On November 5, 1920, the state of New York awarded a contract to rebuild the Fayette–Varick town line road between MacDougall and what is now NY 96. The highway cost $51,139 to reconstruct (equivalent to $ in ), and it was added to the state highway system on October 31, 1921. The section west of MacDougall became state-maintained in the mid-1920s when the state assumed maintenance of a road connecting MacDougall to the Seneca River at East Geneva. The new state road curved northwest from the town line for a short distance before heading north toward East Geneva on modern NY 96A.