1794 National Road Stagecoach Inn
2175 E National Pike, Scenery Hill, PA 15360
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Overnight rates and dinner pricing vary; check the inn directly.
Access
Limited Access
Historic stone building with multiple levels; check directly for accessible rooms
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1794 · Oldest Continuously Operating Inn on the National Road · Whiskey Rebellion Era · National Register of Historic Places
The Century Inn was constructed in 1794 in what is now Scenery Hill, Washington County, Pennsylvania. The inn predates the formal designation of the National Road and served first as a stagecoach stop on the early westward route through the Allegheny region. It is recognized as the oldest continuously operating inn along the historic National Road corridor.
The inn opened during the Whiskey Rebellion era and was a witness to the federal expedition that put the rebellion down in 1794. Sources document overnight stays by Andrew Jackson, the Marquis de Lafayette, Henry Clay, James K. Polk, and Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna during the inn's stagecoach years.
The original stone structure remains, with later wood-frame additions. On August 17, 2015, a fire ignited in one of the wood-frame additions and destroyed much of the interior, including antiques and artwork accumulated over more than two centuries of operation. After thirty months of rebuilding, the Century Inn reopened on February 15, 2018. The reconstruction preserved the original stone shell and reproduced the period interiors that defined the inn's character.
Sources
The Century Inn's paranormal reputation is restrained by haunted-hotel standards — a single recurring story rather than a catalog of reported entities. The inn's most consistent account, attributed to the innkeeper, describes a small room within the restaurant that runs noticeably colder than the rest of the building. The cold is reported as not draft-related and not seasonal.
The same room features a particular interior door that the innkeeper has reported difficulty keeping locked. A figure has been described near that doorway, though without further detail in available accounts.
The most idiosyncratic detail concerns the slope of ground directly below the room. After snowfalls, footprints have been reported leading away from the inn's exterior wall — beginning at the wall itself, with no door, gate, or window above to explain their origin. This account, repeated across multiple regional sources, is the Century Inn's signature story.
The inn does not market itself as a haunted destination, and the building's reputation is more historical than spectral. Visitors interested in the cold-room story are best served by booking dinner in the tavern and asking staff directly; the inn has not formalized any paranormal-investigation programming.
Spend the night in the oldest continuously operating inn on the historic National Road, originally built as a stagecoach stop in 1794. The inn was rebuilt and reopened in 2018 after a 2015 fire, retaining its original stone walls and timber framing.
The inn's restaurant occupies the original tavern space on the National Road. Innkeeper accounts describe a persistent cold pocket near one interior door and footprints found in the snow leading away from a wall with no exterior opening.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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