Highway history of Sherman-Denison, Texas

The main purpose of this article is to discuss the history of the US routes in the Texoma area.  It is not my intention to review every state highway and farm-to-market route.  Nevertheless, I do mention several of them in this article, but only those that somehow relate to the history of the US routes.

When the US routes were commissioned in late 1926, US 75 was initially the only designation that served the Sherman-Denison area (at the time US 69 went only as far south as Kansas City, and US 82 did not yet exist).  That was the condition illustrated on both of the following maps, from the early- and mid-1930s:

c. 1931, Clason

c. 1934, Rand McNally

The current alignment of US 75 (which bypasses Denison to the north and west) was not built until about 1994.  Originally, heading south from Oklahoma, US 75 followed what is now US 69 into Denison, but instead of curving onto Austin Avenue, US 75 initially continued south via Houston Avenue (one block east of Austin).  At Main Street, US 75 traffic was directed west through Denison's central business district.  At Armstrong Avenue, US 75 resumed its southward direction along today's TX 91.  Armstrong's name changes to Texoma Parkway near the point where TX 91 exits Denison city limits and enters Sherman (today that boundary is formed by Grayson Drive, or FM 691).  US 75 continued southwest on Texoma, and then curved to the south on Travis Street (today that movement is a bit complicated due to the presence of modern US 75, aka the Sam Rayburn Freeway).  US 75 followed Travis past downtown Sherman and the Grayson County Courthouse (situated between Lamar Street and Houston Street, not to be confused with Houston Av in Denison).  Towards the southern part of Sherman (near FM 1417) is where the original alignment of US 75 was essentially subsumed by the current freeway.  The original alignment of US 75 described above is illustrated with a green line on the interactive map below:

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US 82 was commissioned in 1932, but initially it went only as far west as Texarkana.  In 1934 US 82 was extended from Texarkana west to Lubbock, passing through Sherman.  Modern US 82 (which runs along the north edge of Sherman) was not built until about 1974.  Prior to that, US 82 followed what is now TX 56 through downtown Sherman.  Today TX 56 bifurcates into a one-way couplet formed by Houston and Lamar Streets, but initially Lamar did not exist on the west side of town and did not connect with Houston.  So originally both directions of US 82 followed the same routing through Sherman.  Specifically, heading eastbound, US 82 came into town on Houston and remained on that street to the east side of the city.  At that point traffic jogged south one block and then resumed eastbound on Lamar.  In other words, both directions of US 82 initially followed what is today the westbound alignment of TX 56.  So that explains why TX 56 is called Lamar on the east side of town, but Houston on the west, even though today it is more closely aligned with Lamar all the way through town: initially Houston was the only road that continued westward out of Sherman.  The original alignment of US 82 described here is shown in red on the interactive map above, and these are also the conditions that were illustrated on the 1936 map below (note US 82's jog in the eastern city limits):

c. 1936, TXDOT

The floor of the courthouse in Sherman is inlaid with a giant map of Grayson County.  Since the current courthouse was built in 1936, presumably that is when the floor was done too.  US 75, 82 and 69 are all shown on their original alignments, before any of today's bypasses:

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In 1935, US 69 was extended south from Kansas City.  It joined with US 75 at Atoka OK, and the two routes were concurrent between there and Denison.  At Main St (where US 75 turned west) US 69 diverged from US 75 by continuing south on Houston Av.  At Owings Street US 69 went southeast through two railroad underpasses, then south on Crockett Avenue, which curves to become Bells Drive, which curves again and then joins the current alignment of US 69 towards the town of Bells.  That original alignment is shown in blue on the interactive map above, and that arrangement was shown on the 1936 map below:

c. 1936, TXDOT

Note TX 91 in the upper left of that map.  That designation initially ran between Denison and Preston (that is, the original Preston, the one that now lies submerged beneath the waters of Lake Texoma).  That road crossed the Red River north of Preston and became OK 99, passing through Kingston and Woodville on its way to Madill.  When the Denison Dam was being planned, it was known that Preston would eventually be inundated and there would no longer be a bridge there, so in 1943 the TX 91 designation was cancelled.  Part of the highway was redesignated as FM 84, but the TX 91 designation would remain unused for the next 50 years.  In 1944 the dam was completed and it began impounding the Red River.  The Spur 151 designation was assigned to the road leading from Denison to the dam crest.  This road became OK 75 on the north side of the river (which connected with US 75 at Colbert).  But already by 1946, both states agreed to coordinate their highway designations, so OK 75 became OK 75-A, and Spur 151 became TX 75-A.

