NYS Route 173/175 (North Branch of the Seneca Turnpike)

Route 173 follows a portion of the original Genesee Road of 1790-91 with the road constructed and managed by the Seneca Road Company.  In 1800 the road connected the Village of Chittenango with Manlius, Jamesville, Syracuse, Fairmount, and Onondaga Hill.

In 1801, when the settlers in Onondaga Valley learned that the original road was to be resurveyed and improved by the Seneca Road Company, they posed as natives of Chittenango and offered to guide the commissioners from Chittenango to Salina.  After they had been lead into two blind gullies, the commissioners were convinced there was no easily accessible route to Salina and laid out the Seneca Road thru Eagle, Manlius, Jamesville, Onondaga Valley, Onondaga Hill to Marcellus, then to Skaneateles, and Auburn.  In Auburn the Seneca Turnpike intersected with the Great Genesee Road to Geneva.

            In 1806, after the hoax perpetrated on the commissioners at Chittenango had been discovered, the Seneca Road Company took over the Old Genesee Road from Chittenango to Sennett, part of which had been improved by the state, and extended this north branch of the road from Sennett thru Throopsville and Fosterville and over a toll bridge at the north end of Cayuga Lake.