How to go
What: National Road Exhibit
Where: The Davidson Interpretive Center, 5638 Lower Valley Pike
When: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday
More infornmation: Call 937-882-6000
A traveling exhibit at the Davidson Interpretive Center opened Friday in Springfield, highlighting the local historical significance of the National Road.
Also known as Route 40 or the Cumberland Road, the National Road stretched back to the early years, connecting Cumberland, Md., to the Ohio River and allowing early settlers to travel west. Officially established by Thomas Jefferson, it was the first federally funded road in U.S. history, according to information from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The historic road once essentially stopped in Springfield at the Pennsylvania House, a former popular inn in Springfield that now serves as a museum, said Bill Smith a trustee of the Ohio National Road Association who also works part-time for the Clark County Park District. It eventually received federal funding that allowed it to continue to Vandalia and then Indiana.
“It started in Baltimore, Md., and got all they way to the Pennsylvania House and then politics got in the way,” he said.
The exhibit will remain in Springfield indefinitely, Smith said. Residents will be able to visit a display about the road, read booklets detailing its history and learn about what life was like in the towns and villages that popped up along the road over the years.
“Basically the National Road opened the west up for travelers and also for goods to be able to go east to west and west to east,” Smith said.
The Davidson Interpretive Center, 5638 Lower Valley Pike, is open from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday to Friday. Call 937-882-6000 for more information.
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