On May 31, 1911, the Pennsylvania State Highway Department was created, a result of the passage of Act 193 by the Pennsylvania state legislature. 

   An excerpt from the legislation describes the new act as "providing for taking over from the counties or townships of the Commonwealth certain existing public roads connecting county-seats, principal cities, and towns and extending to the State line; describing and defining same by route numbers as the State Highways of the Commonwealth; providing for the improvement, maintenance and repair of said State Highways solely at the expense of the Commonwealth, and relieving the several townships or counties from any further obligation and expense to improve or maintain the same, and relieving said townships or counties of authority over same; requiring boroughs and incorporated towns to maintain certain State Highways wholly and in part ..."   The act continues at some length to describe the state's new highway system.

   The first image below is a photograph of the title of a map showing the location of the highways in this region that were newly designated as state highways.  

  The second image shows the portion of the map that includes Greene, Fayette, and portions of Washington and West-moreland counties and the newly numbered state highways in those regions. 

   Of particular note on this 1911 map is Pennsylvania Highway 113, which is shown as traveling through downtown Brownsville, connecting Uniontown to Washington.  Subsequent maps included in this Brownsville HISTORIC MAPS ARCHIVE -- blueprints, actually -- detail the planning of the construction or reconstruction of State Highway 113 through Brownsville and South Brownsville boroughs.  Of course, today there is no State Highway 113 in this part of the state.

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To Zoom in on the map below for a closer look:

Click/tap on a part of the map of interest to you, wait for up to 10-12 seconds, and a clear zoomed image will appear.

   

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