NEW YORK STATE ROUTE 39

'New York State Route 39' is an east-west state highway in Western New York, USA, running between Chautauqua County and Livingston County. NY 39 runs eastward from its western terminus at U.S. Route 20 east of Fredonia in the Town of Sheridan to US 20, then conjoined with New York State Route 5, at its eastern terminus in the Village of Avon, south of the City of Rochester.

Contents

Route description

Chautauqua County

Cattaraugus County, first entry

Erie County

Cattaraugus County, second entry

Wyoming County

Livingston County

History

Major intersections

References

Route description

Chautauqua County

NY 39 begins at an intersection with US 20 at the southern extent of the town of Sheridan, northeast of Fredonia and southeast of Dunkirk. Heading east, NY 39 intersects a number of county routes, most notably County Route 85 and County Route 93 in the Village of Forestville and the Town of Hanover, respectively, but no state routes before crossing into Cattaraugus County.

Cattaraugus County, first entry

Communities
★ Sheridan ★ Gowanda ★ Collins ★ Springville ★ Sardinia ★ Yorkshire ★ Arcade ★ Eagle ★ Castile ★ Perry ★ Geneseo ★ Avon

In the Village of Perrysburg, NY 39 intersects County Route 58, locally known as North Road. To the east, NY 39 meets U.S. Route 62 in the Village of Gowanda. The two routes form a northward concurrency, jointly occupying West Main Street to the bridge traversing Cattaraugus Creek a mere 60 yards to the northeast, where the road name becomes East Main Street and the county becomes Erie County on the other side of the waterway.

Erie County

US 62 and NY 39 break from East Main 90 yards into Erie County, turning north onto Buffalo Street. At the northern edge of the village, the two routes change direction again, turning east onto Sandhill Road. Buffalo Street continues to be state-maintained, however, as New York State Route 438.
Outside of Gowanda, US 62 and NY 39 take on a more northerly routing to the Town of Collins, where the two routes split in the town center. US 62 continues northward towards Buffalo on Gowanda-Buffalo Road while NY 39 takes Main Street east out of town.
In Collins Center to the east, NY 39 intersects the southern terminus of the Sisson Highway, New York State Route 75, at its last notable intersection until Springville. West of the village, NY 39 meets U.S. Route 219, as well as the southern terminus of the "Springville Expressway", which US 219 follows north to Buffalo. After returning to grade-level here, US 219 joins NY 39 eastward for a short 900 foot concurrency to Cascade Drive, where US 219 turns south towards Pennsylvania. NY 39, however, continues east into the village as Main Street.
On the opposite side of the village, NY 39 has a junction with New York State Route 240. After passing NY 240 and leaving Springville, NY 39 takes on an assortment of names, most notably Creek Road, before becoming Schutt Road in the Town of Sardinia. East of town, NY 39 intersects New York State Route 16 a mere 0.8 miles from the Wyoming County line that runs parallel to NY 16 at this point. The two state routes join together on a brief concurrency that leads NY 39 to the south, back across Cattaraugus Creek and into Cattaraugus County once again.

Cattaraugus County, second entry

NY 16/39 continue as one road to the town of Yorkshire, where NY 39 splits from NY 16 in the center of town. NY 16 proceeds southward into the Southern Tier towards Olean while NY 39 follows Main Street to the east across the county line and into Wyoming County.

