page_title: Pennsylvania Route 52
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Pennsylvania Route 52 / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Lenape Bridge across the Brandywine in Chester County, PA. On NRHP.
context_page_description: Pennsylvania Route 52 is a 11.8-mile-long state highway located in southeast Pennsylvania. The southern terminus of the route is at the Pennsylvania-Delaware state line near Kennett Square, where PA 52 continues as Delaware Route 52. The northern terminus is at U.S. Route 322 Business in West Chester. Near the Kennett Township community of Longwood, it has about a 1-mile wrong-way concurrency with US 1. PA 52 passes through suburban and rural areas along its route.
  PA 52 was first designated by 1928, continuing northeast from West Chester to New Hope along a concurrency with US 122. This concurrency was removed by 1930 and the northern terminus of PA 52 was cut back to its current location in West Chester. In 2011, a portion of PA 52 north of US 1 was realigned.
context_section_description: When Pennsylvania first legislated routes in 1911, what would become PA 52 was legislated as Legislative Route 134 between the Delaware border and West Chester, Legislative Route 143 between West Chester and Norristown, Legislative Route 178 between Norristown and Buckingham, and Legislative Route 155 between Buckingham and New Hope. PA 52 was first designated by 1928 to run from the Delaware border northeast to the New Jersey border at the Delaware River in New Hope, following its current routing to West Chester, where it reached an intersection with US 122 at High Street. PA 52 ran concurrent with US 122 between West Chester and New Hope by way of Paoli, King of Prussia, Norristown, Montgomeryville, Chalfont, Doylestown, and Buckingham. By 1930, the concurrency with US 122 (later US 202) was removed, leaving the northern terminus at US 122 (High Street, now US 322 Bus.). When first assigned, PA 52 ran concurrent with PA 62 between Lenape and West Chester. In 1932, PA 62 was renumbered to PA 100. In 2003, the PA 100 concurrency was removed when the southern terminus of that route was cut back from the Delaware border to north of West Chester.
  In 2010, construction began to relocate PA 52 onto a new alignment between US 1 and PA 926 in order to improve traffic flow. This shortened but did not eliminate the wrong-way concurrency between US 1 and PA 52. The new alignment of PA 52 opened on October 25, 2011 at a cost of $15.4 million. With completion of the new alignment, the former PA 52 south of Webb Barn Lane became an access road to Longwood Gardens while the rest of the road was slated to be torn up.
caption: PA 52 crossing the Lenape Bridge in Birmingham Township.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "COOLPIX S630", "Image Software": "COOLPIX S630V1.0", "Image DateTime": "2009:12:06 20:00:02", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "202", "EXIF ExposureTime": "2/565", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "90", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:12:06 20:00:02", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:12:06 20:00:02", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "18/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "33/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3000", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "37", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}