Hike #1648; Downingtown to Parkesburg

Hike #1648: 2/23/25 Downingtown to Parkesburg with David Adams, Dan Asnis, Professor John DiFiore, Robin Deitz, Jenny Tull, Alba Borchert, Heshy Buscholz, and Everen

This next trip would be the next in our Main Line of Public Works Series, to cover the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad alignment developed by the State of Pennsylvania in 1834.

These are typically the ones that I'd looked forward to the least because it involves so much road walking, but this was again a very good time and very informative.

I'd committed so much time to walking so much of what had been the "Main Line of Public Works" between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, I felt like I should finish it, and the most uninteresting seemed to be the P&C.

Kline Collection/Pennsylvania Railroad Museum Archives, 1870s

It certainly was interesting, it being one of the earliest railroads in America, built in 1834. 

It was a late arrival to the Main Line, which was envisioned originally as a canal route. The Allegheny Portage Railroad was developed between Johnstown and Hollidaysburg, and was a success with its ten inclined planes. The Philadelphia and Columbia could do the same thing between its respective cities with only two inclined planes.

The entire Main Line of Public Works, canal and rail, opened in 1834 and remained a state-owned entity until 1857 when the Pennsylvania Railroad purchased most of the line.

National Archives, early 1900s

Originally horse drawn, then locomotive driven, the Pennsylvania Railroad improved upon the double tracked line bringing it to four tracks by the 1880s.

The line was straightened, elevated, and in some areas, the original right of way deviates from the later one, and those parts I wanted to see.

Aside from all of that, there is great history associated with the Pennsylvania Railroad itself. I purchased the series of books known as "Triumph", on the history of the line, and have been reading through the sections about where we've been walking.

The last hike we had done on this was really outstanding. We covered much of the Philadelphia and Thorndale Branch, which is closely parallel with the main line, but was a freight bypass, which kept us much off of the roads for a lot of the way.

National Railroad Museum Archives, Downingtown

This time, I knew the majority would put us on roads, but there would be a lot to see. Further, if there was any chance of snow cover, this was a good hike to have posted for this time of year because we could still get through.

Jay W. Byerly Collection

1997 David W. Messer

Justin Colella Collection

The weather ended up being good, and the hike ended up being very interesting. I was glad we did it.

Our meeting point would be at the end point in Parkesburg. I had to figure something out that would be good for parking, and where we could all be seen. I chose Minch Park by the Parkesburg Free Library.

This ended up being a complicated meeting point because the directions took me around a weird way, and no one could figure out where we were supposed to be.

Everyone ended up meeting on West Street across from the library and church, which worked out alright.

Downingtown Pennsylvania, from Conrail Public Affairs -Penn Central Railroad Collection/Pennsylvania State Archives

Sheila Dorr Collection

From there, we shuttled with as few cars as possible to our start point in Downingtown, at the lot behind the Borough Hall and police station, along the route of the Brandywine Trail.

I loved the Brandywine Trail and hoped to get back to hiking that again in the future, because there's so much to see on it as well. I'm waiting to reconnect with the Horse-Shoe Trail to do that bit again, however.

Once we got to the start, we unloaded and I got Ev's stroller set up for the journey. Things were going pretty well since purchasing that a couple of weeks prior. Really a good investment.

We left the lot and started heading down the Brandywine Trail with its white blazes. It is paved at this point. I'm not sure what the future of that trail will be, because a long section of it was reportedly closed on private property near the DE/PA state line.

Soon, we approached the former Pennsylvania Railroad underpass, the old stone arch bridge over the East Branch of the Brandywine.

There have been a total of four bridges to serve the railroad at this site.

The Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad was originally completed through here in 1834, and it had its own wooden bridge over the creek.

The original bridge was replaced or rebuilt as a two-span wooden one in 1856. The Pennsylvania Railroad purchased the P&C in 1857, and a three span "tied arch truss" (a metal deck variation of Theodore Burr's Burr Arch Truss) replaced it in 1865.

Downingtown Freight depot, National Archives

The current 209 foot, four ach masonry bridge was constructed in 1892. 

At the time, it was the only railroad bridge in Downingtown to span the creek, until the Downingtown High Bridge on the Philadelphia and Thorndale Branch, the southern freight bypass, was built in 1904. At this time, the bridges became known as the high bridge and the low bridge, respectively.

I had some photos of this bridge from the Triumph books, and so I immediately began setting up then and now compilations.

We moved on under the bridge to the first trail intersection on the south side, in Johnsontown Park, where we turned to the right.

Here, we were parallel to the tracks heading westbound for a bit. The trail came to an end as we got closer to Viaduct Avenue, which crossed beneath the tracks by way of a nice old stone culvert.

