New York State Route 50 - History

History

When the first set of posted routes in New York were assigned in 1924, the portion of modern NY 50 south of Saratoga Springs was designated as part of NY 10, a north–south highway extending from the New Jersey state line near New York City to Saranac Lake via Albany and Saratoga Springs. In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, NY 10 was realigned south of Long Lake to pass west of the Capital District on its way to the Southern Tier. The old alignment of NY 10 between Scotia and Saratoga Springs became part of the new NY 50, which continued north to Gansevoort along a previously unnumbered roadway.

By 1947, Erie Boulevard, Maxon Road, and Freemans Bridge Road were collectively designated as a spur of NY 50. As a result, the NY 50 designation effectively split in Glenville, with the west branch continuing south to Scotia and the east branch continuing southeast to NY 5 in Schenectady. The east branch was removed from maps at some point between 1958 and 1962; however, it was redesignated as a special route of NY 50 by 1968. While maps drawn by General Drafting labeled the route as "NY 50 Alternate", maps drawn by the H.M. Gousha Company labeled it as "NY 50 Spur". The special route was eliminated at some point in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The portion from Nott Street north to NY 50 remains state-maintained as NY 911F, an unsigned reference route.