NY91 originally extended as far south as Cincinnatus and as far north as Bridgeport when it was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York. The route was truncated to its current northern terminus at Jamesville in the late 1930s and cut back to its modern southern terminus at Truxton in 1981. Most of NY91's former routing northeast of Syracuse became NY298 while the highway that NY91 followed from Cincinnatus to Truxton is now maintained by Cortland County as County Route600 (CR600) and County Route600A.
Route description
NY91 begins at an intersection with NY13 (Main Street) at the eastern end of the hamlet of Truxton. NY91 proceeds north across and along Labrador Creek, crossing a junction with the terminus of County Route151 (Prospect Street). Paralleling Labrador Creek and winds northward through the town of Truxton as a two-lane rural roadway, crossing northeast across the creek near Shackham Road. Turning northwest through the Labrador Hollow Unique Area, NY91 begins paralleling the Labrador Pond and crosses the county line from Cortland County to Onondaga County. Now in the town of Fabius, NY91 continues north past Labrador Crossover.[3]
The rural roadway continues northeast through the town and soon becomes a local roadway along the fields in Onondaga County. Now entering the hamlet of Apulia, NY91 reaches a junction with NY80. NY91 and NY80 form a concurrency through Fabius, crossing a junction with the southern terminus of Berwyn Road (unsigned CR114) The route remains rural as it runs eastward past the junction with Swift Road (CR237). NY80 and NY91 enter the village of Fabius. Now known as Main Street, the two-lane road enters the village to the west, and at the junction with Mill Street, where NY91 turns north and leaves out of the village.[3]
Continuing through the town of Fabius, NY91 remains the two-lane rural roadway, turning westward at a junction with Cemetery Road (CR170). This western stint is short, with NY91 turning north again at a junction with the eastern terminus of Chase Road (CR237A). Now in the town of Pompey, NY91 continues north into the hamlet of Pompey. In the center, NY91 reaches a junction with US20 and Cherry Street (CR109 / CR109A). Through downtown Pompey, the route remains primarily residential, soon leaving the hamlet.[3]
Continuing northwest through the town of Pompey, the route runs along the northeastern edge of the Pompey Golf Club and soon reaches the Jamesville Beach County Park. Running northwest, NY91 runs just east of the Jamesville Reservoir, soon reaching the hamlet of Jamesville. Passing northbound,. NY91 and CR2 (South Street) parallel each other along Butternut Creek. A short distance later, both routes reach respective junctions with NY173 (East Seneca Turnpike) in the town of De Witt. This junction marks the northern terminus of NY91.[3]
History
When NY91 was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York,[2] it was substantially longer than it is today. NY91 originally began at NY26 in Cincinnatus and followed Taylor Valley Road and Cheningo Road through the Truxton hamlet of Cheningo to the hamlet of Truxton, where it joined its modern alignment and proceeded north to Jamesville. From there, the route continued north past Jamesville to NY31 in Bridgeport by way of overlaps with NY173 and US11 through downtown Syracuse and what is now NY298 from Syracuse to Bridgeport.[4] NY91 was truncated southward to the intersection of US11 and NY173 west of Jamesville c.1934[5][6] and eastward to its current northern terminus at Jamesville at some point between 1935 and 1938.[7][8]
In the late 1930s, the route was truncated northward to begin in Cheningo.[9][10] The former route to Cincinnatus on Taylor Valley Road was designated as CR600 by 1974.[11] NY91 was truncated again on April1, 1981, when ownership and maintenance of the portion of the route south of NY13 in the hamlet of Truxton was transferred to Cortland County as part of a highway maintenance swap between the county and the state of New York.[12] While NY91 was cut back to the eastern terminus of its then-overlap with NY13,[13][14] the former routing of NY91 south of Truxton to Cheningo on Cheningo Road was redesignated as CR600A.[15]