Sheppard Avenue


Sheppard Avenue
Twyn Rivers Drive

Sheppard Ave. (Red) and Twyn Rivers Dr. (Green) within Toronto
Route information
Maintained by City of Toronto
City of Pickering
Major junctions
West end: Weston Road
  Jane Street
Keele Street
Allen Road (To Dufferin Street north)
Bathurst Street
Yonge Street
Bayview Avenue
Leslie Street
Don Mills Road
 Highway 404
Victoria Park Avenue
Warden Avenue
Kennedy Road
McCowan Road
Markham Road
Neilson Road
Morningside Avenue
Meadowvale Road
------Road branches------
Atona Road (Pickering)
Whites Road (Pickering)
East end: Toronto: Kingston Road (Continues south as Port Union Road)
Pickering: Fairport Road
Location
Major cities: Toronto
Pickering
Highway system

Roads in Ontario

Nearby arterial roads
← Wilson Avenue
York Mills Road
Ellesmere Road
Kingston Road		 Sheppard Avenue Finch 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. The street has two distinct branches near its eastern end, with the original route being a collector road leading to Pickering via a turnoff, and the main route following a later-built roadway which runs south to Kingston Road. To avoid name duplication, the Toronto portion of the northern branch was renamed Twyn Rivers Drive. The section of the street entirely in Toronto is (34.2 km) in length,[1] while the Pickering section and Twyn Rivers Dr. is (5.4 km) long.[2]

History

A 1880s survey map of Scarborough showing the original route of Sheppard (halfway up map on right) along Twyn Rivers Drive.

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. In the mid-2010s, a commercial building was constructed on the original site.

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

Route description

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 drivers 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, the street originally continued straight east into the Rouge valley, but that section was renamed Twyn Rivers Drive after the connection to Port Union Rd. was constructed, though Twyn Rivers becomes becomes Sheppard again (thus officially giving the street its two branches) at Altona Road just east of the Toronto-Pickering limits in Durham Region. It continues farther east as a collector road until it ends at Fairport Road just north of 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

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

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 De Havilland 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 and ends there due to the wide valley at the confluence of the two branches of the Humber River, preventing it from continuing further west.

Public transportation

The Line 4 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 Sheppard West 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 Line 1 Yonge–University) and Don Mills termini. Sheppard West 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:

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

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, southwest of the intersection of Leslie Street and Sheppard.

Communities

Lansing historical plaque on Sheppard Avenue.

Attractions and landmarks

References

  1. ↑ Google (May 6, 2017). "Sheppard Ave. route Toronto" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
  2. ↑ Google (May 6, 2017). "Sheppard Ave. route Pickering" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved May 6, 2017.

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

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