Welsh Road forms the southern border of Horsham Township and follows one of the parallels first laid out by Thomas Holme in his 1687 map of Pennsylvania. It is one of the earliest roads in the township.
Many of the area’s earliest settlers were Welsh Quakers. A first wave arrived in 1683 and settled in Lower Merion, Radnor and Haverford Townships, followed a few years later by settlement of a second “Welsh Tract” in an area they called Gwynedd (Welsh for “white” or “fair land”), which today encompasses both Upper and Lower Gwynedd. Some Welsh property owners held parcels that overlapped between Gwynedd and Horsham. Welsh Road, the oldest thoroughfare in the area (circa 1712), divides Horsham and Gwynedd. Built to give Welsh settlers in Gwynedd and North Wales access to the Pennypack Mills in Moreland Township, the road was originally called Pemmapecka Road (the Indian name for Pennypack Creek) but was changed to Welsh Road in 1750
from Charles Harper Smith, The Settlement of Horsham Township 99
Welsh Road is now part of the 37.4-mile-long (60.2 km) Pennsylvania Route 63 (PA 63) which runs from Green Lane to I-95. 52