The parking for the station was along Viaduct Avenue. This will soon change, because a new station area has been eyed for the east side of the town in the near future, and they seem already to have broken ground.

We continued on to a large retaining wall on which the tracks sit. The protruding section of the wall, I understand, was the old station site.

The first station to serve the railroad was replaced by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1864, and I understand that was on the north side of the tracks. 

In 1892, that structure was replaced by a modern brick structure on the south side, which sat on an outset in the brick wall retaining the railroad we first saw from below. There was also a nearby freight station building made of brick, which had been built in 1904.

Also along the tracks in this area had been a hotel known as Pennsylvania House.

The structure stood across from the railroad station and served its patrons.

When the small town railroad hotels fell out of favor, the old hotel was segmented into apartments. Sadly, it burned down in 1983.

We ascended to the south side of the track platform where I started trying to put together more of my then and now history compilations. Who knows how much different, or how accessible this site will be when the new station site comes into use in the near future. I had to get this right away.

After I'd gotten all of the views I thought I could get on the south side, we went beneath the tracks to the north side to get some more.

1918 National Archives

It seems the original P&C and the current former Pennsylvania Railroad occupy the same historic location they always have at this point.

There was also an historic tower in this area designated the "DN Tower"

The tower was built in 1906 to control movement between the Pennsylvania Railroad main line, New Holland Branch, and Reading Chester Valley Branch interchange. It was later renamed "DOWNS".

The New Holland Branch went north, and some of that is now part of the Struble Trail and Brandywine Trail, and the Chester Valley Line is now Chester Valley Trail. I need to get on all of these really soon, I want so badly to do more.

We turned from the station platform through the parking lot to the west, parallel with Lincoln Highway, Rt 30. We soon had to cross to the north side in order to safely continue to the west.

Thondale, from Conrail Public Affairs -  Penn Central Railroad Collection - Pennsylvania State Archives

The road was rather closely parallel with the railroad, so it wasn't too bad, and much of it had a sidewalk for a while.

This highway was in the past the Lancaster Turnpike, America's first major highway, completed in 1794.

This eventually became part of the Lincoln Highway, first transcontinental highway, completed in 1925. Much of this became Rt 30.

As we walked, we came upon an historic mile marker, directly beside the edge of the sidewalk. This one denoted 31 miles to Philadelphia.

Along this stretch, we passed by a long lane, where to the right, VFW Post 845 west of Downingtown occupies a lovely old stone home. I couldn't quite place the site on the 1873 A R Witmer Atlas of Chester County Pa, but the house appears to definitely be pretty old. One of the commenters on the Metrotrails facebook said that it was one of the old Edge Family properties.

We continued walking along the road to the west, with the tracks still rather close by. A passenger train would blast by us fast every so often, which was great for Ev to see.

Parallel with us, the former Philadelphia and Thorndale Banch was coming back closer to the main line to have its junction. At that point, there was a "duck under" bridge, a stone arch, where the westbound trains could pass beneath the main line and continue on the north side of the right of way.

I spotted the crossing in extant condition behind a restaurant on our left called Coppa 82.

This area was known as Gallagherville. We continued walking on the road to the west a bit more, along the fronts of stores, and I believe we stopped in at a Wawa to get Ev some Double Dutch chocolate milk.

When we reached Hazlewood Avenue beneath the tracks to the right, there was a good walkway along the road, elevated from the road itself, making for much safer walking.

1918, HD Tower

This walkway was built to serve the station access at Thorndale. It is still a station stop to this day.

Of course, Thorndale was the historic connection with the Philadelphia and Thorndale Branch. There was a passenger station here early on, but a later one built in 1907. A freight station built in 1884 had also been at this site, and a tower built in 1906 to serve the Philadelphia and Thorndale. None of these structures exist anymore today.

Kirk and some of the others went to Wawa and stayed a bit later while the rest of us continued on.

We got up to the station platform, and it was incredibly windy, but still cool to see the views of the yard.

We waited around here for a bit, for the others to catch up, and then began moving on to the west.

My plan was to follow the lot for parking as best we could, then get on parallel side streets to get through.

1918 National Archives

At this point, we went to the south and got onto Bailey Road and continued to head to the west.

Pretty soon, there was a turn and we continued straight on GL Eggleston Blvd into a rather new development. We were still parallel and uphill from the tracks.

Further ahead, more of the new development was under construction. I had looked over the aerial images on Google, and it looked like it was just a sort of ATV path that went through the woods parallel with the tracks, but that was all gone. It was now a wide open area with active construction.

Honestly, it probably made the route a bit easier than it would have been otherwise. 

