At 20 miles, Route 109 is one of the longer east-west routes in western Connecticut, and passes through the quiet towns of Washington and Morris. A 3.3-mile segment in Washington is a state scenic road.
Updated Sept 10, 2020
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At 20 miles, Route 109 is one of the longer east-west routes in western Connecticut, and passes through the quiet towns of Washington and Morris. A 3.3-mile segment in Washington is a state scenic road.
In the 1920s, State Highway 109 followed today's US 44 between Routes 32 and 198 in eastern Connecticut. This highway was reconstructed in 1929 and served as an important segment of the route from Hartford to Providence via Putnam.
The modern Route 109, commissioned in 1932, was originally a 12.72-mile route between Bantam Lake and Thomaston:
In 1932, the portion of today's Route 109 between New Milford and Route 47 in Washington was called Route 134; the section between present-day Routes 47 and 209 wasn't numbered.
In 1948, it appears Route 109 was realigned in the area of Old Morris Road in Thomaston, making it about 1/2 mile shorter.
At some time before 1960, portions of what would later become Route 109 were added to the state system: SR 458 (short segment of Blackville Road, Washington) and SR 706 (Lakeside Road, from Bantam Lake Road to Washington town line, Morris).
Route 134 was decommissioned in the 1940s; most of the route was removed from the state highway system, except for a short segment of Calhoun Street in Washington, which became SR 857.
In 1963, Route 109 was extended westward over SR 706, local roads, SR 458 and SR 857 to reach Route 25 (today's US 202) in New Milford. The north-south section along Bantam Lake, ending at what is also now US 202, became Route 209.
On September 8, 1967, the short segment between US 6 and former Route 8 (now Route 254) became part of US 6. This was among several changes following the opening of the Route 8 freeway here.
In November 1967, a relocated section Route 109 opened near Black Rock State Park. The original alignment followed Old Branch Road, due about straight west before turning sharply north and meeting future Route 109 across from Old Northfield Road. The new Black Rock Dam and Reservoir, a flood control project undertaken by the U.S. Corps of Engineers, required moving Route 109.
On March 9, 2017, the 3.3-mile segment from Route 47 northerly to the intersection with Wood Creek Road was designated a state scenic road.