The Lincoln Highway and the Capitol Trail

Capitol Trail Markers ready, July 22, 1920

This post began life as a simple comment on the Elmer Powers/Midway Garage post about the correct spelling of Old Capitol Trail -- specifically, whether it should be “Capitol” or "Capital". Commenters David G and Raymond made the claim that it should be Capitol, because the route originally ended at the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, and that “capital” is the town or city which is the seat of government while “capitol” is the building in which a legislature meets (and capitalized, Capitol refers specifically to the national Capitol Building in DC). On the one hand, that made perfect sense, but on the other hand the Capital Trail Garage was most definitely spelled with an "a". We needed to break the tie.

To be honest, I had heard the "leads to the Capitol" story before, but it never quite made sense. I grew up off of Old Capitol Trail. I walked along it as a kid. I rode my bike on it, caught my bus on it, even delivered newspapers along it. (I actually still have dreams of where I'm walking or riding on it.) Nothing about this little two-lane road screams "I'm the Trail to the Capitol!". It only runs, if you're being generous, from Prices Corner to Newark (and that's with a gap in the middle). So if this theory is correct, there has to be a reason why this little road got this grandiose moniker.

If I ever thought about it at all, I guess I assumed that the name maybe dated back to the Colonial Era? Perhaps in the early days of the country this was part of the main north-south route? Nice thought Scott, but there are several problems with this. First, there was no Capitol to even go to until the 1790's. Secondly, the main north-south route through the area then basically ran along what's now Rt. 4 out of Wilmington to Newport and Stanton, through Christiana, then out Old Baltimore Pike to Elkton. It definitely did not go through Elsmere and Marshallton to Newark because... third point here...Elsmere, Marshallton, and much of the road didn't exist in the late 18th/early 19th Centuries.

So there must be another, and later, reason for the name, and after some digging I think I finally understand what it is. The answer seems to be tied to another name that today's Old Capitol Trail went by in the early 20th Century, and one that on its surface doesn't seem to make any more sense than the other -- The Lincoln Highway. What we today call Old Capitol Trail was more commonly known 100 years ago as the Lincoln Highway. And just as with the skepticism of "the Capitol Trail", one might wonder: A) how is this a highway? and, B) what does it have to do with Lincoln? The answers end up being, A) c'mon, grade it on a curve, and B) not much, except secondarily.

The Lincoln Highway, conceived in 1912 and dedicated to the proposition that all men are in 1913, was one of the first trans-continental routes for automobiles and the first national memorial to the 16th President, predating the Lincoln Memorial by nine years. It ran over 3,000 miles from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. In the east, it came down through New Jersey to Philadelphia, then westward along what's now Route 30 through the rest of Pennsylvania. Did you miss Delaware there? So did the Lincoln Highway. So why is there a Lincoln Highway in Marshallton?

Plans to mark the proposed 
feeder road, Dec. 1915

In addition to the main route of the highway, there were also a series of feeder roads that connected big cities with the Lincoln Highway proper. One of these was the Washington Lincoln Highway Feeder, which ran from Philadelphia to DC, then back up to Gettysburg. It entered Delaware along Philadelphia Pike in Claymont, went through Wilmington, then Elsmere, Marshallton, Newark, and down Elkton Road. Although the Lincoln Highway Association's map shows it running along the Rt. 4 corridor I mentioned earlier, it clearly did not. The feeder was dedicated in 1916 and there were plans to mark the path through the state, but I'm unclear on whether or not that actually happened. The main highway was later marked with signs consisting of a blue "L" on a white background, with a red stripe above and a blue stripe below. These markers, installed in 1928, were made of steel-reinforced concrete, and included a medallion. The feeder highway design was to be similar, except with two red stripes and possibly the word "Feeder" below the "L" (and they probably were just metal signs).

A 1928 Lincoln Highway marker

I can't find definitively when or where it started, but apparently this feeder road, for obvious reasons, acquired the name of the Capitol Trail. The first newspaper mention I can find of it in Delaware is when Ernest S. Taite of the Delaware Automobile Association returned from a trip to the capital in early June 1919. He saw signs for the Capital Trail in Maryland and wanted the group to look into the cost of erecting similar signs in Delaware. (And for the record, returning to the original inquiry, the article spells it "Capital".) Since the majority of the length of the feeder is in Maryland, it makes sense that the name probably originated there.

October 30, 1919

Well, as the article above shows, the group did in fact decide to mark the route with 15 inch diameter circular signs, designed by Frank W. Pierson (I did look, and although there are Piersons in MCH I could not find a link between the families). The story at the top of this page, printed July 22, 1920 gives a description of the signs as placed: "The signs are circular in shape, with a white mound on which appear in blue letters the words 'Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore,' and in yellow a stencilled outline of the dome of the National Capitol." I have not found a photograph or image of these Capitol Trail markers (or of the Lincoln Highway Feeder signs), but my hope is that someone, somewhere (any sign collectors out there?) has a picture of one. I'm all but certain none remain "in the wild".

Although the designation of Lincoln Highway and Capitol Trail technically applied to the route from Claymont to the Maryland line southwest of Newark, I find very little use of it anywhere except from Prices Corner to Newark. By 1927 though, the stretch here became a state highway and in 1934 was given the designation of Route 2. Ads from the time use all three names interchangeably.

With the opening of Delaware Park in 1937, the old, two-lane Lincoln Highway/Capitol Trail became overtaxed and overcrowded. Over the next few years it was widened in places and in the case of the stretch between Prices Corner and Limestone Road, a whole new road was built, bypassing the old road. With the completion of the bridge over Red Clay Creek in 1940, this new section opened and inherited the name of Capitol Trail. The bypassed section was renamed Old Capitol Trail. In 1941, the portion of the road from Elsmere in the east to Pike Creek Road in the west was renamed The Robert Kirkwood Highway, in honor of the Revolutionary War hero. And though most people call it Kirkwood Highway, technically the stretch from Upper Pike Creek Road (where Richardson's Floral Center is...which used to be the Capitol Trail Motel, but that's a story for another day) to Newark is still called Capitol Trail.

I've come to realize that there's a surprising amount of history hidden in plain sight with place and road names, and certainly Old Capitol Trail is a great example of that. What at first seems to make little sense ends up making perfect sense once you know the full story. So I guess what I'm trying to say, and in case you skipped from the top all the way down here, yes, Old Capitol Trail is spelled with an "O". And the next time you're on Philadelphia Pike, confuse your friends by calling it The Lincoln Highway or The Capitol Trail. (I can't guarantee how long you'll continue to have friends, though.)