Since its beginnings almost 300 years ago, a rich and distinct cultural landscape has developed in eastern Lancaster County. In the early 18th century, settlers of various ethnic and religious background migrated to present-day Lancaster County. These included English and Welsh Quakers, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, French Huguenots, and Swiss and German Mennonites. Over the years the cultural heritage of these peoples melded, but various remnants of this heritage remain in eastern Lancaster County today.

Historic Structures in the area date from the 18th through the early 20th century. Architectural styles range from the Continental style (like the 1719 Hans Herr House at left, just outside the project area) through the Georgian, Federal, Classical Revival modes and Victorian styles, to the Colonial Revivals of the early 20th century. However, most of the farmhouses in the area would be termed vernacular or constructed in a traditional format reflecting their southeastern Pennsylvania heritage.

With any transportation project that takes place in a region as historic as the Route 30 study corridor, one of the major goals is to preserve as much as possible of that historic fabric that makes the area unique, and in fact those preservation efforts became law in 1966. Section 106 of the National Preservation Act requires Federal agencies to consider the effects that transportation improvement projects may have on historic resources. It also provides resource agencies such as the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation a reasonable opportunity to comment on such undertakings. Section 106 ultimately seeks to balance historic preservation with the needs of Federal undertakings through consultation with agency officials and other interested parties, starting in the early stages of project planning. The first step in that process is to identify those properties which may have local, state, or national significance, a task requiring careful research and fieldwork.