New York State Route 284 - History

History

Modern NY 284 was gradually acquired by the state of New York over the course of the early 20th century. The first stretch to be added to the state highway system was the section between the northern village line of Unionville and the hamlet of Slate Hill, which was improved by the state under a contract awarded on June 18, 1904. Work to bring the existing highway up to state highway standards cost $50,879 (equivalent to $1.3 million in 2013), and the rebuilt road was taken over by the state on December 19, 1906. It was designated but not signed as State Highway 160 (SH 160). A contract to improve the highway's continuation to the New Jersey state line south of Unionville was awarded on June 19, 1922, and the highway was reconstructed and taken over by the state by 1926 as SH 500.

When the first set of posted routes in New York were assigned in 1924, SH 160 and SH 500 became the westernmost portion of NY 8, which continued northeast to Newburgh by way of Middletown and Montgomery. In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, the NY 8 designation was reassigned to another highway serving the Central New York Region and the North Country. The portion of its former alignment east of Montgomery became part of the new NY 215 while the rest was renumbered to NY 84. Another, much smaller renumbering was carried out in the mid-1960s after I-84 was built along an alignment similar to that of NY 84. To prevent confusion between the two nearby roads, the section of NY 84 south of Slate Hill was renumbered to NY 284 while the part east of Middletown became an extension of NY 211. From Slate Hill to Middletown, the road remained part of US 6 and NY 17M, which NY 84 had previously overlapped.