Peacock Road

Peacock Road. The Historic National Road in Ohio. Named for the peacocks that once lived on a neighboring farm, this narrow brick road was on the National Roads original alignment when it was built through Guernsey County in 1828. Peacock road is typical of the steep grades and sharp curves that were built when the road followed the typography of the rough hilly terrain of eastern Ohio. As automobiles became more popular in the twentieth century, Ohio’s newly established Department of Highways began adapting the Road for modern vehicles. Sharp curves were eliminated where possible and hills were flattened. Sections of the National road were bypassed to make the road straighter so that the trip from place to place could be faster. Hills were removed in some areas to reduce the effort of traveling up and down steep grades. When you see a roadside building that seems to be sitting above the road, you are probably seeing a place where the hill has been dug away and the road has been re-built on a flatter grade.

In 1985 this brick-paved portion of the old National Road was listed in the National Registry of Historic Places for its significance as a surviving section of the National Road’s original location and because of a six-week event in 1918 that supported the Allies in World War I. World War I’s manpower demands resulted in a lack of road maintenance, and many roads were therefore impassible. The War Department placed orders with Midwestern manufacturers and then began to review the most expedient methods and routes for delivering these supplies. Railroads were already overburdened with war shipments, so overland truck routes were closely examined. The National Road was the clear choice except for the two small, unimproved sections. Federal officials contacted Ohio Governor Cox with the urgent need to repair the two sections. Lack of manpower necessitated the use of prisoners from the Ohio Penitentiary and the Mansfield Reformatory who worked night and day for six weeks to open the road for trucks on their way to Baltimore ports.

When U.S. Route 40 was improved across Ohio in 1936, this section of the National Road was bypassed, and Peacock Road became a county road. With a few residents, it is still a usable road. It also provides an opportunity to “drive back in time” and experience the National Road as it appeared in the 1920s, with its brick surface and width of 17 feet.