New York State Route 353 - Route Description

Route Description

NY 353 begins at an intersection with NY 417 in the western portion of the city of Salamanca. It initially heads northward on the city-maintained Center Street through a commercial section of Salamanca; however, the surroundings become more residential after the route crosses the Allegheny River. The highway exits the city limits shortly afterward, at which point maintenance of the highway shifts to the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT). Now in the surrounding town of Salamanca, NY 353 continues northward on Center Street into a large, mostly undeveloped valley surrounding Little Valley Creek, where the route passes east of Bucktooth Hill and west of Lindell Lookout. The Center Street name ends about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the city line at a junction with North State Street (CR 94).

Past State Street, NY 353 heads through the valley as an unnamed road, paralleling the former right-of-way of an Erie–Lackawanna rail line into the town of Little Valley and the small hamlet of Elkdale, where the highway passes a local country club. North of Elkdale, the route curves to the northwest, matching a similar turn in the path of the creek valley. This turn brings NY 353 to the outskirts of the Little Valley, where it intersects with CR 88 (Baker Road), CR 96 (Killborn Corners) and NY 242 at separate junctions east of the village limits. NY 353 becomes concurrent with the latter, following NY 242 into the village of Little Valley, a stark departure from the sparsely populated areas to the southeast. The concurrent routes, known as Rock City Street, head into the village's central business district, where NY 242 splits off to the southwest.

North of Little Valley, NY 353 (known as Erie Street from the center of Little Valley to the village line) passes through mostly rural areas as it winds its way northwestward through a mountainous portion of Cattaraugus County. In the route's short distance in Mansfield, it intersects CR 5 (New Albion Road) and CR 14A (Toad Hollow Road connector) before traveling through several miles of rural New Albion. Just outside the small village of Cattaraugus, NY 353 intercepts CR 76 (Lovers Lane Road) and CR 6 (Leon Road). NY 353 becomes Main Street in Cattaraugus, in the middle of which it intercepts CR 12, the main highway serving the towns of Otto and East Otto. From here, the route crosses hilly, largely undeveloped sections of the towns of New Albion and Persia, meeting CR 4 (Broadway Road, the main spur into Gowanda), CR 57 (which heads into the northwest corner of the county into Markhams and Cottage), and the north end of CR 5 to reach the more level town of Dayton. Just west of the Persia–Dayton town line, NY 353 becomes Dayton–Cattaraugus Road and turns due north, paralleling the town line as it crosses a low-lying section of Dayton. After 2.5 miles (4.0 km), the route makes a sharp turn to the northwest, paralleling the New York and Lake Erie Railroad into the hamlet of Dayton, where NY 353 comes to an end at an intersection with US 62.