{"nrhp_refnum":"77001081","name":"Five Mile House","other_names":["The Old Toll House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"S of Zanesville off U.S. 22","address_restricted":false,"city":"Zanesville","county":"Muskingum County","state":"OH","lat":39.882003163000036,"lon":-82.05868968299995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-04-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A large two-story, L-shaped coarse stone building on the old Maysville Pike near Zanesville in Newton Township, Muskingum County, Ohio. It was built in stages, with an earlier section by about 1818 and expanded in 1839 by contractor George Highfield for Caleb and Eunice James.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it an excellent example of an early Ohio stone roadhouse-tavern. It is tied to two Ohio transportation routes, Zane's Trace and the Maysville Pike. It is also documented as a station on the Underground Railroad in the 1840s and 1850s.","narrative":"Five Mile House is a two-story, L-shaped stone building on the old Maysville Pike near Zanesville, Ohio. Its nine-bay facade is divided into three sections, and a datestone reads 1839. The earliest portion, at the rear, may date to about 1812, when the James family had settled in the area. The right-hand section of the facade was probably built by 1818, when a tavern was operating on the site. In 1839 Caleb James enlarged the building to serve traffic on the new Maysville Pike, using contractor George Highfield. The house served as a roadside tavern first on Zane's Trace and then on the turnpike. The nomination also cites a diary by abolitionist Thomas L. Gray naming it as an Underground Railroad station, and notes the hiding places in its large attic and basement. After the highway was rerouted in the 1950s, the building became a country store and gift shop, and restoration continues.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"George Highfield, contractor (1839)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as in good condition and altered; in use as a country store and gift shop beside Moxahala Park, with restoration under way and most of the 1920s stucco removed.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:10.028314-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/77001081.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71990761","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138641213"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/muskingum-county/five-mile-house-77001081/"}