Samuel Lemon and his wife Jean moved to this mountain in 1826 and built a log tavern nearby on the old turnpike that crossed this gap, where as many as fifty Conestoga wagons a night camped. Five years later, in 1831-32, after learning that the Allegheny Portage Railroad would cross the summit here, Lemon built the impressive sandstone Lemon House. When the railroad opened in 1834, the house did a lively business serving food and drink to railroad passengers and workers, with the tavern on the main floor and the family living upstairs. In addition to his tavern trade, Lemon operated a profitable coal and lumber business, and a coal mine shaft on the hillside behind the house tapped a four-foot-thick vein of coal that powered the portage railroad's steam engines and helped make him one of the wealthiest men in the Alleghenies. He died in 1867 at age 74. The Lemon House remained in the Lemon family until 1907, nearly fifty years after the Allegheny Portage Railroad ceased operating about 1900, and the National Park Service purchased the property in 1966. Today portions of the restored building are open to the public during scheduled hours.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Photo: George W. Storm

Photo: Unknown

Photo: Unknown

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Tunnelhill, Pennsylvania · USA