| Back to Previous Route: M-154 |
 |
On to Next Route: M-156 |
| M-155 is a former signed state trunkline route existing from August 31, 1931 until 1987. (Currently an unsigned state trunkline known internally within MDOT as OLD M-155.) |
|
| Southern Terminus*: | Hillcrest Regional Center for Developmental Disabilities (present-day "High Hillcrest" residential subdivision at the southern end of High Hillcrest Dr). |
| Northern Terminus*: | BL I-96 in downtown Howell at cnr Grand River Ave & Michigan Ave. |
| Final Length*: | 3.420 miles |
| Maps: |  Route Maps of Former M-155/OLD M-155 |
| Notes: | * The termini and final length for M-155 reflect the beginning and ending of the route and its length as of the time of the route's transition to an unsigned trunkline in 1987. |
| M-155, or "OLD M-155" as it is officially known within MDOT, is a somewhat odd state highway route. Currently, it is an unsigned trunkline leading from downtown Howell southwesterly to a dead-end on a peak of high ground that is home to a "luxury housing community" (a.k.a. an expensive housing subdivision), but for the first 51 years of its existence, it served as a highway connection between US-16 at Howell (later BL I-96 after US-16's decommissioning) and a large state-operated facility southwest of the city, last operated as the Hillcrest Regional Center for Developmental Disabilities before its closure in 1982. For five years from 1982–87, M-155 led up to the shuttered facility before its route markers were removed and M-155 transitioned into an unsigned state trunkline route, which it remains to this day, years later. |
|
| According to State of Michigan information, "The tuberculosis (TB) sanatorium at Howell, Michigan was established in 1905 by Public Act 254 of 1905. Until the 1940s, the treatment for TB revolved around providing general medical care and performing surgical procedures. With the development of streptomycin (1944), the treatment of TB changed dramatically. By 1961, the facility at Howell was no longer needed for the treatment of TB patients, so the buildings and grounds were transferred over to the Michigan Department of Mental Health. In 1961, the Howell State Hospital was established for the care and treatment of the mentally ill and physically handicapped people (under Public Act 111 of 1961). The hospital was renamed twice: Hillcrest Center (1972) and the Hillcrest Regional Center for Developmental Disabilities (1978). The entire facility was closed in 1982, and the buildings were razed [eventually—Ed.]." |
|
| While MDOT began designating OLD M-155 as a candidate for jurisdictional transfer to county and city control in 1987, the same year the former Hillcrest Center property was sold to a trio of local developers to be turned into high-end homesites, neither the Livingston Co Road Commission nor the City of Howell have been willing to accept control of the highway and it remains, today, an unsigned state trunkline route. While unsigned trunklines aren't necessary a rare occurrence in the state, one that climbs up a large hill and terminates amongst "luxury homes" is. While some who are unaware of the long and interesting history of M-155 may conjecturize that a state highway offical or a politician must live in the upcale development and, thus, has used their influence to have a state highway leading to their doorstep, a quick check of the history (related in this listing) shows this to most definitely not be the case. |
|
 The Livingston Co Road Commission, like many other county road commissions across Michigan, often tends to erect "less-than-helpful" street name signs along some of its roads. For example, instead of identifying M-59/Highland Rd as "Highland Rd," the LCRC generally posts signs referring to Highland Rd as "M-59," ignoring its proper name. This same problem also exists in at least one location along the former M-155 (OLD M-155) where Norton Rd is identified as "M-155" on the street name sign at Mason Rd. Unfortunately, since everyone's address on the state-maintained portion of Norton Rd is, indeed, "Norton Rd," it would be much more helpful and useful if the LCRC used the official "Norton Rd" name on the sign instead of a former state highway route designation that hasn't been used since the Regan administration, years ago. Thankfully, at the corner of Norton Rd & County Farm Rd, the LCRC posts a street name sign using the proper names of both roads. However, just east of the sign at the intersection pictured here, Mason Rd is unfortunately identified only as "M-155" at Peavy Rd. The best solution would be for the County to never sign any portion of the former M-155 (OLD M-155) as such and only use the official road names for each roadway. |
|
| In "State Trunkline Needs, 1960–1980," a set of maps prepared by the State Highway Dept's Office of Planning, Programming Division in 1960 showing possible additions, upgrades and improvements to the state trunkline system over the ensuing twenty years, MSHD staff recommended one major change to the route of M-155 during that timeframe: that it be incorporated and fully subsumed into a major realignment for M-36. Starting in eastern Ingham Co, M-36 was proposed to continue due easterly from its junction with the proposed M-47 (present-day M-52) along Stockbridge Rd for 2½ miles directly into Livingston Co. Once across the county line, M-36 would have then turn northeasterly heading directly for the southernmost end of M-155 at the Howell State Hospital southwest of Howell. From there, the proposed M-36 would have been routed along M-155, supplanting that route designation, to a terminus at US-16 (proposed to be redesignated at BL I-96 in the next few years) in downtown Howell. All of the former route of M-36 from M-92 (present-day M-52) easterly through Gregory, Pickney, Lakeland, and Hamburg to US-23 was to have been turned back to local control. However, this major reroute of M-36 was never implemented and M-36 remains along its longtime alignment across southern Livingston Co and M-155 became an unsigned trunkline in 1987. |
|
