A Walking Tour of Washington, Pennsylvania
The French began staking claims to this land in 1669. In 1748, Virginia planters formed the Ohio Company to affect settlement in southwestern Pennsylvania and carry on Indian trade on a large scale. It took a decade - and a loss on the field at Fort Duquesne by George Washington - before the British could expel the French and settlements began in the area of present Washington County. One of those clusters of log structures was “Bassett, alias Dandridge Town,” laid out by John and William Hoge later named Washington, where a log courthouse was constructed in 1787 to serve as the county seat of Washington County, the first county in the United States of America to be named in honor of General George Washington. Washington County was formed to allow “the inhabitants of the area west of the Monongahela River to have more convenient courts and public offices, rather than the inconvenience and hardship of being so far remote from the seat of justice.”
A school was holding classes as early as 1781 and a newspaper and post office were in place by 1800. George Washington’s early years as a surveyor enabled him to see the need for a “national” road through the Allegheny Mountains connecting the eastern seaboard centers with the Ohio Valley and the western frontier. Completed in 1818 and still in use today, the National Pike (Route 40) runs through Washington on Maiden Street. The town’s influence and prestige grew steadily through the 1800s as one of the gateways for immigration to the West and its bustling commerce.
The region was built on the pillars of coal, steel, oil and glass and the town of “Little Washington” provided the support for these industries. At the height of its prosperity, in 1900 a magnificent, muscular county courthouse was constructed in the center of town and that is where our walking tour will get under way...
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