New Updates

• May 2003.  Found Milestone 39, though it is partially damaged.
• Timothy Leonard of Granville was a Candidate for NY Senate in 1799.
• To see some articles that appeared in newspapers/books about the turnpike click here
• I finally confirmed that the Turnpike was over 50 miles by reading an article in the 1799 Lansingburgh Gazette.
• Mile 36 marker found at corner of Brook Road and Rt 22 in Salem.
• Troy Times Article, dated 1923, remembering the turnpike plus some other historical information, including some Native American information from the area. Covers mostly the Rensselaer County portion of the Turnpike.
• The legal document that made the Northern Turnpike into a coproration is now online. look for it by clicking here It is interesting of the mention of a Buskirk bridge already in place before the turnpike.
• 1802 additional Legal Document that talks about another turnpike road off of the Northern Turnpike from someplace in Pittstown to the Vermont border. I believe this to be the Tomhannock Turnpike that is sometimes the name for Otter Creek Road, but I would like to confirm this sometime.
• In Granville there were two turnpikes that went farther north. One went to Whitehall possibly known as the Upper Turnpike [and even this could have had two routes or been two separate turnpikes], and the other to the Vermont border through Hampton to connect to a turnpike which went eventually to Burlington, VT.
• I plan to sometime put a list of the shunpikes that were used to avoid paying of the tolls.

Logistics of the road

 The road went up Northern Drive, and Oil Mill Hill and Brickyard Road, then up to Route 40. Imagine if northern Drive did not bend right before Oil Mill Hill and went straight up the hill at even level with the train tracks which would be built at a later time. [Note that these train tracks eventually became an overpass] It followed Route 40 up to Grants Hollow where the turnpike did go through Grant's Hollow. The road continued to Melrose and went on Melrose-Valley Falls road. This was previously designated as County Rt 5 and NY Rt 40a. It crossed the Tomhannock Reservoir, when it was just the Tomhannock Creek at what was a covered bridge. Then it went thru the hamlet of Tomhannock. It went to Miller's Corners and onto NY Route 67. It followed Rt 67 except for a small detour onto Hunt Road where you can't get back onto Rt 67 as it goes through what is now someone's residence. The road then went on to the Buskirk Covered Bridge. On this section of Rt 67, the turnpike followed the same route except for a slight variation off onto another road. It then crossed the bridge and went up a hill on Stage Rd, which is still a dirt road and made its way to Cambridge. After Cambridge, it presumably followed Old Rt 22 Road. Near Lake Lauderdale, it stopped following Rt 22 for a bit as evidenced by a mile marker on Ackley Road. Where Rt 22 currently crosses the Battenkill Creek, there previously was a covered bridge called the Old Red Bridge. It passed through Salem and made its way up to Granville on Rt 22.

The best places to see what the road might have looked like when it was a toll road would be Stage Road, from the Buskirk Covered Bridge and Hunt Road.  At each mile, there was a marker on how many miles until Lanfingburgh. At the time, 's' was written as a fancy 'f' and in much writings, it came out to look like a 'f'. Here is my list of the 50 markers and which are left standing and whatnot.  Now includes pictures of some milestones.

Mile Marker List

• 1 Gone
• 2 Gone
• 3 Yes. Corner of Rt 40 and Fogarty Rd, Speigletown. Very good condition of marker and in front of the John Van Der Spiegel homestead.
• 4 Yes. Almost across from Turner Road on a small hill.
• 5 Gone? Would be in Grant's Hollow
• 6 Gone Would be on County Route 117
• 7 Gone Same
• 8 Gone Same
• 9 Gone Would be submerged under Tomhannock Reservoir
• 10 Gone
• 11 Gone
• 12 Gone
• 13 Gone
• 14 Currently at a residence
• 15 Gone
• 16 Returned to Pittstown Historical Society
• 17 Gone
• 18 Gone
• 19 Gone
• 20 Gone Would be on Stage Road Washington County
• 21 Gone Same
• 22 Gone Same
• 23 Yes On Turnpike Road.
• 24 Gone
• 25 Gone
• 26 Gone
• 27 Yes North of Cambridge on Rt 22 across from Cow Auction.
• 28 Gone
• 29 Yes Rt 22.
• 30 Gone
• 31 Yes On Ackley Road. Also very good condition
• 32 Might exist, check back later
• 33 Gone
• 34 Gone
• 35 Gone
• 36 Yes next to Brook Road in Village of Salem. Good condition
• 37 Gone
• 38 Gone
• 39 Yes but damaged. On Rt 22   [5/2003]
• 40 Yes On Rt 22
• 41 Yes On Rt 22
• 42 Gone
• 43 Yes On Rt 22
• 44 Gone
• 45 Gone
• 46 Yes On Rt 22 Across from South Grimes Hill Road.
• 47 Gone
• 48 Might Exist, check back.
• 49 Gone
• 50 Gone
• 51 Gone
• 52 Gone
• 53 Yes. By the Price Chopper Plaza

Some advertisements that appeared in Newspapers

May 20th, 1801 - Lansingbrugh Gazette
The Directors of the First Northern Turnpike Road, leading from Lansingburgh, in the county of Rensselaer, to Granville, in the county of Washington, a distance of more than fifty miles, will be ready to commence working said road by the fifth day of June next - Any persons desiring to contract for any part of said road, which may be surveyed this season, may make application to the Directors in Lansingburgh, by said day.  

June 16th 1801 - Lansingburgh Gazette
NORTHERN TURNPIKE ROAD
Ten miles of this road are already surveyed, and a contract entered into for working it this summer. The contractors are men of industry and enterprise, and are well acquainted with their business. The Directors are at present exploring and surveying a further ten miles of the road, which, we understand will also be completed during the season. Perhaps no turnpike in the state, will, in proportion to its extent, be of greater utility to the public, or more productive to its proprietors. It will be the through-fare through which the produce of the northern part of this state, and the principal part of the western district of Vermont, must come to market, and the soil over which it is to pass, is in general well calculated for sonstructing it and rendering it durable. The stock is nearly all taken up - about one hundred shares only remaining unsubscribed.
 

March 8, 1802 Lansingburgh Gazette
NORTHERN TURNPIKE ROAD  

Will be received by the Subscribers, until the first day day of April next, for working the road from the house of Mr. EWarner, south of John Younglove, in the town of Cambridge, to the Court-House, in the town of Salem, to be completed by the first day of September next. All persons wishing to contract, will send in their Proposals, in writing, previous to the said first day of April next.  

PROPOSALS will also be received for building a BRIDGE across Batten-Kill, on said Turnpike road to be a firm, substantial, well built Bridge, twenty-four feet wide, and covered with three inch pine plank, and completed by the said first day of September next.
JOS. ALEXANDER, at Lansingburgh.
ABNER STONE, \
JAMES HARVEY, / at Salem.
 

April 16, 1802 Lansingburgh Gazette

Northern Turnpike Road

June 16, 1802 Lansingburgh Gazette
PROPOSALS
Will be received, by JACOB A. FORT, one of the Subscribers, until the first day of July next, for building a BRIDGE over the Hosick Rover, north of Abraham Lake's house, to be completed by the first day of November next. A plan of the Bridge may be seen, by applying to the said Jacob, at his house in the town of Hosick.
 

A Paragraph from the Hebron, NY history book. 'The First Northern Turnpike of 1799, which generally followed the route of State highway 22, was important as a route to the outside world until the Rutland Railroad was built in 1852. Although located east of Hebron in Vermont, the railroad generally paralleled the turnpike and in time put it out of business.'