New York State Route 79 - History

History

From Lisle to its western end, NY 79 almost exactly follows the Catskill Turnpike, with only local deviations for easier grades, e.g., along the "hogback" eskers near Center Lisle, and the westbound climb out of Ithaca as a looping Hector Street in place of the original straight climb from halfway up that street (still visible as a right-of-way).

NY 79 was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York. It initially began at NY 15 (modern NY 96) in Trumansburg and ended at the Pennsylvania state line south of the village of Windsor. In between, NY 79 passed through Mecklenburg, Ithaca, and Harpursville. Also assigned as part of the renumbering was NY 227, a highway connecting NY 79 in Perry City to NY 44 (now NY 414) in Watkins Glen.

The Perry City–Trumansburg portion of NY 79 became an extension of NY 227 in the early 1940s. NY 79 was then truncated southward to its junction with NY 227 in Perry City. In the early 1960s, NY 79 was rerouted to follow a previously unnumbered highway west of Mecklenburg to NY 227. From there, NY 79 continued to Watkins Glen over the routing of NY 227. As a result, NY 227 was truncated to its current southern terminus south of Reynoldsville. The former routing of NY 79 from Mecklenburg to Perry City became part of an extended NY 228.