New York Route 86

New York Route 86 (NY 86) is a 39-mile long state highway that runs from Paul Smiths to Jay, New York. Much of the route follows the Old Military Road.

Early road work was done by the residents who lived along the road using equipment purchased by the town. In 1894, the Town of Brighton bought a stone crusher and put a crushed-stone surface on the road from Paul Smiths to Gabriels, and in 1916, the town put asphalt down on that section, the first paved road in the town. ¹

The NY 86 route designation was established in 1930 when the state renumbered most state routes, largely replacing a realigned NY 3. The portion of NY 86 north of Harrietstown was once NY 192. The section from Saranac Lake to Lake Placid is known as the Sara-Placid Highway.

The section from Peck's Corners to the north end of Broadway, built in 1953, is named Lake Colby Drive. That section, and perhaps a bit farther north, was built on the abandoned right-of-way of the Mohawk and Malone Railroad, which accounts for its level grade.

Jump to Gabriels, Harrietstown, #News Items

Passes New York Route 186 to Lake Clear

Old Address	Post-911 Address	Building Name	Cure Evidence/Notes
Starts at New York Route 30 at Paul Smiths College It immediately passes Cooler Pond on the right, then Hoffman Road and Church Pond on the left.
	68 NY 86	St. John's in the Wilderness Episcopal Church	Also St. John's in the Wilderness Cemetery
	59 NY 86	Paul Smiths Gabriels Volunteer Fire Department
Passes White Pine Road on the left and then Jones Pond Road on the left
This is the bottom of Easy Street
	12 Jones Pond Road	Brighton Town Hall
	216 NY 86	216 NY 86
	222 NY 86	222 NY 86
	225 NY86	225 NY 86
	226 NY86	226 NY 86
	232 NY86	232 NY 86
	236 NY86	236 NY 86
	237 NY86	237 NY 86
	240 NY86	240 NY 86
	243 NY86	243 NY 86
	248 NY86	248 NY 86
	249 NY86	249 NY 86
	254 NY86	254 NY 86
	259 NY86	259 NY 86
	262 NY86	262 NY 86
	265 NY86	265 NY 86
	272 NY86	272 NY 86
	273 NY86	273 NY 86
		Pine Haven
Top of Easy Street
	451 NY86	451 NY 86
	543 NY86	The Red Mill	Now the St. Regis Suites
	548 NY86	MC Motors
Gabriels
	NY86	Gabriels Sanatorium	(Camp Gabriels)
Passes Bert LaFountain Road to the south Gabriels-Onchiota Road to the north
	794 NY86	794 NY 86
	806 NY86	Gabriels Grange
	NY86	Ted's Grocery
	805 NY86	805 NY 86
	815 NY86	815 NY 86
	826 NY86	Church of the Assumption
	878 NY86	878 NY 86
Passes Mountain View Cemetery
Passes the Gabriels-Bloomingdale Road
	60 County Route 55	Moody Tree Farm
Passes Split Rock Road
Passes Darwin Brown Road
Enters Harrietstown NY86 becomes Harrietstown Road
		Harrietstown Cemetery
	1562 NY86	Donnelly's
	1729 NY86	Linden's Brookside Cabins
	2030 NY86	Hillside Lodge
Passes Trudeau Road (east) and Peck's Corners Road (west) at Peck's Corners
Passes Lake Colby
	2233 NY86	Adirondack Medical Center
Continues through the village as Broadway, continues as Bloomingdale Avenue, Church Street, River Street and Lake Flower Avenue. West of Lake Flower Avenue it was called the Sara-Placid Highway.

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‘’Adirondack Daily Enterprise, October 15, 1952

ROUTE 86 PLAN UP FOR HEARING ON OCTOBER 28

Final plans for the improvement of the continuation of Route No. 10 coming down from Malone were made public today. They will be Up for approval at a public hearing to be held at 10 a.m. on October 28 in Malone.

The new road, actually a part of Route No. 86, is the result of the endeavors of Assemblyman Robert Main and the Franklin County Board of Supervisors headed by Hayward Plumadore, of Harrietstown. Completion of the highway improvement by the State will leave only one "bad entrance" to Saranac Lake — Route No. 3 from Tupper Lake.

And, Mr. Plumadore said today, this highway job is in category one on the State Highway Department's agenda.

The plans for the Route No. 86 improvement show a 1.79-mile highway extending from the point north of the Cohen store where the old railroad track crosses the present road to Durgan's.

In as straight a line as possible the proposed road runs from Cohen's store to he old New York Central Railroad tracks, then deviates from the present road and follows straight along the road bed of the old tracks, past the site of the old Latour ice house, along the edge of Colby Pond in as straight a line as possible, still following the old road bed to a point back of Durgan's. This is where the plans released today end.

To build the new road, varied properties will have to be acquired, including land owned by the railroad, Leon Latour, Mrs. William Morris and J. Bronson Trevor.

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Adirondack Daily Enterprise, August 11, 1953

[T]he Village Trustees have another problem—getting a name for the new State road from Lake Colby that is now under construction.

Judge Gordon Vosburgh, representing the Harrietstown Town Board, attended last night's meeting of the Trustees to suggest that the Town and Village Boards hold a joint meeting to name the new entrance to town.

"The road will be finished in December," Judge Vosburgh said. "and if it has no name there won't be any mail deliveries on it."

Mayor Anderson suggested "Morris Road", in honor of the late William Morris, or "Northwest Bay Road". Trustee Vernon Wamsganz mentioned "Lake Colby Boulevard". No action was taken by the Trustees who asked for suggestions from the public.

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Adirondack Record-Elizabethtown Post, January 8, 1953

1.8 Miles in Franklin To Be Reconstructed

A low bid of $252,609.50 from MK. Engineering Co., Inc., of Albany, was received at Albany lately by B.D. Tallamy, New York State Superintendent of Public Works, for construction with asphalt concrete on 1.8 miles of Route 86 northward out of Saranac Lake toward Harrietstown. State engineers had estimated cost of this work at $281,000 will begin in the village of Saranac Lake just north of the intersection of Ampersand Avenue and Broadway and proceed northerly on Broadway for about 1,000 feet before cutting off to the west of existing Route 86.Proceeding on new location generally northwesterly along the east shore of Colby Pond, the route will rejoin existing Route 86 about 1,900 feet north of Peck's Corners, where the project will terminate.

‘’’Comments’’’

‘’’Footnotes’’’

1. The Brighton Story, p. 54