Ellesmere Road (Toronto)

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Ellesmere Road is a major east-west road in the Scarborough part of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally the First Concession of Scarborough Township (1850-1967), a hamlet once called Ellesmere (likely named after the English town) was established in the 1840s and gave its name to the road; the community is remembered by the Ellesmere-Statton Elementary School between Birchmount Road and Kennedy Road.

Ellesmere runs between Victoria Park Avenue and Kingston Road, just east of Meadowvale Road.

Since World War II, urban development and the proximity of Highway 401, which spans Scarborough between Ellesmere and Sheppard Avenue, has turned this into a major route. In the early 1960s, it was linked to North York's co-ordinating concession road, York Mills Road, by means of Parkwoods Village Drive, just west of Victoria Park Avenue.

The original route bypassed the Highland Creek by Military Trail until the mid-1960s; the new roadway (along the original concession) accesses the Centenary Hospital (Rouge Valley Health Centre) and the University of Toronto Scarborough.

Widenings of Highway 401 in the 2A and Port Union Road area truncated the eastern end in the 1970s.

Ellesmere is the southern limit of the Scarborough Town Centre complex, and was widened into a boulevard between Brimley Road and McCowan Road prior to its 1973 opening.

The Scarborough RT (TTC) has an Ellesmere Station between Kennedy Road and Midland Avenue. A transfer and a brief walk is required to access the TTC buses.

The major bus route is 95 York Mills (and the 321 York Mills-Neilson Blue Night). The 133 Neilson and 38 Highland Creek travel on Ellesmere eastward from the Scarbrough Centre RT Station to Neilson Road and Military Trail respectively.