Before the end of the active development, there was a retention pond to the right. I went around the outside of this because it was a better walking route, but then realized I could cut over to the right, through a small line of trees, and make my way through the new construction area closer to the active tracks, and with some very good views of the yards of the Thorndale area.

I continued this way, and much of the group went up and followed some of the incomplete and unopened new development road.

As we walked, above us there was a stone tower type of building, a little further beyond the road everyone was walking.

It looked immediataly familiar to me. This was very similar to the water pumping station associated with the Pennsylvania Railroad further west, near Marticville on the Atglen and Susquehanna Branch. There is an intact one of these up on a hill above the rail grade, and it looked quite similar.

I looked into it, and it was indeed one of these water pumping facilities. It looks as though the structure will be retained and worked into the surrounding new community.

We continued on ahead, and I was on a sort of berm above the railroad tracks, but below the road everyone else was following.

Eventually, I got to a spot where there was a drainage down, and there was really no choice but to gt back up on the new road as it descended toward me a bit.

The entire time, there were great views of the railroad yards. This area was once the home of some major coal wharfs for this line, and pretty much all of that extensive infrastructure has now vanished.

We continued on the main road through the new development, which was all paved and pretty much finished, but not yet open to any traffic, making it a great pedestrian route.

Other people had also gotten this idea and were walking along it. There was even one other guy pushing a stroller, and as I ascended, he was coming in close to me.

I noticed that the guy was using one similar to mine, which had a pivoting front wheel. This makes all the difference when doing terrain.

I pulled up to him with Ev in the stroller and started chatting about how this was about the best time to be out walking this section of the road, before it opens to any traffic. He agreed that he really loved it himself, and was just taking advantage while he could.

He told me about how he grew up on the freight bypass and used to walk it when he was little. I think he mentioned remembering trains going across the Downingtown High Bridge when he was younger.

I think he must have been about my age or maybe a little older than that. I think the last train went through on the P&T Branch when I was about three.

We continued together walking and talking out to the end of the new development road where he turned back. John caught up and said he thought he was seeing double!

We could see some equipment in the rail yards parked as we walked high above them. 

We emerged on Caln Road and continued straight. The little community of Caln is an almost forgotten spot, sort of like Thorndale. 

There were houses on the right side of the road, which appeared to have been built on another old rail right of way. This might have been the original Philadelphia and Columbia. 

Just ahead, we came to the intersection with N Caln Road where we would pass beneath the active tracks and all of its bridges to the north side, and then parallel the lines to the west.

The first right of way was just abutments and no bridge, which further leads me to believe this might have been the original right of way.

The second crossing we went under was a handsome stone arch, and the third was an I-beam supported span.

There was a little station at Caln at one time, built in 1902. We headed to the other side and then back onto the old Lincoln Highway where we turned left.

Somewhere along the way, Ev found a fake hand doing "the shocker", which was rather funny, because he kept holding it up. I had to get a photo of him doing it for Brandan Jermyn, because he always taints my group photos with it.

As we turned left, we were able to stay on the south side of the highway and pass through parking areas closer to the railroad tracks.

It was a busy area with a lot of stores and such, and the highway began to ascend to a point that was higher than the tracks, having come from the point that was much lower. 

On the right ahead was the Coatesville Senior High School and the Veterans Drive.

There was an impressive building up on top of the hill in the distance, and soon an impressive stone entranceway to the site with an impressive gate house. This turned out to be th main building of the Coatesville Veterans Association Hospital.

The facility was built in 1929 by the Veterans Bureau Construction Division and Veterans Administration Construction Service on a 126 acre hillside above Caln and Coatesville, in Colonial Revival and Classical Revival styles.

The original Mission of the hospital was to provide Neuropsychiatric care to veterans. Today, it continues to provide primary care, specialty care, mental health care, long-term care, pharmacy, and outpatient treatment.

The view must be incredibly impressive from up at that height, but we wouldn't be able to go visit there this time. Maybe on a future one.

In a wall across the street from us, there was a sign noting that this was where army engineer John G. Parke was born in 1827.

Parke is known for setting the exact boundary between Oregon Territory and Canada. He began this endeavor in 1857, was halted by his service in the Civil War, then returned to the project to complete it in 1869. He was later superintendent of West Point.

The historic marker near the center of the frame memorializes him, alongside route 30, Chester County Pa.

Not only that, just to the left of this historic marker was yet another historic mile marker from the old turnpike, now built into the stone wall. I couldn't quite read the numbers.

We walked up the road a bit more, and could see down into the railroad cut a bit. The area looked like it could have been some sort of station spot. 

