State Road 327 (SR 327) is a

State Road A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

in the north-eastern section of the state of

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. Running for about in a general north-south direction, connecting rural portions of

DeKalb DeKalb or De Kalb may refer to: People * Baron Johann de Kalb (1721–1780), major general in the American Revolutionary War Places Municipalities in the United States * DeKalb, Illinois, the largest city in the United States named DeKalb **DeKal ...

and Steuben counties. SR 327 was originally introduced in the early 1930s routed between Garrett and Corunna. The road was extended north to the

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

state line in the mid-1930s. In the late 1960s the road was extended south to the city of

Fort Wayne Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

. This extension didn't last by the mid-1970s the southern end of SR 327 was truncated to its current location at SR 205.

Route description

Fawn River State Fish Hatchery arch (NRHP)

SR 327 starts at an

all-way stop An all-way stop – also known as a four-way stop (or three-way stop etc. as appropriate) – is a traffic management system which requires vehicles on all the approaches to a road intersection to stop at the intersection before proceeding throu ...

with SR 205, and two DeKalb county roads. It heads north as a two-lane highway passing through farmland. The route enters Garrett, concurrent with Randolph Street, and passes through a mix of commercial and residential properties. The highway passes through the

Garrett Historic District The Garrett Historic District is a national historic district located at Garrett, DeKalb County, Indiana. It is roughly the area bound by Railroad Street on the North, Britton Street on the East, Hamsher Street on the West and Warfield Street ...

, a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. While in the historic district the road passes through the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

before passing under

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

Railroad tracks. North of the railroad tracks the route leaves the historic district, while passes through residential properties. On the north side of Garrett SR 327 has a four-way stop at SR 8 before the road leaves Garrett. North of Garrett the road makes a sharp curve turning due west. The road has a second sharp curve turning back due north and heads towards Corunna. The route enter Corunna from the south and passes through residential properties. The highway passes over the

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the ...

Railroad tracks and has an intersection at

U.S. Route 6 U.S. Route 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, honoring the American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the U.S. Highway system. While it currently runs east-northeast from Bishop, California, to P ...

(US 6). SR 327 turns west concurrent with US 6 as a two-lane highway, passing through commercial properties. After leaving Corunna, SR 327 turns north leaving US 6 and heads towards Helmer, the landscape becomes farms and fields. South of Helmer the road bends towards the west before curving towards the north and having an intersection with the western terminus of the eastern segment of SR 4. After SR 4 the road enters Helmer and crosses an

Indiana Northeastern Railroad The Indiana Northeastern Railroad is a Class III short line freight railroad operating on nearly in southern lower Michigan, northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio. The Indiana Northeastern Railroad Company began operations in December 1992 and ...

track. North of the railroad tracks the road passes through residential properties, before leaving Helmer. Past Helmer the route passes through rural farmland and an intersection at US 20. The highway enters Orland and passes through residential properties with a few commercial properties. After leaving Orland SR 327 passes

Fawn River State Fish Hatchery Fawn River State Fish Hatchery, also known as the Orland Fish Hatchery, is a historic hatchery located at Orland and Millgrove Township, Steuben County, Indiana. It was developed between 1935 and 1937 by the Works Progress Administration, and ded ...

, while passing through agriculture. South of the

state line SR 327 passes under the

Indiana Toll Road The Indiana Toll Road, officially the Indiana East–West Toll Road, is a tolled freeway that runs for east–west across northern Indiana from the Illinois state line to the Ohio state line. It has been advertised as the "Main Street of the ...

, before the SR 327 designation ends at the state line. While the SR 327 designation end at the state line the roadway continues north into Michigan as Rierson Road. No part of SR 327 in Indiana is included in the National Highway System (NHS). The NHS is a network of highways that are identified as being important for the economy, mobility and defense of the nation. The highway is maintained by the

Indiana Department of Transportation The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Indiana charged with maintaining and regulating transportation and transportation related infrastructure such as state owned airports, List of numbered ...

(INDOT) like all other State Roads in the state. The department tracks the traffic volumes along all state roads as a part of its maintenance responsibilities using a metric called

average annual daily traffic Annual average daily traffic, abbreviated AADT, is a measure used primarily in transportation planning, transportation engineering and retail location selection. Traditionally, it is the total volume of vehicle traffic of a highway or road for a y ...

(AADT). This measurement is a calculation of the traffic level along a segment of roadway for any average day of the year. Between 2014 and 2015, INDOT figured that lowest traffic levels were 748 vehicles used the highway daily between Indiana Toll Road and Michigan state line. The peak traffic volumes were 7,956 vehicles AADT along the section of SR 327 at its concurrency with US 6.

History

SR 327 had its beginning in 1931 when it was designated from Garrett to Corunna. The route between Corunna and the Michigan state line was authorized in 1934. DeKalb County purchased the

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

for the road between Corunna and Helmer in 1935. The state highway commission constructed the section of road, between US 6 and Michigan state line, in 1936. During 1969 SR 327 was extended south to Interstate 69 in

, along former

US 27 U.S. Route 27 (US 27) is a north–south United States Highway in the southern and midwestern United States. The southern terminus is at US 1 in Miami, Florida. The northern terminus is at Interstate 69 (I-69) in Fort Wayne, Indiana. F ...

. The entire roadway was paved between 1970 and 1971. The state highway commission truncated SR 327 south of Garrett at an intersection with SR 205 between 1974 and 1975.

Major intersections

References

External links

{{Attached KML, display=inline,title 327 Transportation in DeKalb County, Indiana Transportation in Steuben County, Indiana U.S. Route 27