| History: | 1905–1907 (Sept 7) – In 1905, the Michigan State Legislature passes Public Act 254 of 1905 approving $20,000 for the purchase of site for a state-run tuberculosis sanatorium. A year later in 1906, a site southwest of Howell is selected from a list of over 20 possible locations. The site is 1,100 feet above sea level with reports noting it as being "the highest point of the natural watershed in the Lower Peninsula" (although the actual highest point in the Lower Peninsula is Grove Hill near Sherman in northwest Wexford Co at 1,709 feet). The facility is constructed over the course of the next year and the first two male TB patients are admitted to the new sanatorium on September 7, 1907. As the State Trunkline Highway System does not yet exist, travel between Howell and the new state sanatorium is over existing city streets and county roads. |
| 1912–1926 – In 1912, the portions of what would someday become M-155 along Norton and County Farm Rds is given a nine-foot-wide gravel surface, while the Mason Rd section from Norton Rd easterly toward Howell is similarly given a nine-foot-wide gravel surface in 1926. In 1921 in Howell, the city paves the first two blocks of S Division St (S Michigan Ave) from Grand River Ave to Washington St with a 42-foot-wide brick surface, then a 30-foot-wide oil aggregate (e.g. chip seal) surface for the three blocks from Washington St to Livingston St, and finally a 20-foot-wide oil aggregate surface from Livingston St southerly to the Pinckney Rd split between the Pere Marquette Ry and Mason Rd. |
|
| 1931 (Aug 31) – A 3.4-mile long state trunkline route is established between US-16/Grand River Ave in downtown Howell leading southwesterly to the Michigan State Sanatorium, established 26 years prior in Marion Twp. The new highway follows Michigan Ave southerly from US-16/Grand River Ave to Marion Rd (present-day Mason Rd), then westerly via Marion Rd and Mason Rd, southwesterly along Norton Rd, turning southerly a short distance via County Farm Rd, then westerly and southwesterly into the Sanatorium property via its access roadway. |
|
| 1932 – In its first year as a state trunkline highway, the majority of M-155 is resurfaced in gravel (20 feet in width) from the Michigan State Sanatorium easterly down the hill to County Farm Rd, northerly along County Farm Rd, easterly and northeasterly on Norton Rd, easterly via Mason Rd, then northerly along Pinckney Rd to S Division St (present-day Michigan Ave) on the south side of Howell. The Livingston Co Road Commission performs the gravelling work for the State Highway Dept. Also during 1932, a new span over the South Branch of the Shiawassee River on Norton Rd just east of County Farm Rd is completed and opened to traffic. The new single-span bridge is 27 feet in length, has a 36-foot wide deck, and cost $14,000 to construct. |
|
| 1935 (Oct 16) – The gravel-surfaced segment of M-155 from the south side of Howell westerly and southwesterly to the end of M-155 at the Michigan State Sanatorium is given a 20-foot wide "oil aggregate" surface, what is known as a "chip seal" or "chip-and-tar" surface today, meaning now the entirety of M-155 is hard-surfaced. (The City of Howell had hard-surfaced the portion of S Division St/S Michigan Ave from just north of Mason Rd into downtown in 1921.) |
|
| 1942 (May 27) – Oddly, in the May 27, 1942 edition of the Livingston County Press, staff writers believe it newsworthy enough to include this tidbit from Howell in their reporting: "The State Highway Department erected new junction signs for US-16 and M-155 in the downtown area last week." |
|
| 1943 – While M-155 was ostensibly hard-surfaced in its entirety in 1935, the Mason, Norton, County Farm, and State Sanatorium Access Road are given a 20-foot-wide asphalt surface—in the midst of World War II, no less! |
|
| 1951 (June 30) – A 400-foot (0.076 mile) segment of additional asphalt roadway is paved and added onto the southern end of M-155 on the campus of the Michigan State Sanitorium, extending the highway to the facility's administration building. The project cost $2,923.60 and is completed by June 30. |
|
| 1961 – With the advent of antibiotic drugs for the treatment of tuberculosis and a perceived need to institutionally house those with special needs (then known as "developmental disabilities"), the Michigan State Sanatorium is transferred to the state Department of Mental Health and renamed the "Howell State Hospital." |
|
| 1972–78 – The Howell State Hospital is renamed the "Hillcrest Center" in 1972 and then to the "Hillcrest Regional Center for Developmental Disabilities" in 1978. |
|
| 1982 (Sept 30) – Due to the aging facility's inability to meet state and federal gudielines for patient care and a lack of state funding to upgrade or maintain it, the Hillcrest Regional Center for Developmental Disabilities is officially closed and all buildings are left deserted, stripped of most items of value, leaving M-155 as a dead-end highway terminating on top of a hill in the midst of an abandoned state facility. |
|
| 1987 – Approximately five years after the closure of the Hillcrest Center and two years after the demolition of the structures at the site, MDOT removes all M-155 route makers from the entire route of the highway, marking its transition from a signed to an unsigned state trunkline route. After being unable to unload the former facility for five years, State officials are finally able to sell it—sans buildings—to local developers on September 10 for $350,000 with a "ribbon cutting" held on September 28 with local civic leaders and political dignitaries in attendence. (The selling of the former Hillcrest Center property is likely what dictates MDOT's removal of the M-155 signs.) MDOT also begins showing M-155 in its "Control Section Atlases" in 1987 as a "Proposed Transfer" route, indicating it is interested in pursuing a jurisdictional transfer with local road agencies. |
|
| 1991 – Even though all M-155 route markers were removed in 1987, the route remained depicted on the Official State Transportation Map published by MDOT through the 1991 edition for some reason. It is finally removed for 1992, however. |
|
| 1990s–2014 – After having purchased the former Hillcrest Center site in 1987, developers simply "sit" on the land for a decade while plans for a nearby garbage landfill are debated and, ultimately, defeated. New houses start being constructed in the mid-1990s with an especially large residence built atop the site of the former main Hillcrest Center building in 2014. |
|
| Controlled Access: | No portion of former M-155 upon decommissioning existed as freeway or expressway. |
| Photographs: |
|
| Weblinks: |
|
| Back to M-154 | Route Listings Home | On to M-156 |