It turns out it was not a station spot, but it was another railroad right of way! This was what was called a "feed track" for the Thorndale Wharf, and it was just above the site of the Caln Tower, which stook just below, built in 1906 at the time of the freight bypasses coming into service.

I started taking some phots of the tracks from up at this height. I knew that the tower had been in this vicinity, and that I had a photo that might work from this location, but I didn't really have the exact view for the comparison.

Instead, I took many photos at may angles. We approached the bridge that carried the highway over the tracks, and I went to all four corners of it to get some images that would hopefully work for a then and now compilation. I think I got one of them that actually worked.

The tower was known as the VA tower or also CALN tower. The original tower here was built in the late 1800s and replaced during the addition of the freight bypasses.

1880s CALN, Ted Xaras collection

At this bridge, my plan had originally been to walk to the north and go through the yards of the Coatesville Senior High School on the north side of the tracks, but then I realized that would cut out seeing some of the town and the opportunities for the photos from the bridge, so I changed my plan last minute.

We continued down from the bridge, and into the beginning of town. At first, there was a sidewalk on the north side, but none on the south. Fortunately, we soon had sidewalks on both sides. 

We continued ahead through town for a bit until we got to 12th Avenue where we turned to the right for just a block, and then went left on Diamond Street.

My plan had been to cut through a ball field I saw on Google Maps known as Scott Field, but we got to it and found it to be all completely fenced off from anyone entering. 

The old entrance to Scott Field, which was the original ball fields associated with the Coatesville Pennsylvania High school, was built in 1940. It looked a little rough but interestingly antiquated from the road.

The fields remain in use by other organizations today as do the bleachers behind these walls, but when we got past them a little further up the road, and turned right on 11th Avenue, the bleachers within the field looked to be kept in much better repair.

We headed north to where 11th Avenue passed beneath the tracks. 

Unlike all of the other areas we had passed by during the day, and on the previous trips, this one was not a stone culvert. This was a square concrete underpass constructed in 1911. Apparently Coatesville was important enough to warrant some more major bridge replacement than other towns.

We remained on the south side of the tracks and paralleled them on Merchant Street through a pleasant neighborhood that mostly had a nice and easy sidewalk to use.

We soon came to the intersection with N Chester Avenue, which also went under the tracks with a more modern deck girder underpass. We remained on Merchant Street from here as well heading west.

We moved ahead a bit, and there was a vacant lot on the right. In the back of it was an old coaling trestle along the active tracks, which obviously hadn't been used in a great many years. Just beyond this was the abandoned former site of the overpass for 6th Avenue, now long gone. 

Just ahead, there was a lot of new construction work going on, apparently an effort to completely move the major station operations a bit east of the current site, which is where it had been since early days.

I had really been hoping to be able to go through the area closer to the track in order to get some more then and now stuff, but that wasn't going to work out, so we stayed as close as we could on the parallel streets to the south.

We saw the 4th Avenue underpass, still extant, but it was the only one still left as a stone arch. It had very low clearance, and I assume that if it is left in place, it will probably serve as a pedestrian only underpass, because many vehicles would have trouble getting under it.

We pretty much had to remain to the south until we got to 3rd Avenue, the location of the station, before we could get up closer to the tracks again.

There was a concrete underpass that carried the tracks over the street, on what had historically been a grade crossing before the improvement. To the right of us was chain link fenced with lots of heavy construction going on.

There had been a freight station, not sure if it is still standing, to the east of the extant passenger station on the other side of 3rd Avenue, built in 1904.

President Theodore Roosevelt actually campaigned from atop this bridge as one of the "flag stop" campaign stops in 1912, when the bridge was new, and when Roosevelt was running under the failed "Bull Moose Party".

On the north side of the tracks along the street, before the change in grade, was the original home of Moses Coates, built in 1808 and probably demolished around the time of the underpass construction. Coatesville is named for him.

Greystone Society collection

The first settler in the area was not Coates, but rather William Fleming of Scotland in the earlier 1700s. He erected a log cabin on what is now Harmony Street in the town.

Moses Coates purchased the cabin from Fleming in 1787 before he built his own aforementioned home.

Jesse Kersey, son in law of Moses Coates, came up with a plan to sell land frontage along the Lancaster Turnpike when it was completed. Because Coatesville was at roughly halfway between Lancaster and Philadelphia, it was a convenient stopping point, and a toll gate had been erected here.

Greystone Society collection

The arrival of the railroad in 1834 solidified Coatesville's importance on the trade routes.

As we looked ahead at the 1911 concrete underpass, Ev was just about passed out. He'd been awake all day so far, got cranky, and then passed out. 

In some ways it was convenient, in other ways it wasn't. I really wanted him to be able to see the trains go by, and we would most certainly see them being so close to the tracks, but he was out cold.

