Connecticut Route 108

Route 108
Route information
Maintained by ConnDOT
Length:	11.05 mi[1] (17.78 km)
Existed:	1932 (extended 1952) – present
Major junctions
South end:	US 1 in Stratford
	Route 8 in Trumbull Route 15 in Trumbull
North end:	Route 110 in Shelton
Highway system
Routes in Connecticut Special Service Roads • State Roads ← Route 107 Route 109 →

Route 108 in the U.S. state of Connecticut, also called Huntington Turnpike and Nichols Avenue, is a two-lane state highway that runs northerly from US 1, Boston Post Road in Stratford, through Trumbull, to Route 110 in downtown Shelton. The portion of Nichols Avenue in Trumbull was laid out to the south side of Mischa Hill on December 7, 1696 and is considered, by some, to be the third oldest documented highway in Connecticut after the Mohegan Road (Route 32) in Norwich (1670) and the Boston Post Road or US 1 (1673) ^[2].

Route description

Route 108 begins at Barnum Avenue or US Route 1 in Stratford. Route 108 proceeds north out of Stratford center intersecting with the old cross highways of North Avenue and Second Hill Lane. It continues northward over the Third Hill and down into a swampy low area intersecting with cross highways Silver and Hawley Lanes and over the town line into Trumbull. Route 108 then makes the climb up Mischa Hill and into Nichols center where it defines the western boundary of the historic Nichols green and intersects with old cross highway Unity Road. Past Nichols center, it continues northward over Mischa Hill and intersects at a sharp angle with Isinglass Road as it makes its way down into Shelton. It bisects the historic Huntington green separating the common from the old St. Paul's Episcopal Church and old burial ground [2]. Route 108 makes a turn eastward past the Huntington green on its way to its terminus at Route 110 in downtown Shelton at the western side of the Housatonic River.^[1]

Route 108 is a two lane road that widens to four lanes with turning lanes and traffic lights at the intersections with Route 8 and Route 15 (Merritt Parkway) in Trumbull.

History

See also: History of Trumbull, Connecticut

• Originally called the Farm Highway, the portion of current Route 108 through Trumbull, called Nichols Avenue, was designated as a highway on December 7, 1696 by the Stratford selectmen ^[3][4]. The selectmen recorded into the land records that there is a highway presently running out of the north end of the town, called the farm highway, running northerly into the woods being laid out by the town as far as the brook that runs on the south end of Mischa Hill, the present day intersection of Route 108 and the Merritt Parkway in Trumbull. At the time, the highway was a full 12 rods, or 198 feet (60 m) wide at the south side of Mischa Hill, at Zachariah Curtiss, his land, and at Captain's Farm.

• The Stratford selectmen designed and built a rural highway system of main north–south highways one mile (1.6 km) apart and cross highways one mile (1.6 km) apart. The original north–south highways were Broadbridge Road, Nichols Avenue (now Route 108), Main Street (now Route 113) Huntington Road, Bear Swamp Road or present day Cutspring Road/East Main Street, and River Road (now Route 110). The cross highways were North Avenue, Second Hill Lane, Hawley and Silver Lanes, and Unity Road. On May 18, 1724, the Stratford selectmen voted to extend the highways six miles (10 km) north into the woods or ten miles (16 km) distant from the meeting house. They also voted to build cross highways at mile intervals creating a network of interconnecting highways and dividing the entire north end of the township.^[5]

• In October 1725, the General Assembly of the Connecticut Colony referred to the Farm Highway, in their approval of the new Parish of Unity, as Nichol's Farm's Road^[6][7].

• The northern portion of current Route 108 was part of the Huntington Turnpike, a toll road built by the Huntington Turnpike Company, which was chartered in May 1828.^[8] The Huntington Turnpike went from Bridgeport, through the old town centers of Nichols and Huntington (now known as Shelton), to the west bank of the Housatonic River opposite Derby Landing (the current downtown area of Shelton). The company was dissolved in March 1886.^[8] The southern end of the Huntington Turnpike that did not become part of Route 108 is now an unsigned state road (SR) with designations SR 730 (East Main Street to Route 8) in Bridgeport and SR 711 (Route 8 to Route 108) in Trumbull.

• The modern Route 108 was designated in the 1932 state highway renumbering, but only between downtown Shelton (the current northern end) and the Huntington green with a length of about 3.4 miles (5.5 km). The designation was extended another 4.4 miles (7.1 km) in 1951 along the Huntington Turnpike to the village of Nichols, ending at then Route 113. It was again extended another 3.2 miles (5.1 km) as a result of the 1962 Route Reclassification Act along Nichols Avenue (former Route 113) to its current southern end at US 1 in Stratford. In 1999, a slight realignment was done in downtown Shelton, gaining an additional 0.1-mile (0.16 km).^[9]

Special designations

• The section of Nichols Avenue from the Stratford-Trumbull town line to the Huntington Turnpike is known as the Trooper Ernest Morse Memorial Highway, named in honor of a state trooper who was killed trying to apprehend a suspect in a car theft.^[10]

Junction list

Town	Road names	Junction	Milepost	Notes
Stratford (2.51 miles)[1]	Nichols Avenue	US 1	0.00
Trumbull (2.84 miles)	Nichols Avenue, Huntington Turnpike	Route 8	2.60-2.79	Exit 8; also provides access to northbound Route 15.
		Route 15	3.12-3.20	Partial interchange to southbound Route 15 at Exit 52.
Shelton (5.70 miles)	Nichols Ave, Huntington St., Shelton Ave., Wooster St., Coram Ave., Center St.	Route 110	11.05

On the National Register of Historic Places

Fountain donated by Peet family 1895

• The Bunny Fountain, as it is called today, is a water fountain donated by the Peet family and dedicated in 1895 for use by human, horse and other four-legged friends, is located on Route 108 at the intersection of Unity Road in the Nichols Farms Historic District.
• The Curtiss Memorial Fountain, another historic water fountain from the 1800s, was donated by the Curtiss family for public use is located on Route 108 at the northeast end of the historic Huntington green in the Huntington Center Historic District.

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} Connecticut State Highway Log
2. ^ Connecticut Roads History
3. ^ A History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut, Reverend Samuel Orcutt, Fairfield County Historical Society, 1886, Vol. II, page 1039 [1]
4. ^ Trumbull Historical Society - Timeline
5. ^ Reverend Samuel Orcutt, The History of the Old Town of Stratford, Connecticut, (Fairfield Historical Society, 1886)
6. ^ Charles Hoadly, The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut 1636 to 1776, (Lockwood & Brainard, 1872)
7. ^ Public Records Colony of Connecticut volume 6, page 568
8. ^ ^{a b} F.J. Wood, The Turnpikes of New England, (Marshall Jones Co., Boston, 1919)
9. ^ Connecticut Routes, Route 108
10. ^ Connecticut State Police Honor Roll

External links

• St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Huntington, CT
• The USGenWeb Project, Fairfield County

See also

• Ephraim Hawley House
• Zachariah Curtiss House