100 years of US routes: 1926-2026
1926-1953
Originally the west end of US 92 was in Tampa. Back then, the route followed Florida Avenue all the way down to the courthouse on what was then called Lafayette Street, but is now Kennedy Boulevard:
The photo below is looking north on Florida. Today Kennedy is one-way westbound (eastbound FL 60 uses Jackson Street, one block behind the camera). Straight ahead on Florida was once the west beginning of US 92:
Later, US 92 ended on Hillsborough Avenue at Nebraska Avenue (which carried US 41)...
...and right after that map was made, the US 301 designation was extended to Tampa. Some maps suggest that US 301 ended on Harney Avenue at its junction with US 41-92 (Hillsborough), but more-detailed maps show that the US 301 designation actually continued west on Hillsborough, sharing a common terminus with US 92. As an example, the following map was included in FDoT's 1951 application requesting AASHO's permission to delete the blue portion of US 301 and instead extend it southward along the red segment:
The National Archives has a good photo of that endpoint taken during the 1950s. The following more recent photos were taken looking west on Hillsborough (info about these strange colored shields):
Today that is northbound US 41 (which continues to the right on Nebraska) and US 92 (which continues straight ahead). But historically both US 92 and US 301 ended there.
Here is a view from the opposite direction (eastbound on Hillsborough):
For a time, straight ahead was the west beginning of US 92 and the south beginning of US 301, but both routes were extended beyond Tampa in the early 1950s.
Research and/or image credits: Justin Cozart; Josh Lintz; J.P. Nasiatka; Alex Nitzman; Mike Roberson; Dale Sanderson