On the other hand, the group took a break and stood beside the bridge, so they could stay with him while he slept, and I could run up the steps next to the bridge to get my then and now compilations. I had several of them I needed to get from this spot from many different years.

Greystone Society collection

I started by going up to the platform and looking around. There were shots I had to get of the station from about all angles. I started trying to get the ones of the old brick station on the south side.

I had to go up the tracks just a little beyond the platform to get one of them, and then way down to the other side for another.

The old shelter structure from way back is still in place, and so I got some of that as well. I then ran back down the steps, under the underpass, and up the steps on the other side at the station. This area was apparently not being used for station purposes at this time, with everyone getting on along the former eastbound only. I was able to get a few more shots of the station and track layout from that side.

Greystone Society collection

From there, I then saw another photo from the construction of the 1911 underpass, which required that I climbed up a weed covered hill to look down on the site. I suppose the lowered road alignment must have completely destroyed all traces of the former home of town founder Mr. Coates.

Greystone Society collection

I went back down under the bridge to the rest of the group who were still resting on the edge of the lower level of the station.

Before we moved on, I was going through my photos, and found that I could get just one more then and now if I were to walk up the concrete side wing wall, and so I tried it out. It came out pretty good. That happened to be the photo of Roosevelt campaigning from the top of the bridge for the Bull Moose run.

We headed down Fleetwood Street to the west, below the station, and I had another comparison to get from down at the lower level from there.

As I was doing this, a child was watching me from the front of his house, looking curiously at what I was doing.

Eugene DiOrio collection with Roosevelt

I turned to him and felt the need to explain that I was just getting a comparison photo from a century earlier. The area looked like it was a poorer section of town, and I was getting some looks from people, probably because I was hiking in my signature suit and tie.

Greystone Society Collection

I showed the lad the old photo taken from the same location, and he looked both interested and a bit shy or concerned. After seeing the photo, he thanked me and told me to have a nice day, and he walked back into his house. 

National Archives, Coatesville

I wondered if this was an odd interaction in this area, a white man in a suit interacting with a black kid. The awkwardness led me to believe it was. Still, the his politeness and how he spoke was impressive for a young man of any color.

Lukens Inc collection

We continued on down the street, which turned to connect with Lumber Street. Straight ahead, there were a line of piers that appeared to have been some sort of old coaling trestle. They led out through what is now a park, and some of the piers were topped to turn them into picnic pavilions of a sort, and these tops almost looked like rails sitting up there.

Eugene DiOrio photo

A couple of people were seated under the pavilion section, so I didn't bother to go up there and disturb them.

The piers continued across Lumber Street. This was apparently an elevated spur that served a large, brick industrial building that now houses Midway Arts. 

We descended on the road for a little bit more, and the enormous Coatesville High Bridge came into view. I had never seen this magnificent structure before, and it was one of the big draws of the hike.

The 1000 ft long, 100 ft tall Viaduct over the West Branch of the Brandywine Creek took only a little over one year to build, completed in 1904.

Highly skilled Italian stone masons, masters of their art, were brought in by the Pennsylvania Railroad to undertake this incredible task.

The first railroad bridge to span this valley was a single track on the 1834 line, and it was rebuilt as a double track bridge in 1854.

Among the many improvements made in the early years of the Pennsylvania Railroad was the replacement of this bridge with an iron deck truss structure in 1867, just tens yeas after they took over the line. It was partially rebuilt with wrought iron in 1883 and then replace entirely with another metal truss bridge in 1890.

It's amazing that they decided to entirely replace it with the stone span after only fourteen years of use of the predecessor.

Lukens Inc collection

I had several historic photos of this bridge, including those taken during its construction. I tried to set up each of them with comparisons as closely as possible while we descended to Rt 82.

We turned left on Rt 82 heading back toward the Lincoln Highway. To the right of the road, there were the tracks below the bridge, which were previously part of the Reading Railroad system, the Wilmington and Northern Branch that we had followed on previous hikes not long ago.

This line was originally the Wilmington and Reading, constructed in the late 1800s. It became the Wilmington and Northern through reorganization and extended from the Reading line to the north near Reading, and south to Coatesville.

Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Collection

The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad took ownership about 1900, and it became the W&N Branch.

I don't currently know how far north the tracks extend, but it can't be all that far. I had hiked this line through from the north all the way to Elverson, but not the part from Elverson to Coatesville. I hope to get around to that one day hopefully soon.

We continued back down to the old Lincoln Highway where we had great views of the sprawling old Lukens Mill property, which was far bigger than I'd imagined it would be. It goes on for miles!

