Skip to main content

Local Sign Find - 8

Here's a good one for everyone:


You are on US 70 East/NC 50 South (Glenwood Ave.) at Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh. The overhead signs date to a time when a whole mess of highways were on what is now the I-440 Beltline. Now, only a 'TO' US 64 shield stays. I am not sure what all could have gone on the signs. But the middle sign would indeed have East US 70, South NC 50, and North US 1. It appears there is room for even more. Maybe an I-440 shield maybe a 'TO' US 401, who knows.

The right overhead sign was most likely just US 1 South, but it could have had more.

So what was once there? Anyone out there know?

Comments

Brian said…
On the center sign, there were shields for NORTH US 1 and EAST US 70 on the top row, and SOUTH NC 50 on the second row. I believe the "TO" over the US 64 shield is an overlay covering up an EAST banner, from before I-40 on the south side of Raleigh was built.

The Wilson control city is an overlay; the original control city was Wake Forest, which is still used on the other signs preceding the interchange.

On the right sign, there was simply a SOUTH US 1 shield, along with a control city of Sanford right above Ridge Road. (It took us about two years after moving here to figure out that the name of the road was not, in fact, Sanford Ridge Road.)
Anonymous said…
At one time, late 70's, it even said "US 1 South/US 64 West Sanford/Pittsboro"
Dave said…
It's funny that the US 1 designations have been removed from the sign, since US 1 still runs along I 440.

Also, the TO US 64 is not quite helpful, since I 440 will take you to US 64 in both directions.

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...

Hawaii Route 50

Hawaii Route 50 is the longest Sign Route on the island of Kauai at 32.6 miles.  The entirety of Hawaii Route 50 is overlaid atop Kaumualii Highway from Lihue west to the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands. Hawaii Route 50 is one of the original 1955-era State Highway designations on Kauai.  Much of the Kaumualii Highway corridor was constructed during the sugar plantation boom of the late Hawaiian Kingdom.  The first tee beam bridge in Hawaii would be constructed along the Kaumualii Highway in 1911 at the Hanapepe.  Much of this highway would be modernized to two-lane standards through the 1930s and 1940s. This page is part of the Gribblenation Hawaii Roads series.  A compellation of all Hawaii-related media from both Gribblenation and RoadwayWiz can be found by clicking  here .  Part 1; the history of Hawaii Route 50 and Kaumualii Highway Hawaii Route 50 is the longest highway on Kauai at 32.6 miles.  The highway begins at Rice Str...

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida.  One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region.  For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate.  Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century.  Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area.  The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...