Lemon House
Cresson Township, Cambria County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Built in 1830 by Samuel Lemon. Standing at head of Plane No. 6 of Allegheny Portage Railroad, it served for many years as a station and as a resting place for travelers. House is visible 75 yards north of highway.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Samuel Lemon built this stone tavern in 1830 at the summit of the Allegheny Portage Railroad, beside the head of Inclined Plane No. 6. The Portage was an engineering marvel that hauled canal boats up and over the mountains by a series of cable-worked inclines, knitting Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. For years the Lemon House gave weary travelers, teamsters, and railroad crews a place to rest, eat, and water their horses at the roof of the crossing.
Why it matters
It survives as a rare witness to the Allegheny Portage Railroad, the audacious mountain link in Pennsylvania's canal system that briefly made transcontinental-scale commerce possible before the railroads.
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Related people
- · Samuel Lemon
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Portage Railroad
Juniata Township, PA · est. 1947
In the 1830s Pennsylvania stitched its canal system across the Allegheny Mountains with one of the boldest engineering answers of the age: a portage railroad that hauled entire canal boats up and over the ridge on a staircase of inclined planes worked by stationary steam engines and cables. This spot marks Plane No. 6 of the ten that lifted traffic between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown. Completed in 1834, the 36-mile line closed the last mountain gap in the water route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.
Portage Railroad
Allegheny Township, PA · est. 1947
The Allegheny Portage Railroad was a marvel of its age, completed in 1834 to carry canal boats over the mountains that blocked Pennsylvania's Main Line of Public Works between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown. Ten inclined planes, of which this was No. 6, hauled the boats and their cargoes up and down the slopes along a 36-mile route. The system let a single boat travel from Philadelphia toward Pittsburgh without unloading, briefly making the state a leader in transportation engineering.
Portage Railroad
Cresson Township, PA · est. 1947
This spot marks the location of Plane No. 5, one of ten inclined planes on the Allegheny Portage Railroad, an ingenious system that hauled canal boats over the mountains by rail between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown. Completed in the 1830s, it closed the last gap in Pennsylvania's Main Line of Public Works, allowing freight and passengers to cross the formidable Allegheny ridge. The road to Lilly still traces the old route over the mountain.
Allegheny Portage Railroad Plane No. 2
Portage Township, PA · est. 1994
Before tunnels pierced the Alleghenies, the mountains stood as a wall across Pennsylvania's ambitious canal system. From 1834 to 1854 the Allegheny Portage Railroad solved the problem with a feat of engineering, hauling entire canal boats up and over the ridge along a series of inclined planes on a 36-mile line between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown. Horses and mules pulled the first cars, later giving way to steam locomotives, with Plane No. 2 serving as the line's headquarters.