The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 308

Mrfl'ilV 6-DC Sunday, Jan. 5, 1992 The Philadelphia Inquirer HISTORIC DELAWARE COUNTY History's bumpy ride down Chester Pike 2 VIDEO il 3 1 I II Hbj 'f Vf: jsH tan; a. iJWTiTjte i'M Wnm 4 Jli or 1 i I III 1 4 I iiLJ ft 5 a- 1 I'll J. By Robert F. O'Neill Special la The Inquirer George Washington rode on it countless times, as a general and as president.

So did John Morton and Caesar Rodney, two signers of the Declaration of Independence, among other notables. It's a six-mile stretch of Delaware County roadway that dates back more than 300 years and has been known variously as King's Highway, Great Southern Post Road, Darby-Chester Road and Plank Road. Today called Chester Pike (Route 13), it is one of the oldest and most historically important highways in the state, if not the country. Until modern times, it was also considered one of the worst. Before there was a railroad to open up the six so-called "pike" communities of Sharon Hill, Folcroft, Glenolden, Norwood, Prospect Park and Ridley Park, there was a Chester Pike.

Until 1921, it was privately owned and users paid a toll. Before the turn of the century, the fee was two cents for a rider and horse, four cents for a cart and horse, and 25 cents for a four-wheeled carriage and four horses. Before the old Delaware County Turnpike which became Baltimore Pike (Route 1) was opened between Delaware and Philadelphia, Chester Pikewas the way to go. Interstate 95 wasn't even a dream. Today the pike carries mostly local traffic between Chester and Darby.

Gone are most of the mansions that graced its route. Gone, too, is the trolley line, opened in 1893. Only the oldest old-timers remember the two-story tollhouse at Calcon Hook Road in Sharon Hill, the last of six used to collect tariffs. The only one that was more than a booth, it remained well into the 1920s before a service station replaced it. Chester Pike today is mostly shops and restaurants, an occasional church or school.

And lights, lots of traffic lights. Its major intersection, at Lincoln Highway (Route 420) in Prospect Park, is one of the busiest in Delaware County. When the pike was laid out, it was called Queen's Highway because it was during the reign of Queen Anne, Ridley Township historian Keith Lockhart said. Even before that, though, there was a horse trail referred to as King's Highway, after King Charles II of England. It began in Darby and entered Chester along what is now Fifth Street.

In Chester, the route turned to the left along High (now Market) Street and then to the right along what is now Third Street, heading south across Chester Creek toward Marcus Hook. The 1859-60 Directory of Chester clarified the reason for this by noting that "monetary and political influence were as omnipotent in the 18th century as they are today." The story goes that Jasper Yeates, son-in-law of James Sandelands, one of Chester's earliest landholders, diverted the route so that it ran across or next to property in which he allegedly had some interest. "God and nature intended the road to directly cross Chester Creek, but the Devil and Jasper Yeates took it where it was located," the directory observed. Although its name was regal, King's Highway was a jester to the weary colonial traveler, according to a history booklet compiled by the Keystone Automobile Club in 1926, shortly after the pike was opened as a mod- Spial to Th Inqurar JIM ROS At Oak Lane, looking east on Chester Pike into Folcroft Today it carries mostly local traffic between Darby and Chester. George Washington slipped here.

He got out of the rut and so did the road, as its name and conditions, kept -j-v 71,, Y1" I X. nvi JC One of the six tollgates, circa 1890, when the road was about 200 years old. CllCHlglJlg. em highway. The booklet, which is in Lockhart's collection, states that there were only 30 wheeled vehicles in Philadelphia in 1697.

"Travel to the outer regions was made either on horseback or foot," it recounts. Not infrequently, it took days for a traveler to go a few miles, and records show that the pilgrim often would take pity on his horse and walk. "Occasionally, too, the vehicle would become so deeply rutted as to defy the tugging help of freshly enlisted horses. The wagon would have to be left in the bog overnight, or until greater strength could be obtained." The booklet notes that travelers in these cases would continue slowly on foot or seek inns. One hostelry was the White Horse Tavern at Moores, now Prospect Park, said to be a frequent stop for Washington.

Washington was the highway's most noted traveler, and on one of his trips to the capital in Philadelphia, he escaped serious injury when one of his horses fell through a bridge, the history said. In 1781, after the British surrender at York-town, King's Highway took on the more democratic name of Great Southern Post Road because it was a mail route. In 1851, the state chartered the Darby and Ridley Turnpike, and wooden planks were laid to make the road more easily traversed. This was the beginning pf toll collections to maintain the planks, with stations at Eddy-stone, Ridley Park, Prospect Park, Norwood, Oak Lane and Sharon Hill. Today, the Toll House Tavern stands on the Norwood site.

In 1921, the highway was freed from tolls when the state and county bought it from the Plank Road each paying $50,000. It was a move made possible by the Keystone Automobile Club's advocacy on behalf of its members. It took another five years to negotiate the road's improvement, including the relocation of the trolley line from the north side of the road to its center. On Aug. 12, 1926, the entire 6.05 miles from Darby to Chester was opened amid great fanfare, similar to the recent opening of the Blue Route.

Costs of the improvement were $336,493 to the state, $231,622 to the county and $200,000 to the Southern Pennsylvania Traction Co..