Sheppard Avenue

A Sheppard Avenue East street sign which retains North York markings.

Sheppard Avenue is an east-west principal arterial road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A small portion (2.5km) of a continuation of the road in Pickering, Ontario is also called Sheppard Avenue from Altona Road and Fairport Avenue.

History

Sheppard Avenue facing west. Leslie Street is visible in the foreground, and the Allen Expressway in the background. The horizontal strip of buildings near the centre mask Yonge Street

Sheppard is named for Joseph Sheppard I, who acquired 400 acres (160 ha) of land at the northwest corner of Sheppard and Yonge Street. His son opened a general store there. The site was occupied in 1860 by the Dempsey Hardware Store, which was later moved and restored as a museum. The former site is now an empty lot pending developed of a commercial building.

In the former Scarborough municipality, Sheppard was once called the Lansing Sideroad.

Routing

Sheppard Avenue East

Sheppard Avenue is carried across the lanes of Highway 404.

East of Yonge Street, Sheppard travels east through North York to Highway 404. Historically, it continued straight to Victoria Park Avenue at the Scarborough border, where travellers then turned south to meet up with the Sheppard section through Scarborough. However, a new section called the Lansing Cutoff was constructed joining the two disconnected pieces. The orphaned section of Sheppard between the 404 and Victoria Park was renamed Old Sheppard Avenue. 43°46′34″N 79°20′13″W / 43.77611°N 79.33694°W / 43.77611; -79.33694

Sheppard continues straight east through Scarborough until just east of Meadowvale Road, where the Rouge River valley presents steep grades 43°48′33″N 79°09′58″W / 43.80917°N 79.16611°W / 43.80917; -79.16611, and so Sheppard curves southwards to meet Kingston Road just north of Highway 401. At that junction, it also meets Port Union Road, which heads south into the Port Union neighbourhood. However, Twyn Rivers Drive continues east into the Rouge valley as a collector road, and becomes Sheppard again at Altona Road just east of the border of Pickering, Durham Region. It continues farther east until it ends at Fairport Road just north of Highway 2 / Kingston Road. 43°49′28″N 79°06′26″W / 43.82444°N 79.10722°W / 43.82444; -79.10722

This routing parallels the alignment for Highway 401 and serves as an alternative if the highway is closed or congested.

Sheppard Avenue West

West of Yonge Street, Sheppard travels west across the Sheppard Avenue Bridge over the Don and past Bathurst Street and Wilson Heights Boulevard. Further west, the road allowance became blocked in 1939 by the appropriation of land for a DeHavilland aircraft plant and, after World War II, Canadian Forces Base Downsview. A crescent-shaped section of road was finally constructed along the northern edge of the now former base in the 1970s, connecting Sheppard at Wilson Heights to Keele Street. 43°45′17″N 79°28′42″W / 43.75472°N 79.47833°W / 43.75472; -79.47833 Today, Sheppard also intersects Allen Road on this section, but the intersecting portion of Allen Road was not constructed until 1982. Sheppard Avenue continues still further west to Weston Road, but cannot be extended because the Humber Sheppard Community Centre (the former site of St. Basil's Catholic High School) is on the west side of the intersection.43°44′01″N 79°32′18″W / 43.73361°N 79.53833°W / 43.73361; -79.53833

Public transportation

The Sheppard Subway runs under Sheppard Avenue East from Yonge Street to Don Mills Road, with proposals to continue the line farther eastwards to the Scarborough Town Centre and westwards to Downsview Station at Allen Road. There are five stations on the line providing access to Sheppard Avenue, including Bayview, Bessarion, and Leslie, as well as the Sheppard-Yonge (at the junction with the Yonge section of the Yonge-University-Spadina line line) Don Mills termini. Downsview station is located at the corner of Sheppard and Allen Road at the northern terminus of the Spadina section of the Yonge-University-Spadina line.

Three bus routes runs along Sheppard Avenue in Toronto from Sheppard Subway station:

• 84 Sheppard West (1974–present)
• 85 Sheppard East (1963-present)
• Blue Night Network 385 Sheppard East (2005–present)

This bus route runs along Sheppard Avenue East between Scarborough Centre and Don Mills Stations:

• 190 Scarborough Centre Rocket (2002-present)

GO Transit has stations at Agincourt on the Stouffville line, on Sheppard between Kennedy Road and Midland Avenue, and at Oriole on the Richmond Hill line, south-west of the intersection of Leslie Street and Sheppard.

Communities

• Emery
• Dublin Heights
• Elia
• Downsview
• Lansing
• Bayview Village
• Don Valley Village
• Willowdale (includes Lansing)
• North York Centre
• Henry Farm
• Parkway Forest
• The Peanut
• Agincourt
• Malvern
• L'Amoreaux

Attractions

Sign in Sheppard Avenue.

• Bayview Village - retail shopping mall (connecting with Bayview Station)
• Sheppard Centre - retail, commercial and residential complex (adjacent to Sheppard-Yonge Station)
• Fairview Mall - large retail shopping mall (connecting with Don Mills Station)
• Agincourt Mall - mid-size retail shopping mall
• Downsview Park - park and recreational facility owned by federal government and on the former CFB Downsview lands
• LCol George Taylor Denison III Armoury
• North York General Hospital - major hospital and teaching unit of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine (adjacent to Leslie Station)
• Rouge Park - regional park in the east end of the city
• Toronto Zoo - zoo located in east end of the city

See also

• Finch Avenue
• Steeles Avenue
• Lawrence Avenue

References

• Joseph Sheppard II

Coordinates: 43°45′42″N 79°24′36″W / 43.76167°N 79.41000°W / 43.76167; -79.41000