End of historic US highway 111

Note: since I don't have access to a comprehensive collection of historical road atlases, much of the info below is based on the research of Robert Droz; click here to view his site. Photo credits: J.P. Nasiatka; Alex Nitzman; me

US 111 was an original 1926 route, and it existed until 1963. Its south terminus was in Baltimore MD. My 1947 and 1959 maps show it coming south from Towson on York Road/Greenmount Avenue, and ending at the intersection with North Avenue/US 1. The photo below is looking south on Greenmount at North Av:

Nasiatka, Aug. 2002

That's the historic south end of US 111. Below we're looking east on North Av at Greenmount:

Nitzman, Jan. 2008

Until 1963, US 111 began to the left. Below we're looking the opposite direction on North:

Nasiatka, Aug. 2003

At upper right, you can see the guide sign for MD hwy. 45 - that's the designation that replaced US 111. J.P. estimates that the mast arm shown in that photo dates back to at least the 1960s, and therefore it's likely that it once supported "US 111 (right)" signage.

On my main index, I chose to list Harrisburg as US 111's northern terminus, even though the route did extend north of there at various times during its existence. During a few different timeframes, US 111 ended at the New York state line in Lawrenceville PA (there's a photo from there on Tim Reichard's page). But the north terminus was in the Harrisburg area for a total of 27 years (it was cut back to that point in 1936, when US 15 was extended north along what had been US 111). At the time, US 11 used the Market Street Bridge to cross from Harrisburg to Lemoyne. US 111 began to the south from Market via 3rd Street/Bridge Street.

It wasn't long before the routing of US 11 was changed, such that it stayed on the west bank of the Susquehanna River. When this happened, instead of crossing into Harrisburg via Market, US 11 went through Wormleysburg on Front Street. By 1940, Walnut Street in Wormleysburg became Bypass US 11. By 1950, mainline US 11 was changed to follow Walnut, and old US 11 on Market through Lemoyne became Alternate US 11. Soon after that happened, the US 111 designation was extended north with Alt US 11, so that it would continue to have a connection with mainline US 11. The map below was made during that timeframe - you can see the north end of US 111 in the lower left corner:

Gousha, 1959

In the photo below, you can see downtown Harrisburg and the Pennsylvania State Capitol building on the far side of the Susquehanna. This is in Wormleysburg, facing northeast on Walnut Street where it ends at Front Street. Northbound US 11/US 15 comes down Walnut to this spot, and then turns left on Front. Before 1961, if you took a right here, you'd be on the north beginning of US 111:

me, Nov. 2000

Below is a closer view of the signage:

me, Nov. 2000

The photo below was taken from what used to be the north end of US 111:

me, Nov. 2000

That's heading northwest on Front; Walnut is the light ahead.

When I-83 was built, the US 111 designation was changed to follow the new freeway. At first, US 111 exited at 3rd in Lemoyne and continued following its old route up to Wormleysburg. But Jeff Kitsko wrote to say that, for a period of two years, the US 111 designation was extended east and north along I-83, to end at the US 22 interchange (exit 50). The photo below is looking eastbound on US 22:

Nitzman, July 2000

The north beginning of US 111 was to the right (with I-83 and eastbound 322) from 1961-1963; then US 111 was decommissioned.