The North Missouri Cross State Highway - Part 1
The North Missouri Cross State Highway
Missouri's forgotten early 20th century autotrail.
By Route66Fan
This autotrail was considered to be a Northern alternate routing to the National Old Trails Road in Missouri , between Kansas City, MO & St. Louis, MO.
Information is from Volume 5 of the 1918 Official Automobile Blue Book (Unless where noted.).
Satellite images courtesy of Google Maps.
Part 1 - Kansas City, MO to Excelsior Springs, MO
This 31mi section also follows a portion of the Jefferson Highway.
The autotrail starts, or ends, in Kansas City, MO at East 12th St. & Grand Ave & heads North on Grand Ave & enters the River Market district. At that point, the autotrail turns East on East 3rd Street & crossed the Missouri River on the upper deck of the ASB bridge (Toll 10 cents.) on North Oak Trafficway (MO 9). In 1987, the Heart of America bridge opened downstream & the upper deck on the ASB bridge was dismantled.
Wikipedia article about the Heart of America bridge.
At this point, we enter North Kansas City & are heading North on Atlantic St. At the irregular 4 corner intersection of Atlantic St. & West 12th St, the autotrail turns East 1 block to Burlington St (MO 9). The rest of the route from here roughly follows Armour Rd (MO 210). The route does deviate somewhat at Vernon St. (MO 1), where it briefly jogs North across, what is now an old railroad bed, turns East on East 26th St. While East 26th St. now dead ends at a cul-de-sac, the cross state highway used to continue Southeast from where the cul-de-sac is & connects up with an old pavement slab that is between Armour Rd. (MO 210) & the BNSF railroad.
At Walker Rd, the autotrail goes North through the city of Avondale, MO. Just North of Avondale, MO, the autotrail jogs Northeast onto NE Winn Rd. At the intersection of NE Winn Rd & NE Parvin Rd, the autotrail actually continued straight ahead on NE Winn Rd before curving East & joining NE Parvin Rd & approaching the Chouteau Trafficway.
Just North of here, the former routing of the autotrail splits from Chouteau Trafficway & rejoins NE Winn Rd in the Winwood neighborhood. Due to the construction of I-35, in the 1960's, there is an interruption in the former autotrail route between NE 45th Terrace & NE 46th St, as seen in the picture below.
At the intersection of NE Winn Rd & N Brighton Ave, the cross state highway turns North on N Brighton Ave. Between here & Claycomo, MO, the former autotrail route follows N Brighton Ave, NE Vivion Rd, NE Munger Rd & US 69. Due to the I-35\US 69 interchange, NE Vivion Rd & NE Munger Rd no longer intersect (See picture below.).
After the autotrail enters Liberty, MO on Kansas St, it passes the Clay County courthouse, turns North 1 block on N Water St & East on E Franklin St for 3 blocks, & then North about 7 blocks on Lightburne St.
Leaving Liberty, MO, heading towards Excelsior Springs, MO, the road follows E Doniphan St (Passing William Jewell College.), N Spring Ave & SR H (Except for one point where the road diverges from SR H onto County Fair Dr - See 2nd picture below.). According to the "1919 Automobile Blue Book", there was only one railroad overpass here that existed at the time, the one located near where the intersection of N Spring Ave\SR H. The other overpass located near the intersection of SR B\SR H did not exist yet in 1919.
Upon entering Excelsior Springs, MO the "Cross State Highway" follows SR H\St Louis Ave & MO 10.
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