It's surprising in all of these years that I had missed this town, especially considering it is part of the oldest commissioned Ironworks in the United States.

Lukens Inc collection

Herbert H. Harwood Jr photo

The industry was started about 4 MI south of this location by Isaac Pennock in 1793. He leased the Millworks to his son-in-law Dr Charles Lloyd Lukens in 1817.

In 1818, Lukens produced the first iron for an iron hull nautical vessel.

When Dr Lukens died in 1825, he left the business to his wife, Rebecca Lukens. She is considered to be the first woman in America to be a part of the iron industry. She was also the first female Chief Executive Officer of an industrial company in America. She became an icon to the company when she saved it from bankruptcy by producing and selling boiler plates for locomotives to England.

Eugene DiOrio photo

By 1890, this was the last mill complex in America.

Of course, the title didn't last but the middle continued to flourish. Ownerships changed, Partnerships changed corporate identity changed, and though not as large as in its glory days, the mill remains in service.

We tuned right and crossed a bridge, which had a very old plaque build into the side of the wall. 

The bridge was noted as having been built in 1914, but it seemed odd that a highway bridge would be constructed of stone at that time, and it was obvious that this bridge had been widened. The 1914 plaque is on the downstream side. Does this mean the upstream side could be much older? There is a 1794 marker built into the bridge on the upstream side, but many old Lincoln Highway bridges have the plaques from predecessor bridges built into newer incarnations.

The underside of the bridge is where it is obviously different, because the arch is much more dramatic on one side than the other although both are made of stone. I assume probably the upstream side is much older.

Kirk decided to walk into town to get some food and use a restroom, and the rest of us walked across the bridge, where we came to a paved trail on the other side into a nice park heading north under the bridge.

This looked like not much of anything historic at first, but I later found out that this was close to the end of the Coatesville Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The branch line broke off of the main line a little bit west of the high bridge and made its way in a sweeping route to the south and then east again, through the long and sprawling facility, then north under the high bridge and more industry, across from the Reading line.

There was a big circular thing that is noted on Google Maps as the "community water fountain", but it was covered over. I suppose it probably gets winterized. 

We walked the paved trail past a little white pavilion and then under the behemoth of a bridge, which was great because we got to look at it more up close, and without traffic going by.

This little park was pretty well used, with people walking by the entire time. 

There were lovely views of the creek upstream from where we reached. A trail continued upstream and a bridge crossed to the east side, but we didn't have the time to be messing around with going too far out of the way. I hope to get back and explore more of this area in greater detail in the future.

Ev was still fast asleep from the time around the station, so he missed everything about the high bridge.

We turned around and headed back the way we came, beneath the bridge, and got a group shot, but unfortunately were missing Kirk for it.

As we went back there was a side trail to the right. 

The others stayed with Ev while he slept, and I went down the trail to have a look around.

The path was lined with some split rail fence, and a tree had fallen across the bottom of it. As a result, people had busted through one of the split rails to get access to the creek. It really goes to show why maintenance is needed, and if it's ignored, you have bigger problems. It reminded me of something I'd have seen at my own place of employment.

I walked downstream to the right along the creek in order to get a closer look at the stone bridge that carried the former Lincoln Highway. This confirmed that it did have two segments that were built at different times, one with a better arch.

To the right of the arches, there was an interesting underpass, square in shape, which was apparently road or rail or pedestrian type of use. I went to go through it, by I found a colony of homeless people in tents, so I decided to back off and head back to the top.

I got back to the others, and Kirk was still behind. I made a call to him, and he was fine. He had gone into some health food store that reminded him of the ones he frequents in Easton.

We checked out the views of the enormous steel mills, which just looked larger as we got closer. I need to get back to this town to tour more of the historic sites and visit the mills more closely.

We turned to the right and started heading slightly uphill on the road. 

As we continued up the road, there was another one of the historic mile markers, this time built into a stone wall on the right side of the road. I suppose this one was saved from being stolen since it was embedded in the stone.

There was also a large, vacant property to the right where there had obviously been some very large buildings until recently.

There was still an abandoned old guard house next to the entrance to the place, sitting wide open. I stopped and had a look inside the wreck of a place, which was interesting looking.

As we paused, I recall a train came across the Coatesville High Bridge, which was prominently in view across the landscape to the northeast from this spot.

I am told this office and entrance were once part of G O Carlson property.

We continued uphill a bit on the old Lincoln Highway, crossed Church Street, and then passed the handsome old  St. Stanislaus Kostka Church.

Known her simply as " St Stan's", the church was built in 1907, and was in service more than a century when the Archdiocese decided to close it down in 2019.

