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presents

The Roads and Rails of Mercer County, WV /

CR 17

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Highway	Names	Start	Terminus	Length (km)
CR 17	New Hope Rd.	US 52, Bluewell	WV 71 (now CR 71/13), New Hope	10

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Overview

County Route 17 is a former highway connecting Glenwood and New Hope to the community of Dolph (now called Bluewell). Together with CR 32, it has the distinction of being the shortest-lived secondary highway in Mercer County, existing for scarcely a decade before being redesignated as another road.

History

CR 17 was commissioned in 1933, and routed upon pre-existing infrastructure from the late nineteenth century.

In the early 1940s, WV 44 was redesignated WV 20 and lengthened westward to the Virginia border. CR 17 and 32 were completely usurped, with their entire course becoming part of WV 20's new extension.

The historic course of CR 17 remains part of WV 20 today, except where realignments have resulted in segments being switched to other numbers. These include CR 20/8 in Bluewell, and 20/12 near the Dan Hale Reservoir.

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Fractional spur roads

Despite CR 17's extremely short existence, the road lives on through its two spurs:

Road	Names	Start	Terminus	Length (km)	Notes
17/1	Ceres Rd.	WV 20 (former CR 17), Glenwood	WV 123, Ceres	4	Original 1930s road with numbers assigned from east to west.
17/2	Thompson Farm Rd.	Dead end; originally WV 20 (former CR 17)	CR 36	insignificant	Original 1930s road with numbers assigned from east to west. Road truncated, and half of original course flooded by Dan Hale Reservoir. North stub now CR 20/13.

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