New York State Route 384

State highway in western New York, US
NY 384 continues north into Gates Circle, which is surrounded by the former Millard Fillmore Gates Circle Hospital and made up of a traffic circle with Chapin Parkway and Lafayette Avenue. Continuing north along Delaware Avenue, the route passes the Forest Lawn Cemetery a block north of Gates Circle, passing the entrance at Delavan Avenue. NY 384 runs along the western edge of the cemetery, leaving the Elmwood neighborhood for North Buffalo, where NY 384 turns northeast at Forest Avenue. Expanding into a four lane boulevard, NY 384 crosses over a piece of Park Lake as it circumnavigates several S curves through Delaware Park. In the park, NY 384 enters a partial cloverleaf interchange with NY 198 (the Scajaquada Expressway). By 1914, the definition of Route 30 was modified to include the portion of River Road and Main Street between the Niagara Falls city line and Island Street in North Tonawanda. This addition to Route 30 was removed on March 1, 1921. When the first set of posted routes in New York were assigned in 1924, none of the former North Tonawanda extension of Route 30 was assigned a designation. NY 384 was assigned as part of the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York to the primary riverside roadway between the cities of Buffalo and Niagara Falls. It began at Niagara Square in downtown Buffalo and followed Niagara Street north to the city of Tonawanda. From there, NY 384 followed Main Street into North Tonawanda, joining the former routing of Route 30 at Island Street. While Route 30 ended at the Niagara Falls city line, NY 384 continued west along Buffalo Avenue into downtown. The portion of Delaware Avenue and Grove Street from NY 324 in Kenmore to NY 384 in Tonawanda was designated as NY 266 c. 1935. The alignments of NY 266 and NY 384 south of North Tonawanda were flipped c. no – c. 1936. However, unlike NY 266, NY 384 continued south on Delaware Avenue into downtown Buffalo, where it ended at Niagara Square as it had before. NY 384 was rerouted slightly by 1948 to follow Delaware Avenue through Tonawanda and across the Erie Canal to the modern junction of Main and Webster Streets, where it rejoined its previous alignment. The route was extended south through Niagara Square to its current terminus at NY 5 by 1970.

In Niagara Falls, NY 384 originally broke from Buffalo Avenue at 10th Street to follow Erie Avenue and Falls, Main, and Niagara Streets to the Niagara River, where it connected to the Honeymoon Bridge (replaced by the Rainbow Bridge in 1941) leading to Niagara Falls, Ontario. NY 384 was truncated by 1938 to the junction of Main and Niagara Streets following the assignment of U. S. Route 104, which followed Niagara Street to the bridge instead. Rainbow Boulevard was made up of what had been Union Avenue and First Street as well as a new north–south street constructed in the vicinity of Main Street. The new roadway and First Street served as a one way couplet for NY 384: the new street became Rainbow Boulevard South and carried NY 384 southbound while First Street was renamed Rainbow Boulevard North and carried NY 384 northbound. Union Avenue, meanwhile, became a four lane, two way divided highway. At Quay Street (John B. Daly Boulevard), the Rainbow Boulevard name continued southeast over former Erie Avenue to Buffalo Avenue. In December 2005, construction began on a project to convert the Rainbow Boulevard one way couplet into dual direction streets. As part of the project, the location where the dual direction Rainbow Boulevard split into the parallel streets was turned into a roundabout while the name of Rainbow Boulevard North reverted to First Street. Rainbow Boulevard South, meanwhile, became Rainbow Boulevard. Work was completed on the conversion of both streets by August 2007, at which time NY 384 was rerouted onto John P. Daly Boulevard and Niagara Street through downtown to a new terminus at the Rainbow Bridge. John P. Daly Boulevard was originally designated as NY 952B while the portion of Niagara Street west of 5th Street was originally part of NY 951A; both unsigned reference route designations are unchanged as of 2009 despite the fact that both now overlap the signed NY 384 designation for part of their routing.