Historic National Road - Pennsylvania
Searights Toll House, PA

Searights Toll House received its name from its location near the village of Searights, named for its most prominent citizen, William Searight. Owner of a prosperous tavern on the National Road, he had been a contractor for the road, and was later appointed commissioner of the Pennsylvania section, but had no connection with the toll house itself.

The years immediately following the construction of the toll houses saw a neverending stream of traffic, both east and west. Wagoners, drovers, stage drivers, and mail expresses left their colorful imprints on the road's history. With the coming of the railroads to Western Pennsylvania in the 1850s, traffic over the road declined, and after the Civil War it was used chiefly for local trips. Tolls were collected until 1905. The advent of the automobile in the early twentieth century rescued the road from disrepair, and by the 1920s the National Road was reincarnated as US-40. The Searights Toll House is one of two remaining of the original six commissioned toll houses in Pennsylvania.