Laboratory, PA

Laboratory is an Amwell Township community in Washington County, set along the old National Pike and the highways that now carry U.S. 40 and U.S. 19. The name is memorable, but the story is older than the joke: an early variant was Pancake, after pioneer George Pancake, while the present name has been attached to this crossroads for generations. The road corridor connects the community with Washington and the farms of the county.

The Moses Little Tavern, a two-and-a-half-story brick house built in stages beginning in 1840, is the local landmark that gives Laboratory architectural weight. Today the community remains small, with the tavern, farmsteads, and roads as its durable features. Nearby Washington County supplies schools, services, and commerce, while Amwell Township roads carry traffic along the old national route. Laboratory's unusual name gets attention, but the place itself is grounded in a familiar Pennsylvania pattern: a named crossroads, an old brick house, and a landscape shaped by travel between farms and towns.