Maryland Route 765 - History

History

Solomons Island Road was one of the original state roads marked for improvement to form a statewide system by the Maryland State Roads Commission in 1909. The highway was graded and surfaced as an improved dirt road from Owings south to Hunting Creek in 1910 and 1911 and from there to Prince Frederick between 1911 and 1913. Solomons Island Road from Prince Frederick south to Solomons was graded and surfaced as a dirt road in 1913 except for two segments: a 14-foot (4.3 m) wide shell road was built through Solomons and a 14-foot (4.3 m) wide gravel road was built for 3.6 miles (5.8 km) through Lusby. This highway was improved to a gravel road for its whole length and several dangerous curves were modified by 1919. When the roads commission assigned numbers to state highways in 1927, Solomons Island Road was designated MD 2. By 1934, the Maryland State Roads Commission proposed Solomons Island Road be widened from 16 to 18 feet (4.9 to 5.5 m) to 20 feet (6.1 m) from Owings to MD 509.

The first upgrades to MD 2 between Solomons and Prince Frederick occurred in 1937, when the highway was widened and resurfaced with bituminous stabilized gravel from Prince Frederick south to Port Republic. The highway was upgraded from Port Republic south through St. Leonard to beyond Quaker Swamp, with several relocations including a relocation at that creek, in 1939 and 1940. The MD 2 reconstruction continued south a few miles to the northern end of Lusby in 1942, a stretch widened to 22 feet (6.7 m) and resurfaced with bituminous stabilized gravel. The highway through Lusby was relocated, reconstructed, and surfaced with bituminous stabilized gravel in 1944. The gravel portions of MD 2 from Port Republic to Lusby were bituminous stabilized in 1946. The reconstruction of MD 2 from Prince Frederick to Solomons concluded in 1949 when the highway from Solomons north to the southern end of Lusby was relocated, resurfaced, and surfaced with bituminous stabilized gravel.

MD 2 originally followed Armory Road through the northern part of Prince Frederick. By 1946, the highway had been relocated to its modern alignment and paved north of Armory Road. The bypassed portion of Armory Road was marked as MD 750 by 1950 but may have been removed from the state highway system by 1952. MD 2 was widened to 27 feet (8.2 m) and resurfaced with bituminous concrete through Prince Frederick in 1950. This improvement occurred contemporaneously with or shortly before the construction of the Prince Frederick bypass; MD 2 moved to the new 24-foot (7.3 m) wide bituminous stabilized gravel highway in the autumn of 1951. The bypass was resurfaced with bituminous concrete in 1954 and 1955. By 1956, the old road through the county seat was marked as the first section of MD 765.

The next sections of MD 765 to be designated were between Sunderland and Owings when MD 2 was relocated north of MD 4 in 1965. Unsuffixed MD 765 was assigned to the old road through Port Republic and St. Leonard after MD 2-4 was relocated to its present course to the west of those communities in 1981. The four mainline portions of MD 765 through the Lusby and Solomons areas were designated when MD 2-4 was relocated through those communities in 1987. MD 765R and MD 765Q did not originally connect; the highways were connected when a new road was built between them parallel to MD 2-4 in 1999.