Searight Tollhouse

Located about an hour outside Pittsburgh, PA and right up the round from Uniontown, PA; is one of six toll houses in Pennsylvanian from the 1830’s. Today only two are left of the six.

The toll road started taking tolls in 1806 and stop in 1905. The toll house was built in 1835 and is a small house with a kitchen, dinning room, toll house office, and two bedrooms upstairs.

This house given to the the toll master and his family as he would have to be around for tolls to be paid at all times of the day. The toll house has lots of furniture and documents to review during your visit.

The Searight Tollhouse was named after the village of Searight which was named after William Searight a leading citizen of the area. William Searight was a contractor and owned a tavern on the National Road. He was appointed commissioner of this section of Pennsylvania National Road.

This a pleasant place to stop for a few dollars and see the life of a toll house keeper and the functions of a toll house but only plan to spend about an 1 hour here on the way to either Brownsville, PA or Ohioplye State Park.

History Brief

In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase added land that now includes all of South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Arkansas. Plus parts of Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.

The Federal government authorized the National Road about three years later to connect the East to the newly purchased lands of the West. Several toll houses were added to fund the road.

The National Road is the only road system which was fully constructed by the Federal government. George Washington was a key player as he has lots of land along the National Road. In the 1920’s, the National Road was reincarnated as the United States route 40.