We continued gradually uphill and more closely parallel with the tracks. Rt 30 soon started shifting to the north after we climbed, and it crossed over the railroad tracks on a bridge. That highway moves too far away from the railroad, so we couldn't follow that. We'd get on some smaller roads for most of the remainder of the hike.

We turned immediately left before the highway crossed the bridge, steeply downhill onto Hope Avenue.

We turned right on Charles Street at the next block, which was never too far away from the railroad tracks while we were on it, and it was a lot less busy. There was one section of the road that was marked as closed for no apparent reason, and it kept some vehicles from going through.

We continued through he neighborhood heading to the west, and turned hard to the left when we got to 11th Avenue. This took us down to Valley Road, Rt 372, where we turned right, west.

This was just about where the sprawling steel manufacturing plants ended. We walked a short distance down the road to the west, and soon passed beneath the deck girder bridge of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Coatesville Branch.

I think at one time the trolley used to pass beneath this bridge to the left of the road as well, but I'm not totally sure.

The road had double lines but wasn't as terribly busy as Rt 30 had been. Still, we had to keep off to the side much of the time and be vigilant.

After passing beneath the rail underpass, we entered a little community known as Westwood, which seems to have been built up as a residential area serving the workers of the steel mills.

There was a little park in the community to the left, with a nice little memorial in it as we went by.

"In memory of our veterans who faithfully served our country in the armed forces during war and peace" the memorial read on the left side of the road.

Soon, we passed an old church building on the right side of the road.

It was interesting looking with a really different type of look. The white walls had a sort of buttressed look about them, as if to hold it back, but also to have maybe sort of a Gothic Revival look, but not to nearly as grand a level as the churches back in town.

Dave joked that it was style was "Po Boy Gothic Revival" which sounded really funny. I wanted to put that on the description when I posted the photos to Metrotrails, but I figured someone might find it offensive.

I was glad I waited, as I usually do and get some research done on it. It turns out, this had been mostly an African American church. At the time it was built, when segregation was still a big thing, they wouldn't have had the money to build a grand chapel.

The church was built in 1930, and until recently was home of Victory Way of the Cross Community Church, although it might be that no one is using it now. It wasn't immediately apparent through signage.

We continued through the little community, and occasionally went by an older home. One of them in particular I photographed on the north side was a handsome stone one.

This is apparently the historic John Scott House. 

John Scott came to America from Kent, England in 1720 and settled on 226 acres of land here. The earliest section of the home may date to that time.

John Scott Jr also lived here, and then Robert Shannon Scott in the 1850s. Robert Scott still owned the home at the time of the 1873 AR Witmer Atlas of Chester County I've been consulting for information.

We also came across old stone abutment remains of an earlier Valley Road bridge over Sucker's Run, where it passed beneath Valley Road.

In the early days, this was known as Garlick Run.

Homes on the left side of the road appeared to have once had frontage on Valley Road, with accesses from that spot, but they had to be shifted to the other side due to flood damages to the many driveway bridges needed to access these spots. 

We came to some new construction on the left side, Ryan Homes at Westwood Ridge. We steered clear from those except for using some of the cleared land to get through to the east, when the roads were not amenable to easy travel. We continued east from there with new development on the right and more new development on the left.

We walked by another lovely farm scene east of Pomeroy Pennsylvania. The 1873 A. R. Witmer Atlas of Chester County showed this was the farm of Thomas Hope. I originally posted it online in error believing it to be the Morris property further west a bit.

The great thing about the community engagement is that I learn so much more from what people have to say than I would ever have otherwise.

We continued into more light residential, and made our way into the little community of Pomeroy. This was another of the little towns I had never been to before, but had heard of quite often.

It was here that the Pomeroy Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad broke off and headed south. I'd walked all of that as closely as I could below Avondale, but hadn't done the northernmost section, so this would be the first I'd seen of it.

As we walked, there was a driveway on the left, which I believed might have been the railroad bed, but then the grade on the other side led me to dismiss this.

It turns out, this was a rail right of way, of the Conestoga Traction Company, a trolley line. It followed Valley Road, but cut to the south of it in town, passed under the Pomeroy Branch rail line, and then continued on Valley Road west of Stottsville.

Trolley lines are often easy to forget because they were rather short lived compared to standard rail lines, and they didn't require as much grading. However, they did require a good degree of work, but thy just get left out of the history often times because of the grandeur of the canals and railroads that came before.

We continued along the road a bit more, with good views into town to the right, and crossed where the railroad had crossed, but I did not recognize the spot at all. It's been out of service for quite some time.

We didn't walk down to the former station site on the Pennsylvania main line. Pomeroy Station's last depot was built in 1889, and the freight station had been built in 1877.

