Program

NYS Historic

Subject

Transportation

Location

2924 NY-414, Clyde, NY 14433, USA

Lat/Long

43.112933, -76.869472

Grant Recipient

Village of Clyde (Building Department)

In 1847, New York state passed a law to allow for the incorporation of companies that would construct and operate plank roads or turnpike roads throughout the state. The law required that notice of incorporation be “given in at least one newspaper, printed in each county through which said road is intended to be constructed.” The state also specified that a plank road would be required to measure at least four rods wide, and be constructed with an even and permanent track made of timber, plank, or other hard surface to “permit carriages and other vehicles conveniently and easily to pass each other and also, so as to permit all carriages to pass on and off where such road is intersected by other roads.”

Shortly after the passage of the 1847 incorporation law, the Clyde and Rose Plank Road Company formed to construct a 5-mile plank road connecting the communities of Clyde and Rose Valley in Wayne County. After its completion in 1848, the road passed inspection by the county, and the Clyde and Rose Plank Road Company adopted rates of toll. Vehicles with two horses could travel on the road between Clyde and Rose for six cents, vehicles with one horse for four cents, and every additional horse would cost two cents, while sheep, hogs, or cattle cost one cent per mile. The plank road was included on H.F. Walling’s 1853 Map of Wayne County, along with the two toll houses that were located on each end of the road.

After having served as a toll road for just over 30 years, Wayne County received authorization from the state to allow the Clyde and Rose Plank Road Company to abandon the road. In 1879, the road became a public highway.