King's Highway 55, commonly referred to as Highway 55 and historically as the Niagara Stone Road and Black Swamp Road, was a provincially maintained highway in the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

province of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, which connected the

Queen Elizabeth Way The Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario linking Toronto with the Niagara Peninsula and Buffalo, New York. The freeway begins at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie and travels around the western ...

(QEW) with

Niagara-on-the-Lake Niagara-on-the-Lake is a town in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the Niagara Peninsula at the point where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario, across the river from New York, United States. Niagara-on-the-Lake is in the Niagara Region of On ...

, following Niagara Stone Road. The route divided a swath of

wineries A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, b ...

at the foot of the

Niagara Escarpment The Niagara Escarpment is a long escarpment, or cuesta, in Canada and the United States that runs predominantly east–west from New York through Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, and into Illinois. The escarpment is most famous as the cliff over ...

, passing at an oblique angle to the

concession road In Upper and Lower Canada, concession roads were laid out by the colonial government through undeveloped Crown land to provide access to rows of newly surveyed lots intended for farming by new settlers. The land that comprised a row of lots that ...

grid. A former Highway 55 designation connected Highway 6 with Highway 53, passing through the Mountain district of

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

. The more recent designation was applied in 1970, following the establishment of the

Regional Municipality of Niagara The Regional Municipality of Niagara, also colloquially known as the Niagara Region or Region of Niagara, is a regional municipality comprising twelve municipalities of Southern Ontario, Canada. The regional seat is in Thorold. It is the southern ...

. On April 1, 1997, Highway 55 was transferred to Niagara and designated as Niagara Regional Road 55.

Route description

Highway 55 began at an intersection with the old Iroquois Trail, now known as Queenston Street to the west and York Road to the east. This road was part of Highway 8 until 1970, when it was transferred to Niagara Region and redesignated Niagara Regional Road 81. The roadway that carried Highway 55 continued south of this intersection as Taylor Road ( Niagara Regional Road 70). Continuing north, the highway passed beneath the QEW, which ascends over the

Welland Canal The Welland Canal is a ship canal in Ontario, Canada, connecting Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. It forms a key section of the St. Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes Waterway. Traversing the Niagara Peninsula from Port Weller in St. Catharines t ...

on the

Garden City Skyway The Garden City Skyway is a major high-level bridge located in St. Catharines and Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, that allows the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) to cross the Welland Canal without the interruption of a lift bridge. Six lanes of ...

. The highway entered Homer, then curved northeast and entered

farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...

. From here to its northern terminus, the highway was completely straight. It passed south of the St. Catharines/Niagara District Airport and later intersected Niagara Regional Road 106. Highway 55 passed through the small town of Virgil, which is centred on the Four Mile Creek. It intersected Four Mile Creek Road ( Niagara Regional Road 100) in the centre of the town, then entered back into an agricultural area. Shortly thereafter, the highway entered the urban area of Niagara-on-the-Lake, where it ended at Mary Street (Niagara Regional Road 87). Several wineries are established along the former route of Highway 55, most notably the

Jackson-Triggs Jackson-Triggs is a Canadian winery with vineyards in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia and the Niagara Peninsula, Ontario. In 1989 Donald Triggs, Allan Jackson, with a group of investors, purchased Cartier wines from John Labatt Limited and ...

Estate.

History

A former Highway 55 designation connected Highway 6 and the QEW with Highway 53, passing through the Mountain district of

; this route was decommissioned in 1961. The more recent designation was applied in late 1970, following the establishment of Niagara Region. Highway 55

During the initial settlement period of the Niagara area, following the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, new wagon routes were built over native footpaths.

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...

and Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) quickly became established settlements, but travel was cumbersome between them. Pioneers were forced to travel south along the

Niagara Road The Niagara Parkway, formerly known as Niagara Boulevard and historically as the Niagara Road, is a scenic road in the province of Ontario that travels on the Canadian side of the Niagara River from the town of Fort Erie to Niagara-on-the-Lake. ...

Queenston Queenston is a compact rural community and unincorporated place north of Niagara Falls in the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. It is bordered by Highway 405 to the south and the Niagara River to the east; its location at the eponymo ...

, where they turned west and followed the

Iroquois Road King's Highway 8, commonly referred to as Highway 8, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario. The route travels from Highway 21 in Goderich, on the shores of Lake Huron, to Highway 5 in the outski ...

. To remedy the situation, locals gathered in 1798 and constructed the Black Swamp Road to connect Newark with the Iroquois Road near its crossing of Ten Mile Creek (now the location of the Welland Canal). The route, often subject to flooding from the waterlogged soil which it travelled over, was gradually improved, especially during the 1830s. In the late 1840s the Niagara and Ten Mile Creek Plank Road Company planked the length of the road. During the latter half of the 1800s, the road was

macadamized Macadam is a type of road construction, pioneered by Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam around 1820, in which crushed stone is placed in shallow, convex layers and compacted thoroughly. A binding layer of stone dust (crushed stone from the o ...

, and gradually came to be known as the Niagara Stone Road as the surrounding swampland was drained and farmed. The original incarnation of Highway 55 travelled through Hamilton. It was established in 1937, following Upper Gage Avenue north from Rymal Road (itself designated Highway 53 that same year) to Crockett Avenue and the Sherman Access. It turned west and followed the access down the

, ending at Highway 6 ( John Street). The route of this highway changed several times through the late 1950s as the Burlington Skyway was constructed. By 1959, a route down the new Kenilworth Access, north along

Kenilworth Avenue Maryland Route 201 (MD 201) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known for most of its length as Kenilworth Avenue, the highway runs from the District of Columbia boundary in Tuxedo, where the highway continues south as District of ...

and along what is now

Burlington Street Burlington Street is a partially at grade and elevated roadway in Hamilton, Ontario, stretching along the south shore of Hamilton Harbour in Lake Ontario. Burlington Street has four different statuses along the route. In its western terminus, it ...

to the QEW was designated as Highway 55; both routes existed simultaneously between 1957 and 1958. By 1961, this route had been decommissioned. The recent incarnation of Highway 55 was established following the release of the Niagara Peninsula Planning Study in 1964, which recommended that the province take jurisdiction of the Niagara Stone Road (then designated Lincoln County Road 3). It was subsequently assumed on November 5, 1970, the same year the

was formed. The route followed the entire length of the Niagara Stone Road from Homer to Niagara-on-the-Lake and remained unchanged over its 27 years of existence. Highway 55 was transferred to the Regional Municipality of Niagara on April 1, 1997, as part of the first round of mass downloading. It is now designated as Niagara Regional Road 55. The majority of the former route is named the Niagara Stone Road; within Niagara-on-the-Lake it is named Mississauga Street.

Major intersections

References

External links

King's Highway 55 pictures @ Asphalt planet
{{Niagara Regional Roads 055 55