I didn't recognize where the line passed under the road as I should have been looking.

The line was completed about 1873 between Pomeroy on the Pennsylvania Railroad to Newark Delaware under different companies that came together as the Pomeroy and Newark. It later became a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system. 

The first sections of the line were abandoned by 1936, but this section remained in use apparently as a spur until 1976.

I have read that the northernmost bit of this line was kept in service of a specific farm need.

We came to a ninety degree bend in the road to the left and turned. As we continued, out in the farm lands to the left of us, we could see the bridge that carried the trolley line over top of the Pomeroy Branch. It was really cool to see this much infrastructure still extant.

There were some kids out on this private property sitting along the edge of the bridge as we went by.

Straight ahead, we came into view of the Stottsville Inn, which I planned for our late lunch break.

The historic Stottsville Inn, an old coach stop on the Strasburg Road, was built in 1858 by William Stotts. Later, a station stop was adjacent to the inn on the Pomeroy and Newark Railroad.

I was quite glad this place was open. When you get this far out into the Pennsylvania Dutch country, most everything is closed on Sundays.

We went inside from the front, and there was a good handicap ramp for me to push Ev's stroller up.

We were seated in a side road on the east side of the building, which looked out to where the tracks used to go.

After we ordered our food, I ran out to the slope to get another comparison shot of the station stop adjacent to the old inn, which I think came out pretty well.

I also tried to get some shots of the railroad bed at the approaches to the building.

We sat and ate, and I got a regular meal which would have chicken and noodles, thinking that Ev might eat some of it, but all he ended up having was french fries and stuff he mooched off of everyone else.

The food was great though, and I really didn't regret getting the big meal even though Ev wouldn't eat any of it.

Our server was a young girl who chatted with us about what we were doing, and she said she lived directly on the old main line, a little further to the west. I think she said it was near Gap or something.

I invited her to join us on future hikes, but don't really expect to ever see her since she was already working on Sunday.

Ev ran around like crazy for a bit, which was alright by the time we were ready to go. There were only two other tables taken in the place while we were there. Some in the corner, who were finished earlier, and a couple who chose a table right next to us. I felt like they were probably annoyed that they were next to us after a time, but maybe not. It was kind of strange that they chose a table next to a rather rowdy looking group like ours.

We were all very happy with the food and service, and headed out of the place to continue west toward Parkesburg. Heshy had left and walked the rest of the way back without stopping to eat.

Pomeroy passenger, National Archives

Timacula Road goes south right behind the inn from Valley Road, and that will probably be the route we take when we get to hiking the Pomeroy Branch up this way.

Next, Old Stottsville Road connected with Valley Road on the left. Near the intersection was a lovely old stone mill building with boards over the windows.

The 1873 A R Witmer Atlas of Chester County shows this as grist mill of B F Strode and H E Russell. Stottsville Road once passed in front of it with a sharp curve, but now runs straight behind it. I understand the locals refer to it as "Strode's Mill".

Pomeroy freight, National Archives

We continued on along Valley Road heading west. Sometimes there were larger grassy swaths lined with evergreens or some small field edges we could go on to avoid the growing traffic.

Ev got out of the stroller and ran along in some of the evergreens and such until it got too dangerous for him to be beside the road. I hate putting him in the stroller when he's not ready to get in, but it was necessary at that point.

Soon, we passed a lovely old home with enormous Beech trees just east of Parkesburg on the north side of the road.

Jay Byerly Collection, Coatesville

The 1873 A R Witmer Atlas of Chester County shows this as the home of Dr Andrews Murphey.

Lukens Inc collection

The road moved in and came closer to the railroad by a bit again, but we never got right up to it. It was getting late and the sun was starting to go down.

On the corner of I think Parke Avenue going into town, there was a building that looked like an old railroad station, but I figured it couldn't be because even the earlier alignment swung to the north at this point. I should have taken a photo of it, because we found out later that this was the old trolley station on the east side of town.

As far as my documentation of places goes, Parkesburg was very underrepresented on this hike, and I'd have to try to make up for it more the next time we were in the area.

Eugene DiOrio Collection

At this point, I think even I was just ready to be done and on our way home.

We continued out to West Street in the middle of town, and then turned left by the old Opera House building.

 The venue reportedly dates back to around 1912, before which a laundry business occupied the site.

We headed down the street to the parking across from the library and the churches to conclude the hike, which was really quite enjoyable for being one of the most road walk-reliant hikes we'd done in quite some time.

Coatesville, Greystone Society Collection

At this point, we were nearly half way along tracing the old Philadelphia and Columbia corridor, and I've come to enjoy this series far more than I'd anticipated I would.