The Seneca Road Company was formed to improve the main road running west from

Utica, New York Utica () is a city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 U.S. Census. Located on the Mohawk River at the ...

, the Genesee Road, from Utica to

Canandaigua Canandaigua (; ''Utaʼnaráhkhwaʼ'' in Tuscarora) is a city in Ontario County, New York, United States. Its population was 10,545 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Ontario County; some administrative offices are at the county compl ...

and operate it as a

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically ...

or turnpike. The road was originally laid out in 1794 from Baggs Square in downtown Utica (then Old Fort Schuyler) at the ford of the

Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk f ...

and followed the Indian trail past Syracuse to Canandaigua. Some accounts say it went to

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

and Avon originally. There was no City of Syracuse then. The road became known as the Seneca Turnpike, which was long and, at the time, the longest toll road in the state. On April 1, 1800, the privately held Seneca Road Company received a state charter with a capitalization of $110,000. This was a stock company with prominent local investors including

Jedediah Sanger Jedediah Sanger (February 28, 1751 – June 6, 1829) was the founder of the town of New Hartford, New York, United States. He was a native of Sherborn, Massachusetts, and the ninth child of Richard and Deborah Sanger, a prominent colonial New ...

, Benjamin Walker, John Kirkland, and Wilhelmus Mynderss. The company received a land grant of a right of way, but the roadway was . The firm was required to clear a road wide of all trees. Completed to

by 1808, it reached Buffalo in 1813. Other state stipulations were * the fare would be (equivalent to in ) * four horses be used per coach * a maximum of 12 passengers per coach * speed of * coaches also carry U.S. Mail. The road quickly led to the building of many hotels and inns along the route and was a catalyst of commerce. Toll gates were at intervals. The company was profitable and paid dividends of 10 percent for 30 years. Competition from newly constructed railroads in the late 1830s reduced traffic. In 1846, with revenues insufficient to maintain the turnpike, the company concluded it could no longer compete and be profitable. It surrendered its charter back to New York State thus ending the private phase of the Seneca Turnpike. The company was dissolved and the roadway reverted to a public road. The roadway is still in existence as part of New York State Route 5 and is still called the Seneca Turnpike or Old Seneca Turnpike in some places.

References

{{Reflist History of New York (state) Turnpikes in New York (state) Streets in Syracuse, New York