New York State Route 33A - History

History

In 1908, the New York State Legislature created Route 16, an unsigned legislative route extending from the Southern Tier village of Cuba to the city of Rochester just south of Lake Ontario. Route 16 entered the Rochester area on what is now NY 386 and followed modern NY 386, Old Scottsville–Chili Road, and Chili Avenue northeastward to the Rochester city line. From there, the route continued for an additional 1 mile (1.6 km) to the original city limits, where it ended near the intersection of Chili Avenue and Post Street. On March 1, 1921, Route 16 was truncated to end in Le Roy while the portion of its former alignment north of Caledonia became part of an extended Route 15.

When the first set of posted routes in New York were assigned in 1924, the segment of legislative Route 15 north of Caledonia was not assigned a designation. Within two years, a highway extending from Batavia to Rochester by way of Bergen and Gates was designated as NY 33. However, NY 33 followed a more northerly routing through Gates than old Route 15 did as it used Buffalo Road instead of Chili Avenue. In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, the Chili Avenue portion of legislative Route 15 became part of the new NY 33A, a then-spur route of NY 33 that began at NY 36 in Riga and ended at NY 33 in southwestern Rochester. NY 33A was extended westward c. 1932 to the town of Bergen, where it reconnected to NY 33 southeast of the village of Bergen.