Toll house

A tollhouse or toll house is a building with accommodation for a toll collector, beside a tollgate on a toll road or canal.

History

Many tollhouses were built by turnpike trusts in England, Wales and Scotland during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Those built in the early 19th century often had a distinctive bay front to give the pikeman a clear view of the road and to provide a display area for the tollboard. In 1840, according to the Turnpike Returns in Parliamentary Papers, there were over 5000 tollhouses operating in England. These were sold off in the 1880s when the turnpikes were closed. Many were demolished but several hundred have survived as domestic houses, with distinctive features of the old tollhouse still visible.

Canal toll houses were built in very similar style to those on turnpikes. They are sited at major canal locks or at junctions. The great age of canal-building in Britain was in the 18th century, so the majority exhibit the typical features of vernacular Georgian architecture. In the English Midlands, a major area of 18th century canal development, most are of mellow red brick and hexagonal in plan, and sufficiently tall to give the lock keeper a good view of local traffic on the canal. Being small, most have proved unsuitable for occupation, and so are often used as shops or tourist information outlets.

Toll house (disambiguation)

Toll house may refer to:

See also

National Road

The National Road (also known as the Cumberland Road) was the first major improved highway in the United States to be built by the Federal Government. About 620 miles (1,000 km) long, the National Road connected the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and was a gateway to the West for thousands of settlers. When rebuilt in the 1830s, the Cumberland Road became the first U.S. road surfaced with the macadam process pioneered by Scotsman John Loudon McAdam.

Construction began heading west in 1811 at Cumberland, Maryland, on the Potomac River. It crossed the Allegheny Mountains and southwestern Pennsylvania, reaching Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), on the Ohio River in 1818. Subsequent efforts pushed the Road across the states of Ohio and Indiana. Plans were made to continue through St. Louis, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, and to the territorial capital of Jefferson City of the Missouri Territory (previously the old Louisiana Purchase of 1803, and the later part of which became the State of Missouri), upstream on the Missouri River. After the Financial Panic of 1837 and the resulting economic depression, however, Congressional funding ran dry and construction was stopped at Vandalia, Illinois, the territorial capital of the Illinois Territory, northeast of St. Louis and the Mississippi River.