Wyoming County

In the neighboring Village of Arcade, NY 39 remains Main Street, acting as the primary east-west road through town. In the village center, the road crosses the Arcade and Attica Railroad at-grade, a scenic railroad that is the main attraction in this small area, drawing tourists to the town from far and wide. Just east of the grade crossing is New York State Route 98, which overlaps with NY 39 for a mere 300 yards east to Water Street, where NY 98 resumes its northward trek toward Batavia. A half-mile to the east, Arcade abruptly ends and fields of farmland, a common sight along NY 39 heading east, begins.
To the northeast in Bliss, NY 39 intersects the southern terminus of New York State Route 362. Farther east, outside of Pike, NY 39 shares the roadway for a brief time with the north-south running New York State Route 19 along Allegany Road, a road name that terminates at the northeast end of the concurrency. As NY 39 continues to the northeast, NY 19 heads north to Lake Ontario.
Two miles northeast of NY 19 in Lamont, NY 39 meets the western terminus of New York State Route 436. After another 2.5 miles of northeasterly progression, NY 39 meets New York State Route 19A. NY 19A joins the angled alignment of NY 39 for a short distance to an unorthodox intersection southwest of the Village of Castile. Heading west on NY 39, travelers must exit via a ramp to NY 19A, where travelers can turn left onto NY 19A to continue west on NY 39. Eastbound NY 39, however, has no such configuration, allowing eastbound traffic to remain on NY 39 through the NY 19A/39 intersection.
Between Castile and the Village of Perry, NY 39 assumes a more northerly alignment, paralleling the edges of Silver Lake a half-mile to the northwest and Letchworth State Park two miles to the southeast. Upon entering the village, NY 39 shifts to a northeasterly alignment once again as it intersects New York State Route 246 in the heart of Perry.
East of the village, NY 39 switches counties for the final time as the road crosses into Livingston County.

Livingston County

Northeast of where NY 39 enters the county and southwest of the Village of Leicester, NY 39 intersects U.S. Route 20A at Pine Tavern. The two routes fuse together and head northeast to Leicester. In the village center, the two routes form a short concurrency with New York State Route 36, which enters from the north, travels east along US 20A and NY 39 for 250 yards, and continues south to Pennsylvania, leaving US 20A and NY 39 to continue east.
Directly east of Leicester, US 20A and NY 39 enter the Village of Geneseo. South of the village itself and north of Interstate 390, the two routes join New York State Route 63 northward for another concurrency to the southernmost point of the SUNY Geneseo campus. NY 63 breaks from the road, running along the western edge of the college while NY 39 and US 20A follow the eastern edge of SUNY Geneseo northward to the village center. Here, the two routes meet New York State Route 63 Bypass, better known as Mary Jamison Drive. At the same intersection, NY 39 and US 20A turn east onto South Street before the concurrency terminates at Main Street, where NY 39 turns north, leaving US 20A to proceed east across Western New York.
Outside of Geneseo, NY 39 becomes Avon Road, a name it retains to the village of Avon, where NY 39 becomes Wadsworth Avenue. Near the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad grade crossing of New York State Route 5 and US 20 in the center of Avon, NY 39 terminates at NY 5 and US 20.

History

Prior to 1930, what is now NY 39 was unnumbered from Sheridan to Leicester and part of U.S. Route 20 from Leicester to Avon, where US 20 continued east on its modern alignment. In the 1930 renumbering, NY 39 was assigned on its modern alignment between Sheridan and Pike while the portion of modern NY 39 between Leicester and Avon remained part of US 20.^[1] The portion between Pike and Leicester was assigned as NY 245.''Automobile Legal Association (ALA) Autombile Green Book'', 1931/32 edition, (Scarborough Motor Guide Co., Boston, 1931) When originally designated, NY 39 started from Dunkirk (at modern NY 5 via Chautauqua County Route 81),² continued east of Pike to Dansville (via modern NY 436) and Naples (via NY 63 and NY 21), and ended at US 20/NY 5 in Geneva (via modern NY 245).
When US 20 was shifted north to its current alignment between Hamburg and Geneseo in 1939, the piece from Geneseo to Avon became 'New York State Route 20D'. This designation was decommissioned a few years later and assigned to a realigned NY 39 continuing northeast from Pike through Leicester to Avon.^[2] Old 39 east of Pike was assigned to various other modern routes.

Major intersections

References

1. New Signs for State Highways
2. New York Routes - New York State Route 39