Roads that have Old in its name, but no newer name

[roadman65]

I noticed that in Orlando, FL you have Old Winter Garden Road, but no New Winter Garden Road or even a Winter Garden Road.
In Kissimmee, FL you have Old Vineland Road, but no new or something modern.

Both of these are old roads of newer alignments, FL 50 and US 192, but if they left the old names as is, it would not create confusion.

Old Cheney Highway in East Orlando, has a Cheney Highway in Brevard County several miles to the east, but once part of the same.

[Takumi]

My neighborhood has an Old Town Drive, but it's because it parallels Old Town Creek.

[deathtopumpkins]

I've noticed a common practice up and down the east coast is to name roads "Old [town name] Road" once bypassed by a new highway. Not sure if the old highway had that name or not, but the new one usually doesn't, particularly when it's a freeway.

[formulanone]

Old Railroad Bed Road in the Huntsville, Alabama area. In fact, most of the railroad was never completed, but the ROW was later used for vehicle traffic.

[Urban Prairie Schooner]

Old Hammond Highway in Baton Rouge, which indeed was the old highway to Hammond, though there is not currently a Hammond Highway or New Hammond Highway. However, Florida Boulevard (its replacement) was originally named "Baton Rouge-Hammond Highway" from Airline Highway eastward.

Also, Jefferson Highway in south EBR Parish is sometimes called "Old Jefferson Highway." Maybe old in the sense that it is no longer the main through traffic route, but no older alignments nearby that I know of. Same goes for Old Scenic Highway (LA 964) and Old Gentilly Road in eastern New Orleans.

[Revive 755]

There's an Old Cheney Road in Lincoln, Nebraska, but the road does not go to the town of Cheney, and there is no New Cheney Road.

There is also a Old Lemay Ferry Road in Jefferson County, Missouri, but New or plain Lemay Ferry Road.   There is a Lemay Ferry Road in St. Louis County (US 61-67 and MO 267) that used to almost line up with the Jefferson County Old Lemay Ferry.  It's possible the current Jeffco Boulevard was once the new road.

[NE2]

In Kissimmee, FL you have Old Vineland Road, but no new or something modern.

SR 535 is Vineland Road...

[golden eagle]

We have Old Canton Road in Jackson, but it there is no Canton Road. In the suburbs, there's Old Vicksburg Road and Old Brandon Road, but neither has a "new" road or simply a Vicksburg Road or Brandon Road.

[US71]

Old Missouri Rd
Old Wire Rd
(Fayetteville, AR, also Springdale, AR)

Old State Road (Mattoon, IL)

[Takumi]

Oh, and in Petersburg there's just plain ol' Old Street.

[adt1982]

Litchfield, IL has Old US 66 and Historic Old US 66.

[CentralCAroadgeek]

The Santa Clarita area down in SoCal has The Old Road.

[roadman65]

I forgot this one, but Old Raritan Road in Edison, NJ has no New Raritan Road or Raritan Road.  However, it is continuation of the next township Scotch Plains Raritan Road.  Why Edison chooses the "Old" before it is beyond me, but it is not in the shadow of any other newer road and continuation of an existing one.

[sandwalk]

In the northern suburbs of the Rockford, IL metro, we have an 'Old River Road.'  There is no New River Road or a regular River Road.

[bulkyorled]

The Old Road in Santa Clarita, CA (and surrounding communities)
There isn't anything called "The New Road" or anything, oddly enough anyone who doesn't know the history about the street, it use to be called San Fernando Rd which continues on south after Sierra Hwy...
Not sure why they didnt just keep it SF Road

[empirestate]

I've noticed a common practice up and down the east coast is to name roads "Old [town name] Road" once bypassed by a new highway. Not sure if the old highway had that name or not, but the new one usually doesn't, particularly when it's a freeway.

I think this grows out of a historic practice of referring to roads descriptively, which for much of their history was the only available method. A lot of roads never had formal names until relatively recently, and it's questionable whether some do even still.

Point being, in earlier days it was common to refer to a road connecting Anytown and Fooville as "the Anytown road" if you were in Fooville, and "the Fooville road" if you were in Anytown. The road didn't have a name, per se, so that's just what you called it. It's likely that during the early boom years of highway building (early 20th c.) there would be a substantial realignment; that would now be referred to as "the Anytown road" and the old left-over piece is now "the old Anytown road". Eventually, the Anytown road probably gets numbered as a county or state highway, so now the common parlance is "highway 53", but you still have "the old Anytown road".

Finally, it becomes advisable for local governments to formally name their roads, so highway 53 becomes State Highway 53, and the old Anytown road becomes Old Anytown Road.

A similar situation: Remember in Stand By Me where the kids are looking for the "back Harlow road"? Very New England! (Of course the film moves the location from Maine to Oregon, but that road name sticks out to me like LA curb addresses in The Office.) Early on, there would have been a main road to Harlow, but there may have also been, well, a back way. And maybe also an in-between route called "the middle Harlow road". "The Harlow road", "the back Harlow road" and "the middle Harlow road". We could expect to see those roads today, 50 years after the action takes place, labeled "Route 117", "Back Road" and "Middle Road" respectively (I'm making up the route number). Nothing in the area called "Harlow Road" or any variant anymore...

[roadman65]

I've noticed a common practice up and down the east coast is to name roads "Old [town name] Road" once bypassed by a new highway. Not sure if the old highway had that name or not, but the new one usually doesn't, particularly when it's a freeway.

I think this grows out of a historic practice of referring to roads descriptively, which for much of their history was the only available method. A lot of roads never had formal names until relatively recently, and it's questionable whether some do even still.

