Latrobe Area Farms and Country Roads By John B. Steel 1895

You may find an old letter or postcard in the attic and cannot find the street on Google Map. Or you walk down a street in town and wonder about a buildings storied history. These are common inquiries we receive. In addition to internet searches of digital records, we often refer to our extensive collection of local City Directories for answers.

Part 1: History of Latrobe Streets

The following is the first of a series of nine articles that present edited excerpts from past stories compiled by our researchers from our quarterly newsletter The Latrobe Historical Gazette.

Country Roads 1835 - 1839 (June 1986 Gazette)

Before the coming of the railroad, the future site of Latrobe was a series of farms with country crossroads. As early as 1835, a rutted dirt road connected what is now Route 30 with Route 22 at New Alexandria. The road wound through Mechesneytown, down what is now Main Street, across the Loyalhanna at a fording behind our present city hall and then west along what is now Lloyd Avenue. Findley's grist mill was located at this fording until 1839 when it became Chamber's Mill.

Crossing this country road and following the route of Ligonier Street was a lumber road from Kingston. This road became a toll road, the first toll house being located where Columbus Hall now stands between Main and Weldon Streets. Later, the toll station was moved to the Mattingly house at 1303 Ligonier Street. This house was replaced by the red brick structure that housed the early Latrobe Bulletin office.

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