The Johnston House at Kingston

Beginning in 1812, Scotch-Irish immigrant Alexander Johnston, who lived to be almost 100 years old, erected the Johnston House at Kingston from stone taken from the bed of nearby Loyalhanna Creek, including stone used for the building and its five fireplaces. Alexander and his wife Elizabeth had eight sons and two daughters. Over the years the house served many purposes, including a residence and farm, a stagecoach stop, a tavern, an office building, and a museum. In the 1820s, a large 1 1/2 story wing was added to the west end as a tavern for travelers on the newly constructed Greensburg/Stoystown Turnpike. Presidents Taylor and Harrison were among those who stopped at the Kingston House, which became known for its meals and punch, and the property's large barn functioned as a relay station for stagecoaches traveling to Pittsburgh or Philadelphia. Before 1954, when the roadway beside the house, first the Lincoln Highway and later Route 30, carried two-way traffic, the original front door was on the east side, but after the road became one-way the main entrance was on the west side. In 1979, Ligonier resident Victor Smith Sr. purchased the property and in 1983 nominated it to the National Register of Historic Places. Smith enclosed the back porch on the side of the main building, enclosed the original back porch on the south side, and created a breezeway connecting the main building to a small frame wash house. In 2011, the deed transferred to the nonprofit Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor, which developed the Lincoln Highway Experience museum and uses the site as its headquarters for administering the Corridor from North Huntingdon in the west to the York County line in the east.

Pennsylvania · United States