New York State Route 38

Highway in New York

the current alignment of NY 38

NY 38 begins at an intersection with NY 96 about 0.5 mile (1 km) north of the Owego village limits in the town of Owego. The road heads northeastward as a two lane highway, paralleling Owego Creek as it proceeds along the base of a valley surrounding the waterway. The Tioga County portion of NY 38 passes through mostly rural, forested areas with only small, scattered pockets of development. The route continues toward the hamlet of Flemingville, where the Owego Creek splits into western and eastern branches. NY 38 does not enter the community; instead, it bypasses it to the southeast and follows the eastern branch of Owego Creek into the town of Newark Valley. The number of homes along the route begins to increase as NY 38 approaches the village of Newark Valley. Just south of the village limits, NY 38 intersects NY 38B, a spur leading to NY 26 in Maine. The route continues into the small village as South Main Street and passes by several blocks of homes and commercial buildings. At Water Street, NY 38 becomes North Main Street; however, from this point north, most of the village is situated on the opposite bank of Owego Creek. As a result, NY 38 continues through the village limits but passes very few buildings before seamlessly exiting the community and entering another rural area.

The route heads northwest from the county line, following the Owasco Inlet through open fields and past small patches of trees to the large hamlet of Locke. NY 38 heads north–south through the residential community as Main Street and intersects NY 90 at the center of the hamlet. North of the community, the highway crosses over the Owasco Inlet and enters another rural area dominated by fields situated amongst forests. Upon crossing into the town of Moravia, the amount of development along the highway increases as it passes Fillmore Glen State Park and approaches the village of Moravia. A property dispute case in 1965 showed no evidence of this turnpike having been built. On April 13, 1825, the legislature chartered the Auburn and Port Byron Turnpike Company. The Auburn and Port Byron Turnpike began at the Auburn State Prison in Auburn and proceeded northward along the routing of NY 38 to meet the north branch of the Seneca Turnpike in the town of Brutus (now Throop). From there, the turnpike continued on NY 38 through Port Byron to the Seneca River, where it ended at a bridge crossing the river at Mosquito Point. In 1851, the Auburn and Moravia Plank Road Company was incorporated. They were tasked with connecting Moravia to Auburn by way of a plank road along the western side of Owasco Lake (now NY 38).

When the first set of posted routes in New York were assigned in 1924, the portion of what is now NY 38 from Freeville to Moravia became part of NY 26, a north–south highway extending from Freeville to Syracuse via Skaneateles. By 1926, the segment of current NY 38 between Freeville and Owego was designated as NY 42. In the 1930 renumbering of state highways in New York, the entirety of NY 42 and the portion of NY 26 south of Moravia was incorporated into the new NY 38, which extended north from Moravia to NY 3 (modern NY 104A) in Sterling. The section of the route adjacent to Owasco Lake was still being constructed at the time of NY 38's assignment; it was completed c. 1932. NY 38 originally overlapped with NY 96 (designated as NY 15 in 1930) through Owego to a terminus at the modern junction of NY 96 and NY 434 south of the village. It was removed altogether when NY 38 was truncated to the northern end of the overlap by 1994.