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presents

The Roads and Rails of Mercer County, WV /

CR 16

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Highway	Names	Start	Terminus	Length (km)
CR 16	Brickyard Rd.	CR 7, Gardner	WV 20 (Mercer St.), Princeton	8

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Overview

County route 16 is a road in central Mercer County directly connecting Princeton with Gardner. The highway is divided between a level portion along Brush Creek, and a mountainous portion ascending to the Princeton plateau. The entire highway is built to state primary standards, with two full lanes and a centre line.

History

CR 16 has one of the most interesting histories of any Mercer County secondary highway. The north course of the route was originally built not as a vehicular road, but as a railway...specifically, a branch of the Virginian Railway serving the Bluestone Lumber Company's camp in Gardner.

Thanks to overlogging, the Gardner lumber camp went bust after scarcely a decade of existence, and by 1923 news sources were already describing the railway branch as "abandoned."

CR 16 was commissioned in 1933. The portion of the highway north of Gardner Junction was built upon the old railway grade, while the south portion was routed upon pre-existing infrastructure from the late nineteenth century.

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A side-by-side comparison of the 1900s railway, and the 1930s vehicular road that replaced it. Both transportation routes crossed Brush Creek in two places, and the original railway bridges may have been reused in the earliest days of the road.

CR 16 has undergone realignment north of Princeton. Its early course proceeded due north, with a distinctive eastward "kink" (blue arrow) where the road descended a hill.

At some indeterminate point (probably in the 1940s or early 1950s), CR 16 was shifted west onto a better-graded alignment, absorbing most of CR 16/2 in the process. The old alignment is approximated by Lilly Grove Drive, Topaz Avenue, and Gayle Street in Lilly Grove.

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Fractional spur roads

North of the Princeton city limits, CR 16 passes through the unincorporated community of Lilly Grove, West Virginia...home to a confusing, tangled mess of streets with fractional designations that are not signed, named, or numbered consistently either in the field or on the map.

Road	Names	Start	Terminus	Length (km)	Notes
16/1	Low Gap Rd.	CR 16 north of Princeton	N. Walker St., Princeton	2	Original 1930s road with numbers assigned from north to south.
16/2	Radio Ln.	CR 16 north of Princeton	CR 16/1 north of Princeton	insignificant	Original 1930s road with numbers assigned from north to south. South end truncated and north end made impassable at some point after 1935.
16/3	Woodland Ln.	CR 16/6 north of Princeton	dead end	insignificant	Labelled on maps as 16/13 and signed in the field as 16/3; unclear which number is correct.
16/4	Rocky Branch Rd.	CR 16, Gardner Junction	CR 7/1, Kegley	2	Formerly part of CR 7/1 (probably).
16/5	(unknown)
16/6	Thornton Ave., Pearl St., Topaz Ave., Spring Grove Ave., Bane Ave., Union Dr.	CR 16 north of Princeton	varies	3	Number assigned to a discontiguous "pretzel" of various streets.
16/7 (old)	Church St., Lower Pine St.	CR 16/1, Princeton	Hunt St., Princeton	insignificant	Now an unnumbered Princeton city street.
16/8	(unknown)
16/9	(unknown)
16/10	Broadway St., Cove St.	CR 16/19 north of Princeton	Christie Ave., Princeton	insignificant
16/11	Gayle St.	CR 16 north of Princeton	CR 16/6 north of Princeton	insignificant	Former alignment of CR 16
16/12	Topaz Ave., Union Ave.	CR 16/6 north of Princeton	CR 16/6 north of Princeton	2
16/13	Woodland Ln.	CR 16/6 north of Princeton	dead end	insignificant	Labelled on maps as 16/13 but signed in the field as 16/3; unclear which number is correct.
16/14	Sunrise Ave.	CR 16/6 north of Princeton	dead end	insignificant	Labelled on maps as 16/14 but signed in the field as 16/32; unclear which number is correct. Meanwhile, portions of CR 16/4 and 7/1 are signed in the field as 16/14 in error.
16/15	Bane Ave.	CR 16/6 north of Princeton	CR 16/12 north of Princeton	insignificant
16/16	Bostic St.	CR 16/6 north of Princeton	dead end	insignificant
16/17	Oakwood Ave.	CR 16/6 north of Princeton	CR 16/11 north of Princeton	insignificant
16/18	Gardner Loop Rd.	CR 16 south of Gardner	CR 16 south of Gardner	insignificant
16/19	Hickory St.	CR 16/10 north of Princeton	dead end	insignificant
16/20	Flint St.	CR 16/10 north of Princeton	dead end	insignificant
16/21	Hatcher St.	CR 16/10 north of Princeton	dead end	insignificant
16/22	Bish Ave.	CR 16/6 north of Princeton	dead end	insignificant
16/23	(unknown)
16/24	(unknown)
16/25	Brushy Creek St.	CR 16 south of Gardner	dead end	insignificant
16/26	Lilly Grove Dr.	CR 16 north of Princeton	CR 16/12 north of Princeton	insignificant	Former alignment of CR 16
16/27	Our Hollow Rd.	CR 16, Gardner Junction	dead end	insignificant
16/28	White Oak Dr.	CR 16/1 north of Princeton	CR 16/29 north of Princeton	insignificant
16/29	Short St.	CR 16 north of Princeton	CR 16/28 north of Princeton	insignificant
16/30	Gum St.	CR 16/29 north of Princeton	dead end	insignificant
16/31	Lohr Ln.	CR 16 north of Princeton	dead end	insignificant
16/32	Sunrise Ave.	CR 16/6 north of Princeton	dead end	insignificant	Labelled on maps as 16/14 but signed in the field as 16/32; unclear which number is correct.
16/33	Zanza Ln.	CR 16/6 north of Princeton	dead end	insignificant

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