New York State Route 96 - History

History

In 1908, the New York State Legislature created Route 36, an unsigned legislative route that extended from Owego to Seneca Falls via Candor, Ithaca, and Ovid. South of Romulus, Route 36 utilized what is now NY 96 and NY 96B. When the first set of posted routes in New York were assigned in 1924, the Owego–Interlaken and Ovid–Romulus portions of legislative Route 36 became part of NY 15, which began in Owego and proceeded northwest from Romulus to Rochester by way of Waterloo, Phelps, Victor, Mendon, and Pittsford. From Mendon to Rochester, NY 15 followed the path of legislative Route 14, another highway dating back to 1908 that continued south from Mendon on what is now NY 64 and used Monroe Avenue between Pittsford and Rochester. Another section of NY 15—from the village of Phelps east to NY 14—utilized what had been designated as part of legislative Route 6-a from 1911 to 1921.

By 1926, NY 31 was assigned across western and central New York, utilizing Monroe Avenue from downtown Rochester to Pittsford. Although NY 96's modern routing via East Avenue was state-maintained and formerly part of legislative Route 20 from current NY 31F westward, NY 15 initially remained on Monroe Avenue, creating an overlap between NY 15 and NY 31. It was realigned at some point between 1927 and 1932 to follow East Avenue to Rochester instead. In southern Seneca County, NY 15 initially passed through Lodi on its way from Interlaken to Ovid. It was realigned in the late 1920s to bypass Lodi to the northeast on the former alignment of legislative Route 36.

In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, NY 15 basically remained intact. The only change made at this time was the straightening out of the Victor–Pittsford segment, which now bypassed Mendon in favor of a more direct alignment between the two villages via Bushnell's Basin. The former alignment of NY 15 became part of NY 251 east of Mendon and part of NY 64 north of the hamlet. US 15 was extended into New York c. 1939; it replaced NY 2, which had extended from the Pennsylvania state line to Rochester. NY 15 was renumbered to NY 2 to eliminate numerical duplication with the U.S. Highway.

The NY 96 designation was originally assigned to present-day NY 2 from NY 7 in Troy to Route 2 at the Massachusetts state line. In the early 1940s, the alignments of NY 2 and NY 96 were swapped, placing NY 96 on the Owego–Rochester routing. The only major change to NY 96 since that time came in the early 1950s, when the route was realigned between Candor and Ithaca to follow a new routing via Spencer. The Candor–Spencer portion of the alignment had been part of NY 53 during the 1920s and part of NY 223 since 1930. NY 223 was truncated to its current eastern terminus at NY 224 near Van Etten as part of NY 96's realignment. Between Spencer and Ithaca, NY 96 overlapped with NY 34, which had occupied that segment of highway since the 1930 renumbering.

In the 1950s, NY 96 was temporarily moved onto the Eastern Expressway as sections of the freeway opened to traffic. The first section extended from Bushnell's Basin to NY 31F and opened to traffic in the mid-1950s, at which time NY 96 was routed onto the new highway and NY 252 and NY 64 were extended eastward and northward, respectively, to cover NY 96's old surface alignment. NY 31F, meanwhile, was truncated to begin at the expressway. A northwest extension to what is now the Can of Worms was completed c. 1957 as a realignment of NY 96, resulting in the re-extension of NY 31F to its original terminus and an extension of NY 64 along East Avenue to the eastern edge of Rochester. NY 64, NY 96, and NY 252 were restored to their pre-1950s alignments c. 1961 when the freeway was designated as I-490.