| Notes: |
Leesville Road was originally built as an alternate to US 70, called NC 9, in 1930. After a few years, though, the state officially recognized the Leesville routing as an alternative routing from Durham to Raleigh, signing it US 70A in 1938. This designation lasted until Glenwood Avenue was built in the the late 1940s. US 70 was relocated onto the new road, never running more than a couple of miles from Leesville Road and rendering the 70A designation unnecessary. Leesville Road was downgraded to a four-digit state highway, and it remains a secondary road today.
The road received its name from the crossroads of Leesville, at the intersection with Strickland Road. Formerly housing a gas station, a general store, a church which still exists, and plenty of farmland, today Leesville consists of a shopping center at the intersection of I-540. Leesville was rerouted a few hundred feet to the west between Westgate and Strickland roads in 2003, eliminating a pair of 90-degree turns through the crossroads.
The history of the southern part of Leesville is very intertwined with the Millbrook Road western extension in 1991. Before Millbrook came through, Leesville followed Millbrook along its current alignment between the Leesville/Millbrook intersection and Town & Country Road. It ran over Town & Country to the Lead Mine Road intersection, and from there down current Lead Mine to Glenwood Avenue at the eastern end of Crabtree Valley Mall. Once Millbrook was extended, Leesville was truncated to its current end, Town & Country was established to cut the corner between Millbrook and Lead Mine, and Lead Mine took over the southern part of Leesville as far south as Glenwood Avenue. |
