Pennsylvania Route 474 - History

History

Route 474 follows the alignment of the Wattsburg and State Line Plank Road. The plank road was first chartered on March 25, 1851, when the Pennsylvania State Legislature enacted eight commissioners to start the private highway. The charter detailed that the to-be-constructed plank road was assigned to head from the intersection with North Street in the community of Wattsburg to the New York state line, where it ended near the house of J.B. Foote, a local. Following the rules set in a legislation on January 26, 1851. The plank road company, called the Wattsburg and State Line Plank Road Company, was granted 250 shares of $25 company stock (a total of $6,520 in 1851 USD). They were also given a timetable for the construction of the new highway, that if the road was not completed between 1854 and 1858, the charter would be null and void and money would be necessary to repay the state and debts of the company. The plank road itself remained one of the several public roads in Erie County, and by 1884, was still serving its purpose.

Route 474 was assigned in 1984, when the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation used the plank road alignment to connect Wattsburg to New York State Route 474, which was designated about a decade prior as a replacement to the original New York State Route 74.