It Was Supposed to Be Route 254

I've mentioned several times on this blog that my hobby used to be driving, photographing and researching old highways. While my area of interest was primarily the old federal two-lane highways like the old 6 & 2 (Lake Road), I was also fascinated by the process in which today's limited access State Route 2 was conceived and built through our area. We've all driven it, either heading east towards Cleveland or west towards Sandusky and it certainly made our lives easier. I've devoted many posts to it.

What has always been interesting to me about the highway is that before it was built, the planners hadn't decided how to designate it. While it eventually became limited access Route 2 (breaking up the classic 6 & 2), it was originally going to be called Route 254. That's what is revealed by the screaming headline above in the Lorain Journal of March 2, 1955.

"The proposed new Route 254," the article notes, "would provide a 30 minute link between Lorain ad Elyria to downtown Cleveland. Cost of this project is estimated at $40 million."

As we know now: the construction wouldn't start until the 1960s; the highway was built in pieces, with a chunk here and a chunk there; that the segment through Huron for be delayed for many years; and that it wouldn't extend seamlessly to Cleveland until the 1970s.

The "30 minute link" to downtown Cleveland" didn't quite pan out either. I know – I drove to Cleveland on the highway for many years. The traffic congestion is pretty bad. The planners didn't factor in urban flight, or the population explosion that is still taking place along the highway where new developments are still springing up.

And what about poor Route 254? Denied the chance to be a major player, the largely rural route doesn't even extend all the way through our area like it used to when I was a kid. I believe its western terminus is Route 57 – near where the E. H. Roberts man used to rock.