Indigenous Trade Networks Before Colonial Roads

Long before it was known as Ridge Road or "The Great Road from Philadelphia to Reading," this corridor followed pathways established by Indigenous peoples of the region. Lenape (Delaware) communities, along with neighboring Susquehannock and other nations, maintained well-developed trail systems linking the Delaware River, Schuylkill River, and interior river valleys. These routes supported trade in furs, agricultural goods, stone tools, and diplomatic exchange.

Trails generally followed higher ground along ridges to avoid swampy lowlands, which later influenced colonial road construction. The alignment of Ridge Road reflects this earlier Indigenous geography—practical, elevated, and connected to waterways.

Early Colonial Expansion of the Route

In the early 18th century, as lime deposits were discovered in Plymouth Township and settlement expanded northwest of Philadelphia, the existing trail corridor was widened into a wagon road. By 1707, Ridge Road extended east toward the "Liberties" near 6th and Market Streets in Philadelphia. By the 1720s it reached the Perkiomen Creek region, and by the 1730s it was widely known as "The Great Road from Philadelphia to Reading."

Inns such as the Seven Stars Inn (built 1718 near present-day Royersford) and the Buttonwood ("Buttonball") Inn in Roxborough served travelers, farmers, and merchants. Stagecoaches later operated along the route, formalizing what had once been a Native trade corridor into a colonial commercial artery.

Transportation and Industry

The road became vital for transporting grain, lumber, lime, and iron from farms, Wissahickon Creek mills, and regional ore deposits into Philadelphia. The Schuylkill River, rocky and unpredictable, was navigable only during high water. Losses from damaged cargo were common until the formation of the Schuylkill Navigation Company at the close of the 18th century. Ridge Road itself was not paved until 1811.

Wissahickon gristmills processed corn and wheat into flour. Flax was cultivated for linen production, and linseed oil mills supplied materials for tanning leather and making paint. These early industrial networks contributed to the accumulation of wealth among mill-owning families in Roxborough and along the Main Line.

Communities Along the Road

Roxborough and surrounding townships were home to a mix of Quaker, German, Swedish, Welsh, and British settlers. Many attended Quaker monthly meetings at Germantown or Abington. Christ Church in the Liberties and Old Swedes Church in Southwark served Anglican and Swedish Lutheran congregations. Census records from 1689 indicate roughly a thousand Swedes in the region at that time, though German immigration increased rapidly in the early 18th century.

Daily life centered on farming, milling, church life, and small-scale trade. Labor wages, goods pricing, and meetinghouse commerce illustrate a tightly connected agrarian economy. Over time, Baptist and other Protestant congregations formed, including Roxborough Baptist Church (organized 1789). Educational institutions such as the Levering School (1748) and later schoolhouses reflected the maturing community.

Indigenous Presence and Displacement

Although colonial settlement intensified in the 18th century, Indigenous people remained active participants in regional trade and diplomacy for decades. However, land treaties—often unequal—along with disease and displacement reshaped Native life in southeastern Pennsylvania. By the mid-to-late 1700s, many Lenape communities had been pushed westward into the Ohio Valley.

Understanding the Great Road requires recognizing both its Indigenous origins and the profound transformations that followed colonization.