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Route 41, a path to Pa.'s past
Those living along this bucolic corridor don't want it to lose its charm.

Route 41 is a traveler's time capsule, showcasing sweeping rural vistas as it slices through eastern Lancaster and western Chester Counties and into Delaware on a 22-mile path first traveled by foot centuries ago.

Amish farmers still use horse power to work their fields along the north end of the highway, while to the south mushroom farms share dwindling open space with new housing developments. The middle of the route runs through the region's famous horse country. Villages cling to it like Victorian charms. Long the shortcut through Philadelphia's backyard, Route 41 has become a new front line for the westward sprawl of the city's exurbs.

Just behind the pastoral facade, the corridor is under pressure from several directions. More than 13,000 vehicles a day — 2,600 of them big-rig trucks — run its length.

Almost 7,300 commuters attracted by the allure of country life and lower costs for new housing clog feeder roads every day. Studies predict that traffic could quadruple in 20 years.

"There is growth coming up from Wilmington, east from Lancaster and west from Chester and Delaware Counties," said A. Charles "Chuck" Artinian of Parkesburg, whose ARA Real Estate signs dot the landscape. "It is a battle of green vs. greed. There has to be a balance."

A score of housing developments priced from $250,000 to more than $1 million have been or are being built within a few miles of Route 41's southern end.

SAVE 41 (Safety, Agriculture, Villages, Environment), a citizens' group formed to lobby against a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation proposal to expand the route (put on a back burner for now), has become a vocal and political force.

SAVE's members say they have seen Exton and the unbounded sprawl in northeastern Chester County and don't want it in their world. They have contended that a two-lane highway with European-style roundabouts at key intersections would be the best alternative to widening the road to four lanes and building bypasses around its congested southern end, as PennDot had proposed.

PennDot promised in November to consider SAVE's proposals. But whatever shape the reconstruction project takes, it is likely years away — PennDot did not include Route 41 in a near-term project list it released in the fall.

Louis Kaplan, chairman of SAVE's board, said the road runs through one of the largest collections of preserved open land in the region. He said members fear that expanded roads will bring expanded growth.

"What happens along Route 41 will...impact the entire area," Kaplan said.

Artinian, who also owns the Chuck Stop Restaurant, says Route 41 is a slice of Americana. "This is like our own Route 66," Artinian said. "I love this area. There is a culture to Route 41."

Vacationers drive it on their way to New Jersey and Delaware beaches or to the mountains and winter resorts. Truckers use it from points west of Gap, Pa., to the Port of Wilmington in Delaware.

Humberto Rocha, owner of El Sombrero restaurant and market near Avondale, said the road has a feel to it often lost on busier roads such as Route 202.

"This is a road that you have to pay attention to when you drive," Rocha said. "If you are on 202, you can go by something without seeing it. Here, you see what is around you."

Route 41, known locally as the Gap-Newport Pike, began its last major makeover in the 1940s. It was completed in December 1954.

Gap sits at the head of Route 41 where Route 30 cuts up from Lancaster on its way into Chester County. If Gap is the head of the road, the Gap Family Diner has been sitting on its right shoulder since 1959.

"We are a landmark for Route 41," said Marilyn Garver, the 6 a.m-to-2 p.m. hostess at the diner where 80-cup coffee urns perk all day long and shoofly pie says Lancaster County.

"We have generations of people coming here," Garver said. "I have customers tell me: 'I have been coming here since my grandfather brought me.' They tell me: 'And you have been here all of that time.' "

Down the road is Artinian's restaurant, the Chuck Stop. Meat, Eggs, Spuds and Pies in block neon light up the windows, giving passersby a good indication of its fare.

Artinian, 65, a Lansdowne transplant, Drexel University graduate, and amateur magician, brought his own brand of humor — sometimes blue humor — to the truck stop. (T-shirts reading "Our eggs get laid every day" are on the waitstaff's uniforms.)

"We serve a lot of food here," he said as a waitress carried a platter laden with slabs of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy to a customer. "The truckers demand it."

He said Route 41 is a road where the uses are constantly changing.

"We have a mix of tourists, horse people, boaters, Amish buggies, farm vehicles, and, of course, truckers," he said. "The road is safe. It is the drivers that are a problem."

Christiana and its sister borough Atglen straddle the Lancaster-Chester County line. They are old railroad towns that saw their brightest moments more than a century ago, but stay alive on extra doses of small-town charm.

Christiana Borough Manager LaVerne "Bud" Rettew said that, in the late 1800s, the village had electricity, steam heat, a newspaper and hotels. It is now a bedroom community for residents who work throughout the area.

The "new" Route 41 bypassed it 50 years ago.

"Things have been pretty quiet since then," Rettew said. "The town has a nice feel to it. Children run around the neighborhoods, people walk the sidewalks. It has a Victorian charm."

Neighboring Atglen, so named because most of it was near Glen Run (but Atglen sounded better than Nearglen), is a village of churches where children ride their bikes to the tiny public library.

With towns tucked off the route's northern end, farms roll on for miles.

