New York State Route 222 - History

History

The east–west highway connecting the village of Groton to the city of Cortland was originally improved to state highway standards as part of three separate projects in the early 20th century. On July 10, 1906, the first project was let to rebuild the section between the Cortland city line and Highland Road, a north–south road west of what is now Cortland County–Chase Field Airport. The road was added to the state highway system on October 11, 1907, as unsigned State Highway 446 (SH 446). A contract to improve the part of the Groton–Cortland road leading west from Highland Road to the Tompkins County line was awarded on April 29, 1912; this segment was accepted into the state highway system on January 8, 1913, as SH 996.

In Tompkins County, the road was reconstructed as part of a project contracted out on August 24, 1916. Work on the highway was completed in the early-to-mid-1920s, and the improved road was added to the state highway system as SH 1433. The Groton–Cortland state highway did not have a posted route number until the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, when hundreds of state-maintained highways were assigned a designation for the first time. SH 446, SH 996, and SH 1433 were collectively designated as NY 222, which continued east into downtown Cortland by way of locally maintained streets. The alignment of NY 222 has not been changed since that time.