Skip to main content

Tulare/Fresno County Route J19

By


County Route J19 is a 25.65-mile Letter County Highway located in Tulare County and Fresno County.  County Route J19 begins at California State Route 198 in Visalia and terminates at California State Route 63 at Orange Cove.  County Route J19 currently follows Plaza Drive, Road 80, Alta Avenue through Dinuba, Manning Avenue and Hill Valley Road.  Prior to 1965 Legislative Chapter 1372, County Route J19 terminates at California State Route 180 north of Orange Cove via Hills Valley Road.  Legislative Chapter 1372 deleted California State Route 226 and extended California State Route 63 to California State Route 180.




Part 1; the history of County Route J19

County Route J19 was commissioned during early 1960s as a shortcut to connect heading towards Kings Canyon National Park from US Route 99/California State Route 198 in Visalia to California State Route 180 northeast of Orange Cove.  From California State Route 198 near Visalia northbound County Route J19 began on Plaza Drive.  From the Visalia area County Route 19 followed Road 80 and Alta Avenue to Dinuba.   North of Dinuba, County Route J19 entered Fresno County on Alta Avenue and turned eastward on Manning Avenue.  County Route J19 turned north again Hill Valley Road towards Orange Cove where it intersected the northern terminus of Legislative Route Number 132 at Park Boulevard/Sumner Avenue.  County Route J19 continued north of Orange Cove following Hill Valley Road to a terminus at California State Route 180 in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  

County Route J19 can be seen as originally configured on the 1966 Gousha Map of California.  

As part of the 1964 State Highway Renumbering what was Legislative Route Number 132 between Orosi and Orange Cove was renumbered as California State Route 226.  California State Route 226 was a short-lived designation as it was consolidated with California State Route 63 via 1965 Legislative Chapter 1372.  Legislative Chapter 1372 also annexed County Route J19 north of Park Boulevard/Sumner Avenue as part of California State Route 63.  

The extended definition of California State Route 63 first appears on the 1966 Division of Highways Map.  California State Route 63 is shown as a planned State Highway north of Orange Cove which indicated that existing County Route J19 north of Orange Cove was not yet up to state standards. 



Hill Valley Road north of Orange Cove is shown as part of California State Route 63 on the 1969 Division of Highways Map.  The extension of California State Route 63 truncated County Route J19 to Orange Cove.  


Beginning in the 1980s Tulare County began to deemphasize the Letter County Routes.  This culminated in all Letter County Route signage in Tulare County being removed by modern times with the lone exception being County Route J37 on Balch Park Road.  Within Fresno County signage of County Route J19 lingered on but as of the publication of this blog only two known signs remain. 



Part 2; a drive on County Route J19

County Route J19 northbound begins on Plaza Drive in Visalia of Tulare County at California State Route 198.  Dinuba is signed as being 15 miles north of California State Route 198.  






Northbound County Route J19 intersects County Route J32 at Goshen Avenue.  








Northbound County Route J19 departs Visalia on Road 80 as a four-lane expressway and intersects County Route J34 at Avenue 328.  




Northbound County Route J19 intersects County Route J36 at Avenue 368.  




Northbound County Route J19 intersects County Route J38 at Avenue 384.



Northbound County Route J19 intersects California State Route 201 at Avenue 400.



Northbound County Route J19 enters the city of Dinuba at on Alta Avenue and intersects County Route J40 at El Monte Way. 







County Route J19 northbound drops to two lanes departing Dinuba and follows Road 80 to the Fresno County line.  Upon emerging in Fresno County, County Route J19 follows Alta Avenue to Manning Avenue where it turns east.  The last two County Route J19 shields on northbound Alta Avenue can be found at Dinuba Avenue and Manning Avenue.  










County Route J19 follows Manning Avenue east to Hill Valley Road and turns north again. 




County Route J19 northbound follows Hill Valley Road where it terminates at California State Route 63 at Park Boulevard/Sumner Avenue near the eastern edge of Orange Cove.  




As noted in Part 1, County Route J19 originally followed what is now California State Route 63 north of Orange Cove to a terminus at California State Route 180.  The climb from Orange Cove to California State Route 180 is the Sierra Nevada Mountains is steep and swift. 


















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ghost Town Tuesday; The Packard Plant and Michigan Central Station

By
A couple years back I was in Metro Detroit, against my better judgement I decided on a ruins hunt in the City. Why am I featuring a city of 673,000 approximate residents on a Ghost Town Tuesday?   The reason is two fold; back in 1950 the City of Detroit had an approximate population of 1,850,000 residents at the height of the Domestic Automotive Industry.  A common definition of a "ghost town" is either an abandoned place or a place that has lost the vast majority of it's population.  With a almost 63.6% population decline the City of Detroit would certainly meet the criteria of a place that has lost most of it's population.  The second reason is simply that Detroit is the City I was born in and the truth is that I don't have many photos from when it wasn't a civic corpse. For whatever reason the day I picked to go to downtown Detroit had to be one of the most gloomy late summer days I've ever seen in Michigan.  The rain was coming down pretty hard ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Tale of Tollhouse Road, western California State Route 168 and failed Piute Pass Highway

By
Western California State Route 168 is entirely located in Fresno County and is linked historically to the Tollhouse Road corridor.   Tollhouse Road is one of the oldest highways in the Sierra Nevada range of Fresno County. The corridor presently begins in at Clovis Avenue in downtown Clovis and extends northeast to Huntington Lake. In 1866 the Woods Brothers established mining claims on Pine Ridge. In 1867 Fresno County would grant the brothers a toll franchise to construct a roadway to the desirable logging areas atop Pine Ridge and near Dinkey Creek. The Woods would establish a tollhouse at the start of their franchise road and lumber mill. The lumber mill attracted settlers which led to the establishment of the mountain town of Tollhouse. Fresno County would purchase the Tollhouse Road in 1878 and make it a public highway. The county would remove the tolls and incorporate the corridor into the existing county road network. Prior to the establishment of Clovis in 1...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Vague Original Southern Terminus of US Route 91 in the Californian Mojave Desert

By
From a modern standpoint, the routing of Interstate 15 between Barstow to the Nevada state line is very clear.  Historically regarding US Route 91 this wasn't the case as the hostile and barren parts of the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County had few good roadways.   In 1920 the Arrowhead Trail commissioned the Silver Lake Cutoff from Las Vegas southwest to Daggett.  The Silver Lake Cutoff saved 90 miles of travel from the original highway corridor by using an alignment utilizing Jean, Goodsprings, Ripley, Kingston and Silver Lake.  Although the Silver Lake Cutoff existed during the early development of the US Route System it was far more haggard than the original Arrowhead Trail alignment south of Las Vegas through Searchlight and Bannock.  During the planning phase of the US Route System the southern terminus of US Route 91 was to be located at US Route 60 (later US Route 66) in Bannock, California to the west of Needles.  When the US Route Sys...
Post a Comment
Read more