Maryland Route 150 - History

History

The predecessor highway of MD 150 was an oyster shell road from the village of Highlandtown (later annexed by Baltimore) to Chase. Between the Back River and Middle River, this highway was operated as the east–west segment of the Back River Neck Turnpike; the turnpike also included what is now Back River Neck Road. The first portion of Eastern Avenue improved by the Maryland State Roads Commission was from the eastern terminus in Chase to east of Earls Road, which was paved as a 15-foot (4.6 m) wide concrete road around 1923. MD 150 was constructed as a macadam road from the Baltimore city line to the crossing of Middle River in 1924; this section would be widened with concrete shoulders to a width of 18 to 20 feet (5.5 to 6.1 m) by 1926. The gap between the Middle River and east of Earls Road remained a county highway until the existing highway was supplemented by concrete shoulders and repaved in macadam between 1932 and 1934. The portion of Eastern Avenue in the city of Baltimore was not part of MD 150, which had its western terminus at the city–county line as of 1939.

Suburban development in Dundalk and Essex and the establishment of the Glenn L. Martin Company aircraft manufacturing plant in Middle River in 1929 resulted in heavy traffic along MD 150. By 1934, an average of 5,275 vehicles per day used the highway between Baltimore and Middle River, leading the Maryland State Roads Commission to recommend widening the highway to 40 feet (12 m) in width. Relief did not come until just before World War II when MD 150 from Baltimore to Middle River was deemed a vital defense connection between the city and the Martin aircraft plant. MD 150 was expanded to a four-lane divided highway from Dundalk Avenue in Baltimore to east of the Martin aircraft plant in Middle River between 1942 and 1944. This expansion involved the construction of interchanges at Martin Boulevard (later designated MD 700) and North Point Boulevard, a northern extension of MD 151 that was also constructed as a defense access project. Replacement bridges were built over the Back River and Middle River. MD 150 was also relocated in Essex; Old Eastern Avenue was designated MD 600, a designation removed by 1956.

By 1946, MD 150 had been extended west into the city of Baltimore over Eastern Avenue at least as far as Highlandtown. Around 1950, the state highway followed Highland Avenue south from US 40 to Eastern Avenue. MD 150 was moved to Kresson Street, Lombard Street, and Ponca Street, which met Eastern Avenue just west of its present junction, in 1960. Around 1963, Haven Street and Kresson Street were converted to a one-way pair, with Haven Street carrying eastbound traffic south and Kresson Street handling westbound traffic toward US 40. The portion of Lombard Street between Haven and Kresson was added to MD 150; the state highway was also extended north on Haven and Kresson to Monument Street, then east along Monument Street to MD 150's new western terminus at US 40 at the U.S. Highway's underpass of CSX's Philadelphia Subdivision. This convoluted path was ameliorated around 2002 when the highway was shortened to its present course in East Baltimore.