Skip to main content

Abandoned Fowler Avenue in Clovis, California

By

Originally Fowler Avenue in the city of Clovis had a brief discontinuation approaching Herndon Avenue.  Fowler Avenue traffic heading northbound was required to detour briefly onto westbound Herndon Avenue.  During 2001 this discontinuation was removed when Fowler Avenue was reconfigured to access the Sierra Freeway (California State Route 168) via an interchange.  This led to a segment of the original alignment of Fowler Avenue just south of Herndon Avenue to be abandoned.  Despite a shopping center opening over part of the original Fowler Avenue alignment in 2016 much of the abandoned roadway remains.  




The history of the abandoned original alignment of Fowler Avenue in Clovis

The original alignment of California State Route 168 departed downtown Clovis eastbound along Tollhouse Road.  This original alignment did not interact with Fowler Avenue at the Herndon Avenue intersection.  Fowler Avenue north of Tollhouse Road ran north to Herndon Avenue where a break in the corridor was encountered.  Traffic wishing to continue north on Fowler Avenue was required to take a left-hand turn onto westbound Herndon Avenue followed by a quick right-hand turn.  

The original configuration at the Fowler Avenue and Herndon Avenue intersection can be seen on the 1946 United States Geological Survey map of Clovis.  California State Route 168 can be seen displayed following Tollhouse Road.  


During the 1990s construction on the Sierra Freeway broke ground as the new alignment of California State Route 168.  The limited access freeway grade spanned from California State Route 180 at Postmile FRE R0.435 to R11.85 a short distance east of Thompson Avenue.  This freeway corridor would be fully opened to traffic during May 2001.  

Fowler Avenue was selected for a freeway interchange with the Sierra Freeway a short distance north of Herndon Avenue.  Part of this project included realigning Fowler Avenue to make it continuous with the segment north of Hernon Avenue.  This led to the original alignment of Fowler Avenue from Herndon Avenue south to Backowski Avenue being abandoned.  The segment was likely not razed due to be the land parcels being purchased by commercial real estate interests.  

The abandoned portion of Fowler Avenue can be seen behind a shopping center just south of Herndon Avenue on Googe Maps.  


The abandoned portion of Fowler Avenue can be seen facing south from Herndon Avenue on a July 2011 Google Street View Image.  The abandoned roadway is shown to have been subject to road paint testing at some point.  


The shopping center located at the southeast corner of the Fowler Avenue/Hernon Avenue intersection opened during 2016.  The new shopping center consumed much of the abandoned portion of Herndon Avenue.  Despite the presence of a modern shopping center a portion of abandoned Fowler Avenue is still located behind the parking lot. 

These photos face south along the abandoned original alignment of Fowler Avenue.  




The reverse view on abandoned Fowler Avenue facing towards Hernon Avenue.  


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

By
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.   ...
2 comments
Read more

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

By
  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

By
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...
4 comments
Read more