah Schuyler. Holland Hook was named for the early settlers, who came from Holland, but later the name evolved to Howland Hook.^[11]

Transportation

Swift Sure Stagecoach Line - In 1769 the stagecoach line was advertised, among other places, in the New York Gazette. The stagecoach was to leave the Barley Sheaf Tavern "at eight in the morning, arriving at Well's Ferry twelve hours later..." About 1827 there were three runs each week from Philadelphia to New York. Swift Sure continued operations until railroads superseded stagecoach travel.

Landmarks

Source: Cawley & Cawley^[12]

Pennsylvania

The Old York Road passed near the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Rising Sun Tavern stood at the crossroads of the Germantown Pike (now Germantown Avenue) and the Old York Road from the mid-18th to the late 19th centuries. It was a landmark for travelers on the Old York Road. An 18th- or 19th-century milestone in Abington Township still tells passing pedestrians, "9 to R S, 11 to P", meaning 9 miles to Rising Sun (the tavern and what was then the village around it) and 11 miles to Philadelphia [Old City].
Site of the Battle of Crooked Billet. Marker just off Old York Rd. at 70-98 Meadowbrook Ave. Hatboro, PA 19040
Site of The Log College, William Tennent's College for Presbyterian ministers, 1746. Warminster, Pennsylvania.
Moland House, in Hartsville, Warwick Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Washingtons headquarters in August 1777.
Buckingham Friends Meeting House, Buckingham Township, Pennsylvania. Used as a military hospital during the Revolutionary War.
Ferry toll house at New Hope, Pennsylvania.

New Jersey

Holcombe storehouse, in Mount Airy, New Jersey, c. 1743. On the National Register of Historic Places listings in Hunterdon County, New Jersey
Ringo's Tavern, c. 1840, 1084 Old York Rd. in Ringoes, New Jersey.
Andrew Ten Eyck House, Branchburg, New Jersey
second Middlebrook encampment
(1778–79), American Revolutionary War.
Old Dutch Parsonage, in Somerville, New Jersey
Somerset Hotel, previously known as Tunison's Tavern, in Somerville, New Jersey
Van Veghten House, Finderne area, in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey, General Nathanael Greene's headquarters during the second Middlebrook encampment
Van Horne House, in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey, General William Alexander, Lord Stirling's headquarters during the second Middlebrook encampment
Middlebrook Hotel, 1700, former tavern in Middlebrook, New Jersey
Drake House, Plainfield, New Jersey
Stage House Inn also known as the Scotch Plains Tavern, Scotch Plains, New Jersey, built c. 1737
Presbyterian Church in Westfield, New Jersey. Original Church built on site in 1735.
Cranford, NJ
.
Old First Presbyterian Church, founded 1664, Elizabeth, New Jersey
Boxwood Hall, in Elizabeth, New Jersey
Elizabethtown Port - Noted site of the landing of
Captain Philip De Carteret in 1665. First Royal Governor of the Colony of New Jersey
.

References

^ Cawley (1965), p. 51.
^ "Motorists Plan for Good Roads". Philadelphia Inquirer. April 2, 1916. p. 19.
^ Kyriakodis, Harry. "On Callowhill, Channeling The Ghost Of Old York Road". Hidden City Philadelphia. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
^ Ellet, Charles Jr (1843), A Map of the County of Philadelphia from Actual Survey, retrieved August 26, 2018. Via the collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia.{{citation}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
^ Wells Ferry
^ "New Hope Historical Society". Archived from the original on December 21, 2007. Retrieved February 20, 2008.
^ History of the City of Lambertville
^ "Map of Middlesex County, New Jersey". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
^ Elizabethtown York Road.
^ "Map of Essex County, New Jersey : with the names of property holders &c". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
^ Staten Island Old Names
^ Cawley (1965).

List of Philadelphia placename etymologies#Old York Road

Bibliography

Cawley, James; Cawley, Margaret (1965). Along the Old York Road. New Brunswick, New Jersey:
OCLC 692143813
.

Faris, John Thomson (1917), Old roads out of Philadelphia, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co..

External links

Old York Road Historical Society (Covers the history of the Pennsylvania portion, which goes from Philadelphia to New Hope.)

40°03′43″N 75°08′10″W / 40.062°N 75.136°W / 40.062; -75.136

[FOOTNOTECawley196551-1] Cawley (1965), p. 51.

[2] "Motorists Plan for Good Roads". Philadelphia Inquirer. April 2, 1916. p. 19.

[3] Kyriakodis, Harry. "On Callowhill, Channeling The Ghost Of Old York Road". Hidden City Philadelphia. Retrieved March 13, 2019.

[FLP_1843_map-4] Ellet, Charles Jr (1843), A Map of the County of Philadelphia from Actual Survey, retrieved August 26, 2018. Via the collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia.{{citation}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)

[5] Wells Ferry

[6] "New Hope Historical Society". Archived from the original on December 21, 2007. Retrieved February 20, 2008.

[7] History of the City of Lambertville

[8] "Map of Middlesex County, New Jersey". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 5, 2020.

[9] Elizabethtown York Road.

[10] "Map of Essex County, New Jersey : with the names of property holders &c". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 5, 2020.

[11] Staten Island Old Names

[FOOTNOTECawley1965-12] Cawley (1965).

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