Sometime around 1950, one-way couplets were established in Sherman for both US 75 and US 82.  At King Street, northbound US 75 traffic jogged one block to the east of Travis and resumed heading north on Walnut Street.  About 14 blocks north of there, drivers used College Street to jog back over to Travis.  Similarly, eastbound US 82 traffic was directed one block south on Rusk Street to Lamar, and from there continued eastward all the way to the aforementioned jog in US 82 on the east side of Sherman.  Both of these couplets were illustrated on the 1957 USGS 1:24K topo, as well as on TXDOT's 1961 map of Grayson County.  These couplets are also shown on the interactive map above (you may have to zoom in to see them).

In 1957, on the south edge of Denison, US 75 was realigned such that it crossed the railroad tracks and came into town via Austin Avenue (in other words, it followed what is now the eastern segment of Spur 503, shown in orange on the interactive map above).  The TX 75-A designation was extended south along Armstrong, replacing the original US 75.  That left only a six-block segment of the former US 75 on Main (between Armstrong and Houston), which was redesignated as a part of FM 120.  This is also the same timeframe when US 69 was removed from the Bells/Crockett/Owings/Houston alignment and instead relocated to its current corridor (and thus the US 69-75 concurrency was extended south of downtown Denison for another 15 blocks).  Today the original US 69 alignment in Denison is marked with signs that note its predecessor, the historic Jefferson Highway:

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FM 1417 was commissioned in 1958 (initially only the western portion, which headed west from US 75 and then north along the west side of Sherman up to Pottsboro).  However, TXDOT's 1961 county map indicates that only the three-mile segment from Pottsboro to FM 691 had actually been built.  A 1963 TXDOT minute order stated that FM 1417 had been given an approx. 5.1 mile extension to the northeast, continuing east from US 75 and then north to US 82 (today's TX 56).  This is remarkable because no such road existed at the time.  It is certainly possible (and in fact probable) that it was planned for the future, but the fact is FM 1417 has never extended any farther east than the road which is now known as TX 11 (but which until 1970 was designated as FM 1281).  These were the conditions shown on TXDOT's 1972 county map; more on this to follow below.

Sometime in the 1960s, the US 75 freeway (which was being gradually extended north from Dallas) was completed as far as downtown Sherman, but north of that point US 75 traffic transitioned to the original routing along Texoma Pkwy.  So at that time Travis (and its one-way counterpart, Walnut) was turned back to city maintenance (although Travis north of US 75 continued to carry the FM 131 designation).  These conditions were shown on TXDOT's 1972 county map (today Walnut is no longer a one-way street, and Travis is one-way only in the block that forms the east side of the courthouse square).  

Meanwhile some changes had also been taking place with respect to US 82: a new four-lane alignment was being built from Whitesboro eastward towards Sherman.  By 1972 this new expressway was almost complete to the east side of Sherman, so a new roadway was authorized to function as a temporary connector between the new US 82 and the original US 82 (today's TX 56).  This new highway was designated as FM 1417.  Again, that strongly suggests it was anticipated at the time that this segment of 1417 would eventually be extended southward to connect with the other segment of 1417, forming a complete U-shaped beltway around Sherman that would connect with the new US 82 on both ends.  The TXDOT minute order described this as a 1.3 mile "extension" from old 82 to new 82, rather than a road that was not contiguous with the other segment of 1417.  In 1974 the new US 82 was complete between Sherman and Whitesboro, so the original US 82 between those two points was redesignated as TX 56.  FM 1417 (the portion that served as a temporary connector between old and new US 82) is shown in pink on the interactive map above.

In 1984, the US 75 freeway was extended up to the south side of Denision, so Spur 503 was established as a connection between the new US 75 and the existing US 75 which still ran through the city (shown in yellow on the interactive map).  ​Old US 75 along Texoma Pkwy between Sherman and Denison was redesignated as Spur 93.  All of the above changes were illustrated on the 1985 USGS 1:100 topo shown below:

c. 1985, USGS

In 1990, shortly after the above map was published, Spur 93 was replaced with the Business 75 designation.  

In 1993 the four-lane alignment of US 82 opened from Sherman east to Honey Grove, so the TX 56 designation was extended east, replacing old US 82 between those two points.  Until then, the isolated eastern segment of FM 1417 had served as the connector between new 82 and old 82 for about two decades.

The Business 75 designation did not last long: in 1994 the TX 91 designation was resurrected after 50 years and applied to Texoma Pkwy. between Sherman and Denison, replacing Bus. 75.  Also in 1994, US 75 bypass around the west and north sides of Denison was completed.  Since US 75 no longer ran through the city, Spur 503 was extended from old US 75 east and north to US 69 (replacing the remaining standalone segment of former US 75).

In 1999 TX 91 was extended north from Spur 503, replacing TX 75-A through Denison and over the dam into Oklahoma (who likewise replaced their OK 75-A designation with OK 91).

It wasn't until the late '90s or early '00s that Lamar was extended west to connect with Houston, finally giving TX 56 (former US 82) a one-way couplet all the way through Sherman.