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AF road did indeed go from Raleigh to somewhere south of here. It crossed the CF River near were the NC42 bridge was built. The actual ferry landing site is now a public boat ramp on the river. https://www.google.com/maps/@35.5503.../data=!3m1!1e3
Interesting, I thought of the same thing for the past 20 years. Avent Ferry Road in Raleigh, Avent Ferry Road in Holly Springs and Avent Ferry Road in Lee County - near Sanford along 42. That would be a very, very, very long road for travelers in those days!. But, it probably crossed many creeks/rivers. Middle Creek, Swift Creek, Buckhorn Creek and the Neuse River basin additional creeks. Would be cool to find an original map. But, wow, one family name for the entire connection of a road. Found this link of conversation very informative and interesting!
That's correct. And since Harris Lake is a new man made lake, it would have only been a creek back in the day. If you follow 42 north east, until the big bend at the southern portion of Harris Lake, you can connect the dots between 42 (Avents Ferry Road) and Bartley Holleman Road, which ultimately turns into Avent Ferry Road in Holly Springs.
Now I'm wondering the route to connect the dots to Avent Ferry Road in Raleigh.
That's correct. And since Harris Lake is a new man made lake, it would have only been a creek back in the day. If you follow 42 north east, until the big bend at the southern portion of Harris Lake, you can connect the dots between 42 (Avents Ferry Road) and Bartley Holleman Road, which ultimately turns into Avent Ferry Road in Holly Springs.
Now I'm wondering the route to connect the dots to Avent Ferry Road in Raleigh.
They are connected by Holly Springs Rd (with a little bit of Tryon.)
OK folks, so...Avent Ferry Road originally went all the way from Raleigh to John Avent's ferry on Route 42. The way it went was like this:
It started along Hillsborough Street in downtown Raleigh then along Ashe Avenue to where Western Blvd. is now. From there, it went straight across where Western Blvd. is now onto a road that no longer exists but ran just a hair to the north of where Bilyeu Street is now. It then went along present-day Centennial Parkway to Avent Ferry Road where it then headed south to Tryon Road.
At the present-day intersection of Avent Ferry Road and Tryon Road, the road curved to the right as a thru road rather than making you turn right at an intersection like you have to now. Evidence of this can be seen with an old house that sits right on the corner of Avent Ferry and Tryon Road. The house is situated at a 45 degree angle to the intersection, likely due to the fact that the road used to cut the corner of that property.
From that intersection, it used current Tryon Road to what's now Jones Franklin Road (an old piece of road now called Franklin Spring Road served as the direct connection between Tryon and Jones Franklin), then south from there to present-day Holly Springs Road, and used that all the way to Holly Springs.
At the present-day intersection of Holly Springs Road and Raleigh Street in Holly Springs, it turned to the left and used Raleigh Street to connect with what's now Avent Ferry Road in downtown Holly Springs. That connection is no longer possible since Holly Springs built a new downtown and chewed up a bunch of roads in the process.
From there, it used present-day Avent Ferry Road and Bartley Holleman Road, some of which is now buried under Harris Lake which was flooded in the late 70s/early 80s. On the other side of Harris Lake, the road resurfaces as Crosspoint Road (SR 1914), in Harnett County. At the intersection of what's now Crosspoint Road (SR 1914) and Christian Chapel Church Road (SR 1912), the road went straight (that road is barely there anymore and is nothing but a trail on private land and can't really be seen on aerial photos anymore) and ultimately connected with Route 42 which is just to the south, then Route 42 would take you to Avent's Ferry!
What timeframe is your reference? In 1948, US 1 shifted its alignment between what's now Brookside Dr in Raleigh and the junction of what's now Capital Blvd and Old Wake Forest Rd in Raleigh. The old routing became US 1A for about 10 years and then was decommissioned entirely. Likewise, at about the same time there was a shift of the US 1 alignment coming south from downtown Cary. It used to be on West Chatham St, then it moved onto Old Apex Rd.
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