SH 165 – This Highway Has Several Unique Distinctions

The Shortest Highway in Texas and possibly the nation at .51 miles long.

It is shutdown every night.

It connects to no other state highway.

IT IS THE HIGHWAY THAT RUNS THROUGH THE TEXAS STATE CEMETERY IN DOWNTOWN AUSTIN.

This is an Article about Texas’ Unique Highway:

State Highway 165 (SH 165) is a state highway in the state of Texas in the United States. At 0.51 miles long, it is the shortest main state highway in Texas, and perhaps the only one partially locked at night. It is connected to no other Texas highway system roads.

In 1932, Texas historian Louis Kemp brought the neglected Texas State Cemetery to the attention of officials at the Texas Highway Department. At the time, the 22-acre (8.9 ha) State Cemetery, located just east of current downtown Austin, had no roads. The Highway Department established a highway to and created and paved roads through the cemetery. The highway to the State Cemetery was also previously known informally as the “Lou Kemp Highway”.

At various times, SH 165 originated from US 290 and SH 20 (probably the same route redesignated) in downtown Austin, and at Loop 343. In 1965, SH 165 was truncated to Comal Street from 7th Street to the entrance of the State Cemetery as well as the roads within the cemetery. At that time, Loop 343 ran along 7th Street (which borders the State Cemetery). In 1977, the eastern section of Loop 343, including the routing along 7th Street, was deleted from the Texas highway system, leaving SH 165 officially isolated from other highways in the Texas highway system. However, the Texas State Cemetery — and SH 165 — are located just six blocks east of Interstate 35.

This route has only been designated as SH 165 or, on an informal basis, as “Lou Kemp Highway”.

4 thoughts on “SH 165 – This Highway Has Several Unique Distinctions

  1. Funny, it’s the same number as a highway east of Blanco…State Highway FM 165. I didn’t think that TxDOT had duplicate numbers on roads.

    Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s