2.30.3 Connecticut Post Roads & Turnpikes

POST ROADS

The Boston Post Road was a system of mail-delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts that evolved into the first major highways in the United States.

The three major alignments were the Lower Post Road (now U.S. Route 1 along the shore via Providence, Rhode Island), the Upper Post Road (now US 5 and US 20 from New Haven, Connecticut by way of Springfield, Massachusetts), and the Middle Post Road (which diverged from the Upper Road in Hartford, Connecticut and ran northeastward to Boston via Pomfret & Thompson, Connecticut through Douglas, Massachusetts eastward to Boston.

The Boston Post Road map (left) illustrates the three routes. The map may be enlarged by clicking on it. The Middle Post Road came to be the replacement for the Old Connecticut Path following King Philips War (1675-76).The three routes all became part of the turnpike system in the early 1800s (see turnpike map below).A description of the routes followed by the Post Roads may be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Post_RoadTURNPIKESFrederic James Woods provides a comprehensive history of turnpikes in New England with detailed record of the 17th paths and 18th century roads in Connecticut that became turnpikes. A copy of the map of Connecticut turnpikes from Woods' 1919 text The turnpikes of New England and evolution of the same through England, Virginia, and Maryland (1919) is displayed below.

During the age of the turnpike between 1790-1850, many of the best routes to Hartford from Boston and Providence were reconstructed as turnpikes. The maps below adapted from The turnpikes of New England and evolution of the same through England, Virginia, and Maryland (1919) by Frederic James Woods display the Old Connecticut Path from Thompson to Tolland, Connecticut. The turnpikes and modern highways bypassed the highlands route of the Old Connecticut Path.