New York State Route251 (NY251) is an east–west state highway in western New York in the United States. It extends for 17.79 miles (28.63km) from an intersection with NY383 in Scottsville, Monroe County, to an intersection with NY96 in the town of Victor, Ontario County. NY251 connects to Interstate 390 (I-390) in Rush and serves the village of Honeoye Falls (via NY65) and the hamlet of Mendon within the town of the same name. The route, a two-lane, rural highway for much of its length, also intersects NY15 and NY64, two north–south highways leading to the Southern Tier and the Finger Lakes, respectively. Two sections of the route—from south of Scottsville to Rush and from Mendon to western Victor—follow linear east–west alignments. All but 3 miles (5km) of the route are located in Monroe County.
From 1911 to 1921, the north–south section of modern NY251 near Scottsville was part of Route15, an unsigned legislative route assigned by the New York State Legislature. The first portion of what is now NY251 to receive a posted designation was the segment east of NY64 in Mendon, which was part of the signed NY15 from 1924 to 1930. In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, NY251 was assigned to an alignment extending from Gates to Victor via Scottsville, utilizing modern NY386 north of Scottsville and its current alignment east of the village. NY251 was truncated to begin at NY383 in Scottsville on July 1, 1977, at which time the former routing of NY251 between Scottsville and Gates became part of an extended NY386.
Route description
NY251 begins at an intersection with NY383 in the center of the village of Scottsville, located within the town of Wheatland. It departs Scottsville to the south as River Road and crosses over Oatka Creek before meeting Quaker Road at a rural intersection just south of the village.[3] While River Road continues southward as the unsigned NY940H,[4] NY251 turns east to begin its east–west trek across the mostly undeveloped southern portion of Monroe County. After roughly 0.5 miles (0.8km), it crosses over the Genesee River and into the town of Rush, becoming Rush–Scottsville Road in the process. Just inside the town line, NY251 passes through the hamlet of Industry, a location centered around NY251's grade crossing with the Livonia, Avon and Lakeville Railroad and the adjacent Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum.[3]
Midway through the town of Rush, NY251 widens from two to four lanes and meets I-390 at exit11. Just east of the freeway, NY251 intersects NY15, which is also served by exit11 by way of a pair of short collector/distributor roads paralleling I-390 from NY251 to NY15. Past NY15, the route reverts to a two-lane highway and veers southeast to parallel Honeoye Creek into the hamlet of Rush. Here, the route passes through a more populated area as it intersects NY15A in the center of the community, at which point it becomes Rush–Mendon Road. NY251 continues to follow Honeoye Creek through progressively less developed areas and into the town of Mendon, where the creek curves southward toward Honeoye Falls at Rochester Junction. The highway, however, turns northeastward to meet NY65 at a roundabout. The northeasterly routing of NY251 continues to Mendon Center, a small hamlet near the southern tip of Mendon Ponds Park, where it turns eastward once more.[3]
NY251 continues across open fields to the densely populated hamlet of Mendon, where it has a junction with NY64 in the center of the community. East of the junction, NY251 becomes Victor–Mendon Road as it heads out of Mendon. About 0.5 miles (0.8km) from NY64, the open surroundings return as the route crosses into the Ontario County town of Victor. NY251 continues on a virtual east–west line for its first 1.5 miles (2.4km) in the county, heading through slightly more developed but still sparsely populated areas. At Phillips Road, the route curves southeastward for 1 mile (1.6km) before making one final turn to the northeast. On this last stretch, NY251 crosses the Ontario Central Railroad at a grade crossing and ends at a junction with NY96 northwest of the village of Victor.[3]
History
The westernmost portion of what is now NY251 between NY383 in Scottsville and the junction of River and Quaker Roads south of the village was once part of Route15, an unsigned legislative route assigned by the New York State Legislature. Route15 was extended northward from its original terminus in Caledonia to Scottsville via River Road on July24, 1911;[5][6] however, it was realigned on March1, 1921, to enter Scottsville on modern NY383 instead.[7] When the first set of posted routes were assigned in New York in 1924, this piece of modern NY251 did not receive a designation. Another section did, however, as the portion extending from Mendon east to Victor was designated as part of NY15.[8] In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, NY15 was rerouted between Victor and Pittsford to follow current NY96. The former routing of NY15 from Victor to Mendon became part of NY251,[9] a new highway extending from NY15 in Victor to NY33 in Gates via Chili and Scottsville. West of Scottsville, NY251 was routed on modern NY383 and NY386.[2][10]
From 1930[9] to c.1938, the River Road section of NY251 overlapped with NY35, which initially entered Monroe County on the former routing of legislative Route15 and continued north to Rochester on current NY383. The southwestern end of NY35 was moved to Mumfordc.1938, shifting the location of the overlap to Main Street in Scottsville.[11][12] The concurrency was replaced with one with NY383 when it supplanted most of NY35 in the early 1940s.[13][14] On July 1, 1977, NY251 was truncated to begin at the eastern end of its overlap with NY383 in Scottsville. The former routing of NY251 from the west end of the concurrency in Scottsville to Gates became an extension of NY386, which was a simple connector in northern Gates and southern Greece prior to the change.[15]
Automobile Legal Association (ALA) Automobile Green Book, 1930–31 and 1931–32 editions, (Scarborough Motor Guide Co., Boston, 1930 and 1931). The 1930–31 edition shows New York state routes prior to the 1930 renumbering
New York State Department of Transportation (August 24, 1977). Description of Touring Routes in New York State for the Interstate (I), Federal (US) and State (NY) Route Number Systems.