Still In Ohio
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Day 1: September 16, 2021 Still In Ohio Comment via blog |
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I thought time was going to be tight and planned on sticking to the
interstate all the way to Zanesville. However, after I'd passed Columbus,
I realized that I was in very good shape time wise, and decided to take in
a bit of the old National Road. I made the one mile transfer at Hebron and
took a picture of the first National Road milestone I saw. It looked a
little hard to read, so I grabbed a shot of the next one, too.
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I snapped a couple of pictures of the Eagle's Nest monument and even read
the sign. I knew the etched boulder
commemorated an early paving project but did not know about a minor debate
over material selection. Understandably, the Zanesville brick industry
thought their product should be used. The federal government's
contribution was contingent on the use of concrete. Without that money,
the project would not have been possible plus bricks would have been more
expensive regardless of who was paying. And that, my friends, is how the
twenty-nine miles of National Road connecting Hebron and Zanesville became
"the model concrete road of the world" in 1916.
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I did not leave the US-40 of today to check out every section of old road,
but I did follow the old alignment through Gratiot. There are no houses on
the most western most section so it gets no maintenance and is pretty
rough. That changes in less than a quarter mile when another another way
to access the old road apparently supplies it with some traffic that
justifies some attention and some fairly new pavement. The old alignment
is in great shape as it crosses an old stone bridges and passes through
the town.
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The day's destination was waiting about a half-dozen miles beyond Gratiot.
Two stone structures dating to the early 1800s stand near each other on
the north side of the road. Headley Inn is the westernmost of the pair.
Half of it was built in 1802. It doubled in size with an 1835 addition. On
the right side of the photo is Cliff Rock House (a.k.a, Smith House) which
was built in 1829-30. I've known of the buildings for many years but
didn't know much about them. That changed with the publication of
Cyndie Gerken's
excellent history of the pair which I reviewed
here.
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My precise destination was the Headley Inn which is currently operated as
a bed and breakfast by Carrie and Brian Adams. Sometime around the end of
the year, the B&B will be put on hold as the Adamses turn to getting a
winery up and running. They have already seen to much of the preliminary
work and hope to open sometime in the spring.
But for now, it's still an active B&B, and I got to spend the night in this room. A stone in the front wall shows the completion date of 1835. The initials are believed to be those of the builders, George Highfield and James Mills. The log cabin is both the newest and oldest structure in the Headley complex. It was initially constructed in 1777 but that was near Ligonier, Pennsylvania. Steve and Bernadine Brown, who owned the Headley between 1989 and 2006, had the cabin reassembled behind the inn shortly after they purchased it. |
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Although Cliff Rock House is currently empty and for sale, it is not
abandoned and has not been neglected. In fact, the nearly 200 year old
building looks ready for someone to move in.
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