56 Priest Drive

The earliest known routing for route 56 is from August 18, 1997, when the route was named Priest/University. The route started at Guadalupe Rd & McClintock Dr, traveling west on Guadalupe, then north on Rural, west on Baseline, north on Priest, diverting to Fountainhead Pkwy & MicroAge Way (now 55th St), continuing on Priest before turning west on 14th St, then briefly north on 48th St, east on 10th Place, up 52nd St, then east down University Dr all the way to Dobson Rd, where the route turned south down to Dobson Rd & Main St. With the limited information that I can find, I believe the route remained relatively unchanged until March 21, 1999, when route 56 was renamed to just Priest and significantly reconfigured. Instead of doing almost a full loop route, route 56 was changed to begin at 48th St & Warner Rd, traveling north on 48th St, turning east on Elliot Rd, then north on Priest Dr, serving Arizona Mills Mall and MicroAge Way still, then instead of making a bunch of diversions in Tempe, the route continued straight up Priest Drive, then turned east on Washington St, south down Mill Ave, and ending at the Tempe Transportation Center. On January 14, 2002, the southern end was extended to 48th St & Chandler Blvd. On February 24, 2003, the northern part of the route between Priest Dr and Mill Ave was rerouted from Washington St onto Center Pkwy. On January 24, 2005, the northern part of route 56 between Preist Dr and Mill Ave was restructured again. On July 25, 2005, the diversion along Fountainhead Pkwy and 55th St was eliminated. On December 29, 2008, the northern end of the route was truncated from Downtown Tempe to Priest Dr & Washington St. On July 22, 2013, the southern end of the route was streamlined onto Priest Dr south of Elliot, turning west along Ray Rd, before ending at Ray Rd & 48th St. The northern end of the route was also extended to the Phoenix Zoo and Desert Botanical Garden at the same time. On October 27, 2014, the deviation into Arizona Mills Mall was eliminated and the northern end of the route was extended again to SkySong Transit Center in Scottsdale. Finally, on October 22, 2018, the northern end of the route was truncated back to Desert Botanical Garden.