John Stoltzus, with the help of his family (he has 11 children age 26 to 3), works a 40-acre farm south of Atglen. He has been selling produce at the popular Hidden Acres Farm stand for eight seasons.

"About half of my customers are locals but the rest are people traveling by who see my signs," Stoltzus said.

Route 41 brushes up against Chester County's horse country, with an equine population of 15,500.

On a crisp September Saturday night, more than 400 SAVE supporters paid $45 a head to pack a barn on Springdell Farm for barbecue, music and socializing.

Hay wagons served as shuttles from the pasture-turned-parking lot to the barn.

Local activists mixed with politicians, farm owners and residents from most of the municipalities that bound Route 41. Men in blazers and corduroys and ponytailed women in leather vests, slacks and riding boots sipped wine from plastic cups as they marked their bids in a silent auction to raise money for SAVE.

Densey Juvonen, former president of SAVE, said she was pleased with the turnout.

"This is not just a small group of people trying to protect their self-interests," she said.

Route 41 passes the ever-rising mounds of the Southeastern Chester County Refuse Authority landfill at the Route 926 interchange and slows to 35 m.p.h. through Chatham.

John and Helen Vogel opened the Chatham Diner 2 1/2 years ago and have established a strong following by serving heaping breakfasts and brawny burgers. Their 3-year-old son, John-John, adds a family flair as he works the crowd like a pint-size maître d', introducing himself to newcomers and calling regulars by name.

John Vogel, who recently started offering a more ambitious menu three nights a week ("We still have diner food, but I wanted to try something new") — said Route 41 is the reason his 22-seat restaurant exists.

"If they bypass this area [as one proposal calls for], I would just have to close up," he said. The prospect drew a gasp from Karen Hokanson, who eats at least one meal a day at the diner.

Pass south through Chatham, and the often heavy smell of agriculture blends with and changes into the once-you've-smelled-it-you-will-always-know-it odor of mushroom farming.

Mushrooms are a $350 million-a-year business in Pennsylvania, with most of the production concentrated east and west of Route 41 and south of Route 1. The signature mushroom houses with peaked roofs are everywhere.

Trucks hauling mushrooms fan out from the area, making daily deliveries throughout the nation.

From his office at M. Cutone Mushroom Co. on Route 41 in Avondale, general manager Keith Kimmel looked out on the traffic stopped at the light.

"People complain about the trucks, but most of this traffic is caused by cars," Kimmel said. "I used to ride my bike into Avondale when I was a kid. Now I won't let my kids near Route 41 on their bikes."

Kimmel said advances in the mushroom-growing business have reduced the amount of land needed for a successful farm. Farmers are selling their land to developers who sell the homes to residents who are put off by the smells of mushroom compost.

"It is a catch-22," Kimmel said.

A few miles south, Brittany Hills, a 55-and-older development in New Garden Township, is nearing completion. The complex offers a maintenance-free lifestyle and a clubhouse. The 120-houses are almost sold out, with prices reaching more than $400,000.

Across Route 41 from Kimmel's office, Rocha, 50, is in his tortilla factory on Ellicot Road, proof of yet another change along the roadway.

Rocha talks over the racket of 20,000 taco shells an hour coming off his assembly line. He started the business almost 15 years ago and has expanded it to regional outlets.

The influx of Mexicans working in the mushroom business has steadily increased over the last three decades. Chester County officials estimate that 25,000 Mexicans live in the county.

"There are more coming all the time," Rocha said. "I can tell because there is an increase in the demand" for his food products.

Back in the barn at the SAVE shindig, Juvonen said she hoped that the future of corridor did not pave over the past.

"This is not just about Route 41. It is a much bigger issue. This is to save a special place. This is a place of open spaces."

"Abracadabra!" Owner and part-time magician A. Charles "Chuck" Artinian performs a trick for Doug Averett at the Chuck Stop Restaurant with the help of (from right) Karen McCarthy; her daughter Kayla Cafarella, 13; and McKenzie Garrison, 14. McCarthy and the girls, all Chuck Stop workers, had just walked in to start their shift.

Darrel Redcay, 49, of Cochranville, drives a tractor pulling a hay baler and wagon as he and helper Levi Fisher, 46, head for another load of hay on a 70-acre field off Route 41 in Londonderry Township.

"We are a landmark for Route 41," says hostess Marilyn Garver of the Gap Family Diner. Generations of customers frequent the spot: "I have customers tell me: 'I have been coming here since my grandfather brought me. . . . And you have been here all of that time.' "

Order up! Cristina Gutierrez brings a customer's lunch to the register at El Sombrero restaurant and market off Route 41 near Avondale. Owner Humberto Rocha said the road has a feel to it often lost on busier highways: "Here, you see what is around you."

A line of traffic waits in the northbound lane of Route 41 where it meets Route 30 in Gap, Pa. The corridor through Southeastern Pennsylvania's fields, horse country and mushroom farms is under pressure from many fronts. Some worry that increasing traffic and new housing developments will threaten open space.

Copyright (c) 2004 The Philadelphia Inquirer