New York State Route 429 - History

History

The portion of modern NY 429 north of Sanborn was originally designated as part of Route 30, an unsigned legislative route, by the New York State Legislature in 1908. Route 30 entered Sanborn from the west on what is now NY 31 and followed current NY 429 north to Ridge Road, where it turned east toward Rochester. All of legislative Route 30 west of Rochester became part of NY 31 in the mid-1920s, while the remainder of what is now NY 429 outside of North Tonawanda was taken over by the state of New York by 1926. In the late 1920s, NY 31 was realigned between Niagara Falls and the Lewiston–Cambria town line to follow Ridge Road west to the village of Lewiston. Its former routing to Niagara Falls via Sanborn became NY 31A.

In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, the Niagara Falls–Sanborn leg of NY 31A became part of a realigned NY 3, which had followed modern NY 425 from North Tonawanda to Saunders Settlement Road prior to the renumbering. Despite this fact, NY 31A continued to extend west to Niagara Falls, creating an overlap with the cross-state NY 3. The overlap remained in place until c. 1935 when US 104 was assigned across Upstate New York. West of Rochester, it replaced NY 31, which was shifted southward to follow all of NY 3 from Niagara Falls to Rochester. NY 31A, meanwhile, was eliminated and partially replaced with NY 429, a new route that continued south from Sanborn to North Tonawanda via Ward Road and Oliver and Wheatfield Streets. NY 429 has not been substantially altered since that time.