Historic US highway endpoints in Cincinnati, OH
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1927-1958
 Note: locations of endpoints given on this page are based on an interpretation of historic ODOT highway maps and a historic photo, neither of which were completely definitive with respect to these kinds of details. If you are aware of contradictory information, please contact US Ends .com.
Around the beginning of the 20th century, Cincinnati was one of the largest interior cities in the nation. This fact was not lost on the planners of the US highway system, who designated three routes through the city (US 25, US 50, and US 52), plus two others that terminated in the city (US 27 and US 42): |
c. 1927, ODOT
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And within five years, both US 27 and US 42 had been extended through Cincinnati, and two additional routes had been extended into the city, ending there: US 22 and US 127:
c. 1932, ODOT
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Exactly where did those four routes end? Unfortunately I have not seen any maps or documents detailed enough to clearly spell that out. However, this 1935 photo may shed some light:
c. 1935 (linked to source)
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That photo was taken looking west on Gilbert Avenue / 8th Street at Broadway. Since 1931 US 22 has come into the downtown area via Gilbert, so the fact that 1935 sign assembly does not include a reference to US 22 suggests that the US 22 designation ended at that intersection. Also, the US 127 shield with only a right arrow suggests that intersection also marked the south beginning of US 127.
For perspective, this next photo was looking the opposite direction (east on 8th), and the backside of the sign tree shown above is visible on the small traffic island at lower center. At the time, the landmark building on the northeast corner was the brand new headquarters of the Times-Star newspaper publisher (it has since been purchased by Hamilton County and is used as an annex). Based on the photo above, US 22 may have begun along the right side of that building (via Gilbert), and US 127 may have begun to the left on Broadway: |
c. 1933 (attribution unknown)
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So with that in mind, we can check early city map insets to see whether they support the idea that 8th and Broadway might have been a logical terminus point. This first one is the most detailed that I have seen:
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c. 1932, ODoT
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c. 1931, Clason
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c. 1940, Rand McNally
None of those prove any endpoints, but they do illustrate that several main routes converged at 8th and Broadway. Following are a couple modern photos of that intersection.
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This was looking west on Gilbert/8th. Today US 22 continues ahead, but historically it may have ended here at Broadway:
Google Maps Street View, Apr. 2019
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This image was to the north on Broadway; the aforementioned building is shown here. US 127 may have begun straight ahead, while to the right may have been the a historic beginning of US 22:
Google Maps Street View, Apr. 2019
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Although one can make a pretty good case that 8th and Broadway marked the terminus of both US 22 and US 127, this next map shows something slightly different:
c. 1940, ODOT
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There, the cartographer meticulously indicated that Broadway between 8th and 3rd Streets carried the US 22-25-27-42 designations, suggesting that US 22 may have ended on Broadway at 3rd. With I-71 and a baseball stadium looming nearby, that area looks a lot different now:
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Later on, it appears US 22 may have ended at City Hall (intersection of 9th and Plum Street:
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US 127's endpoint is even more difficult to pinpoint; although the map below shows quite a bit more detail, the terminus of US 127 is still unclear:
c. 1956, Gousha
That was published just a couple years before US 127 was extended out of Cincinnati. The southernmost US 127 marker was on Central Parkway, which also carried US 25-27-42-52. If the intention was to have US 127 junction with US 50, then it seems like traffic would have been directed to simply stay on Plum. So that may indicate that US 127 terminated at the courthouse (which was a common practice during the early years), or else it still went to 8th and Broadway (or technically 7th and Broadway by that time, since traffic had been separated into one-way couplets). Note also that by then the routing of US 22 had been changed. Nearly matching today's configuration, traffic used the 7th/8th couplet, with the designation terminating at Plum, which carried US 25-42.
What about US 27 and US 42? This is only speculation, but it seems logical that they also would have ended either at the courthouse or at 8th and Broadway. At any rate, US 27 was extended beyond Cincinnati by 1928, which may have been before it was even signposted. And US 42 was extended out of the city by 1932. That was the same year US 22 was extended into the city, and two years later US 127 was extended to Cincinnati, where it ended until 1959. (It should be noted here that in the 1959 documentation sent to AASHO regarding the proposal to extend US 127 from Cincinnati to Chattanooga, ODOT implied that US 127 signposting ended at its junction with US 27 in the Northside area, although the map they provided still showed US 127 marked all the way into the downtown area.)
Research and/or photo credits: Jeff Morrison; Mike Roberson; Dale Sanderson
Page originally created 2008;
last updated Mar. 13, 2021.
last updated Mar. 13, 2021.