Point being, in earlier days it was common to refer to a road connecting Anytown and Fooville as "the Anytown road" if you were in Fooville, and "the Fooville road" if you were in Anytown. The road didn't have a name, per se, so that's just what you called it. It's likely that during the early boom years of highway building (early 20th c.) there would be a substantial realignment; that would now be referred to as "the Anytown road" and the old left-over piece is now "the old Anytown road". Eventually, the Anytown road probably gets numbered as a county or state highway, so now the common parlance is "highway 53", but you still have "the old Anytown road".

Finally, it becomes advisable for local governments to formally name their roads, so highway 53 becomes State Highway 53, and the old Anytown road becomes Old Anytown Road.

A similar situation: Remember in Stand By Me where the kids are looking for the "back Harlow road"? Very New England! (Of course the film moves the location from Maine to Oregon, but that road name sticks out to me like LA curb addresses in The Office.) Early on, there would have been a main road to Harlow, but there may have also been, well, a back way. And maybe also an in-between route called "the middle Harlow road". "The Harlow road", "the back Harlow road" and "the middle Harlow road". We could expect to see those roads today, 50 years after the action takes place, labeled "Route 117", "Back Road" and "Middle Road" respectively (I'm making up the route number). Nothing in the area called "Harlow Road" or any variant anymore...

That is how US 1 got is name between Baltimore and Washington.  Near Washington it is called Baltimore Avenue, then outside the 495 Beltway it becomes Baltimore- Washington Boulevard up until Elkridge where it becomes Washington Boulevard just as it enters Baltimore where it is the road leading to the Nation's Capital at that point.

In Gettysburg, PA all roads leading out of town are referred to by the city it leads to.  For example, US 15 Business leading Southward out of Gettysburg is Emmitsburg Road which is the first town in MD on the old Route 15 and the road still goes there to this day.  Then leading north you have Harrisburg Road cause US 15 heads there and Chambersburg and York Roads for US 30 as those are the next two cities in either direction.  Baltimore Pike was once a trail used in the Civil War to get from the Capital to there, that as we all know later became US 140 and now either PA 97, MD 97, or MD 140 and nonetheless it heads to Baltimore from Gettysburg.  Although, I do not know how Hagerstown got on PA 116 when there is no direct road to there as PA 116 ends well before the MD Line.

Newark, NJ has the same, however Bloomfield Avenue goes miles beyond its namesake community, and here in Orlando we have a Tampa Avenue, but it does not lead there.  You do have themed streets that use towns as well.  Then the old US 92 in Intersession City, FL has "Old Tampa Highway" as its name where it does go there still to this day, but new US 92 is Orange Blossom Trail up until Polk County where it is un-named except in the incorporated areas and nothing of Tampa either.

[hbelkins]

The city of Winchester, Ky. had a Potomac Avenue.

Clark County had a Potomac Drive, outside the Winchester city limits.

When a countywide 911 system was instituted, authorities felt there might be some confusion between the two roads. So Potomac Avenue in the city was renamed Olde (yes, with the pretentious "e" tacked onto the end) Potomac Avenue.

[roadman65]

Old Liverpool Road in Liverpool, NY may be one.  NY 370 is apparently named Ondadaga Parkway where it appears to be an old highway as there is a warren truss railroad bridge over NY 370 where it bypasses Old Liverpool Road.  Interestingly enough, Old Liverpool Road is Truck NY 370 because the bridge is so old it is before the current height standards were set in Place and therefore must use the other roadway.

[flowmotion]

Old Railroad Bed Road in the Huntsville, Alabama area. In fact, most of the railroad was never completed, but the ROW was later used for vehicle traffic.

This one is a nice grammatical twist. That is, unless there is a new railroad bed somewhere nearby.

[the49erfan15]

I grew up near a road called Old Friendship Road. There is a small community nearby that Google labels Friendship but I lived near there for 20 years and I've never heard anyone call it that (there is a Friendship United Methodist Church, though). Anyway, there is no Friendship Road or New Friendship Road to speak of.

[hbelkins]

There are a few "Old Railroad Grade" Roads in Kentucky.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

When the Corp of Engineers and City of Columbus constructed Alum Creek Reservoir, they rerouted Old State Rd (Del. CR 10) to the left of the reservoir and merged it into the pre-existing Lackey Rd (between Cheshire and Berlin Station Rds) and continued it north to US 36/Oh 37.
So, South Lackey Old State Rd is newer than Old State Rd.

And Old State Rd is named as such by Delaware County Engineers because the Worthington-New Haven route was among the first of the post roads in Ohio

[flowmotion]

Point being, in earlier days it was common to refer to a road connecting Anytown and Fooville as "the Anytown road" if you were in Fooville, and "the Fooville road" if you were in Anytown.

A practice which is still common in California, especially since most counties do not assign numbered routes.

I think this grows out of a historic practice of referring to roads descriptively, which for much of their history was the only available method. A lot of roads never had formal names until relatively recently, and it's questionable whether some do even still.

This is somewhat of an aside, but back in the 1970s my parents purchased property on a road which was had no official name. Someone had unofficially named it "Leeland Road" with a wooden sign, but only much later did the county define a grid system, designating it something dull like "192nd Avenue". The colloquial name lasted a number of years, but eventually fell out of usage.

The property itself was identified by a Fire Number. (Two of them actually, the first being a sequential number and the second likely based on a coordinate system.) Now it has a conventional address of something like 12345 192nd Ave., which is unsigned and really only useful to the fire department.

So I think you are correct and it is relatively recently when it was determined that roads must have formal names and were signed as such. Probably the 1980s, or later in some parts.

[on_wisconsin]

Old Sauk Rd and Old Middleton Rd in Madison, WI have no "new" replacements.