Vermont Route 16 - History

History

The portion of VT 16 west of US 5 was originally numbered in 1922 as part of Route 12 of the New England road marking system. Route 12 was a multi-state route known as the "Keene Way" that began in New London, Connecticut, passing through Worcester, Massachusetts and Keene, New Hampshire before entering Vermont. In Vermont, it passed through Montpelier and continued north through the village of Barton, ending at the city of Newport. When the Vermont state highway system was officially created in 1931, New England Route 12 became Vermont Route 12, running 157 miles (253 km) from Ascutney to the city of Newport. In 1955, a new route from Montpelier to Morrisville was added to the state highway system as the "Montpelier-Morrisville State Highway". At around the same time, the road from Barton village to Westmore center had been designated as VT 56.

By 1967, several changes had taken place to the state route designations in the area. North of Montpelier, VT 12 was relocated to use the Montpelier-Morrisville State Highway. The original VT 12 alignment north of Montpelier was split into two routes. The Montpelier-Hardwick segment was assigned as an extension of Vermont Route 14, while the Hardwick-Barton segment was re-designated as Vermont Route 16. The Barton-Newport segment, which overlapped with U.S. Route 5, became just U.S. Route 5. VT 16 was later extended along old VT 56 to its current northern terminus at VT 5A.