History
In Lake County, SR 44 originally passed through downtown Leesburg on Main Street, merging with US 441 east of downtown. It then split to the north on current County Road 44, passing north of Lake Eustis. North of Eustis, it turned southeast on present County Road 452, merging with State Road 19 into downtown Eustis, where it turned east on Orange Avenue to rejoin current SR 44 east of Eustis.
The current alignment around the south side of Leesburg was taken over ca. 1986. It had previously been State Road 486 from the west end to U.S. Highway 27 (SR 25) and State Road 33 from roughly Canal Street east to Main Street, but was given to the county by the early 1980s.
At some point, SR 44 from US 441 east of Leesburg to State Road 19 north of Eustis was given to the county and numbered County Road 44; the route via US 441 and SR 19 south of Lake Eustis became SR 44. CR 44 has since been realigned to bypass Eustis to the north.
SR 44 was realigned around downtown Eustis in 2005, taking over what had been County Road 44B between US 441 and SR 44 east of Eustis. The Florida Department of Transportation gave SR 44 west of CR 44B to Lake County. CR 44B had been marked from US 441 as a bypass to SR 44 east and from SR 44 as a bypass to US 441 south, as part of a longer bypass of Eustis also including County Road 44 north and west to SR 19.
Read more about this topic: Florida State Road 44
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