The King's Highway was one of the few roads in the early United States to receive federal funding, linking urban centers including Boston, Philadelphia, Alexandria, Dumfries, Richmond, and Williamsburg. Its improvement made mail travel safer and faster and expanded transportation options for travelers and for farmers carrying crops to market. Wade Hampton Ellis owned Rippon Lodge from 1924 until his death in 1948 and took a strong interest in preserving the 18th-century roadbed on his property. In 1933, Wade and his wife Dessie worked with the Daughters of the American Revolution to install a commemorative plaque. A newspaper notice for that dedication called the old King's Highway, which ran two miles through the grounds of Rippon Lodge, the oldest post road in northern Virginia and said it once ran from Mount Vernon to Richmond. Sections of the sunken roadbed are still visible near Rippon Lodge and in other areas of Prince William County.