Rhode Island Route 114 - History

History

Two sections of modern Route 114 were previously laid out as turnpikes in the early 19th century. In 1805, a charter was granted to the Rhode Island Turnpike corporation, which constructed a road from Portsmouth center to the Bristol Ferry at the north end of Aquidneck Island. The road is now Bristol Ferry Road (Route 114) and Turnpike Avenue. In 1813, the road from northern Pawtucket to the village of Valley Falls in Cumberland was also laid out as a turnpike, known as the Valley Falls Turnpike'. The old road is what is now Broad Street in Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Cumberland.

Route 114 was an original Rhode Island route designated in 1923, running from Newport to Grants Mills in Cumberland. Until the 1960s, Route 114 ended at the intersection of Pine Swamp Road and Diamond Hill Road in Cumberland. Present-day Route 114 from that point west to Route 122 in Woonsocket, Rhode Island was given the Route 142 and later the Route 11 designation. When Route 11 became Route 121 in the 1960s, Route 121's terminus was cut back to the same intersection where Route 114 originally ended, and the route west to Woonsocket became Route 114.

In 2000, part of Route 114 northbound south of downtown Pawtucket was re-routed. The old alignment left Prospect Street at Pond Street, went east along Pond Street to Summit Street, north on Summit Street (this turn onto Summit is still signed as of July 2005) and re-joined Route 114 southbound at the corner of Summit Street and Division Street.