Marketing the Machine Age: Industrial Archaeology and Heritage Tourism in America’s "Rust Belt"
Page 4

11. Incline and reconstructed engine house, Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site. (Photo: J. Levin)

The Pennsylvania Mainline Canal system, of which the Allegheny Portage Railroad was a key link, represents an important example of the network of transportation arteries constructed during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Part of a general interest in internal improvements, the turnpikes, canals and, increasingly, railroads contributed to a veritable transportation revolution (cf. Taylor 1951). These new routes served as paths for migration and population expansion, and increased the flow of commodities between the seaboard population centers and the vast rural hinterland.

The Mainline Canal was completed in early 1833. The eastern portion of the system consisted of a railroad from Philadelphia to Columbia; a canal then ran from Columbia to Hollidaysburg, at the base of the Allegheny Front. The topographic difficulties engendered by the extreme elevation of the Alleghenies called for a design involving a combination of rail segments and incline planes. The Allegheny Portage Railroad consisted of 37 miles of track, traversing ten incline planes linked by short rail segments. Stationary steam engines at the head of each plane powered a continuous rope which hauled rail cars carrying passengers and freight up the steep inclines. The Portage Railroad served as a link between the canal terminus at Hollidaysburg and a similar terminus at Johnstown, on the west side of the Front. A canal from Johnstown to Pittsburgh completed the system (Shank 1981:13-45).

The National Park Service’s interpretive center for Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site is located at the Summit Level. Situated at the head of Plane 6, at the highest point on the portage system, the Summit Level park unit includes a portion of the Portage Railroad trace, the foundation remains of Engine House #6, and a large stone building contemporaneous with the railroad.

Samuel Lemon, a local tavern keeper, erected this substantial structure, which is today known as the Lemon House, sometime around the year 1834³. The building stood adjacent to the level, just above the head of the incline, with the front door a scant 100 feet from the tracks. By 1839 Lemon was in business as a coal dealer as well as a tavern keeper (Toogood 1972:47). A map, dated 1840, indicates that a mine entrance and a coal wharf were located directly across the tracks from the front door of the Lemon House (Toogood 1972:9).