(September 1932-July 1, 2003)

WEST End: Stop sign, IA 14, Lucas County

Facing west on 253 (6/1/02)

It always seems like the shields with smaller numbers are older ones. Perhaps there's a reason.

Facing west on 253 (6/1/02)

This sign has vanished, as you can see in the above left picture.

Facing north on 14 (6/1/02)

Replacement for that LGS (8/24/19)

Facing northeast-ish (6/1/02)

The first and last standalone shield for 253 is visible on the far right, along with the LGS at its end.

Highway 253 was exceptionally short — officially less than a mile — and had the minimum number of shields needed — only eight total along its entire route! In situations like this, four of them are on the intersecting highway, one "Jct" and one arrangement like above for both directions. Two more are under each "End" sign, and the last two are the first shields across the road from those.

Technically, seven of those eight show up on this page. Four are easily visible, and the fifth is at the right of the above picture. The sixth has its back to us on the far left of the third picture up from here, only about four pixels wide, and somewhere in the distance of that picture is the seventh.

Facing south on 14 (8/24/19)

EAST End: Railroad tracks, Williamson, Lucas County

Facing east on 253 (6/1/02)

Facing east on 253 - no change aside from the sign being gone, just a better picture (8/24/19)

Facing west on 253 (across the tracks) (6/1/02)

Not only is 253 the main street in Williamson, it's the only paved one! No other street in this tiny community is paved, and the pavement stops at the railroad tracks. The Williamson First Responders have adopted the entire highway.

Surrounding area information: Williamson school

The Williamson school, built in 1924, is on the National Register of Historic Places. (6/1/02)

However, it's not a museum anymore; the building was sold in 2008. As of 2019 part of it was being used as a tearoom/event center. (8/24/19)

Last seen: 2003

Page created 11/28/02; last updated 2/21/04 5/7/20

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