King's Highway 50, commonly referred to as Highway 50, was a
provincially maintained highway in the
Canadian province
Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...
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 ...
. The highway, which was decommissioned in 1998, is still referred to as ''Highway 50'', though it is now made up of several
county and regional roads: Peel Regional Road 50, York Regional Road 24 and Simcoe County Road 50. The route began in the north end corner of the former
Etobicoke
Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district of, and one of six municipalities amalgamated into, the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west-end, Etobicoke was first settled by Europeans in the 1790s, and the municipalit ...
(today part of
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
) at
Highway 27 as
Albion Road, and travelled northwest to
Highway 89 west of the town of
Alliston
Alliston is a settlement in Simcoe County in the Canadian province of Ontario. It has been part of the Town of New Tecumseth since the 1991 amalgamation of Alliston and nearby villages of Beeton, Tottenham, and the Township of Tecumseth. The pri ...
. En route, it passed through the villages of
Bolton
Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...
,
Palgrave and
Loretto. The road south of Bolton has become more suburban as development has encroached from the east and west; but despite this increased urbanization, the removal of highway status, and the fact that it runs through the former
Albion Township, the Albion Road name has not been extended to follow it outside Toronto.
Highway 50 was designated in 1936, connecting the western terminus of
Highway 49 with Bolton. One year later, it was extended both north and south to
Highway 9 and
Highway 7, respectively. In 1962, the route was extended south to Highway 27 in Toronto. A final extension was designated in 1976, extending the highway north to Highway 89. In 1997 and 1998, the entire route was transferred to regional governments,
decommissioning
Decommissioning is a general term for a formal process to remove something from an active status, and may refer to:
Infrastructure
* Decommissioned offshore
* Decommissioned highway
* Greenfield status of former industrial sites
* Nuclear decommi ...
the designation.
Route description
Highway 50 began at Highway 27 in Etobicoke, following Albion Road in a northwesterly direction. As far as
Steeles Avenue
Steeles Avenue is an east–west street that forms the northern city limit of Toronto and the southern limit of Regional Municipality of York, York Region in Ontario, Canada. It stretches across the western and central Greater Toronto Area from ...
, it was maintained as a
connecting link
The Connecting Link program is a provincial subsidy provided to municipalities to assist with road construction, maintenance and repairs in the Canadian province of Ontario. Roads which are designated as ''connecting links'' form the portions of ...
with
Metropolitan Toronto
The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and villages that surrounded Toronto, whic ...
, bearing little resemblance to the rural highway north of the city.
The former route of Highway 50 begins as an urban
arterial road
An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below freeways/motorways on the road hierarchy in terms of traffic flow and speed. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector ro ...
; as the northwesternmost part of Albion Road. Unlike most other
major roads in Toronto, it travels diagonally through the road grid. At Steeles, the road curves north and serves as the boundary between
Brampton
Brampton ( or ) is a city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Brampton is a city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a List of municipalities in Ontario#Lower-tier municipalities, lower-tier municipalit ...
to the west and
Vaughan
Vaughan () (2021 population 323,103) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increas ...
to the east, in the regions of
Peel and
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
, respectively, following an alignment that divides the
concession road grids of both
regional municipalities
A regional municipality (or region) is a type of Canadian municipal government similar to and at the same municipal government level as a county, although the specific structure and servicing responsibilities may vary from place to place. Reg ...
but follows neither. North of the former
Highway 7 (named ''Queen Street'' on the Brampton side), the road passes to the east of the former hamlet of
Ebenezer Ebenezer may refer to:
Bible
* Eben-Ezer, a place mentioned in the Books of Samuel
People
* Ebenezer (given name), a male given name
Places Australia
* Ebenezer, New South Wales
* Ebenezer, Queensland, a locality in the City of Ipswich
* Ebene ...
and then west of the
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...
Vaughan
Intermodal Facility, a large rail yard. At Mayfield Road (Peel Regional Road 14), which serves as the Brampton and Caledon boundary, the route curves northwest to align to the Peel regional road grid as it turns to run entirely within that region, and enters the village of
Bolton
Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...
, where it is named Queen Street.
![Lonely Highway 50](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Lonely_Highway_50.jpg)
North of Bolton, the road enters a rural stretch, where it divides two golf courses and provides access to
Albion Hills Conservation Area. Shortly thereafter it enters the village of
Palgrave, veering to the west to avoid a
pond
A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from th ...
. North of Palgrave, the road is mostly rural, surrounded by open
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 ...
; to the west is
Palgrave Conservation Area. The road meets Highway 9 and curves northward, entering
Simcoe County
Simcoe County is located in the central portion of Southern Ontario, Canada. The county is just north of the Greater Toronto Area, stretching from the shores of Lake Simcoe in the east to Georgian Bay in the west. Simcoe County forms part of the ...
. It travels straight through the small hamlet of
Loretto on its final leg northward. The former highway ends at Highway 89, west of
Alliston
Alliston is a settlement in Simcoe County in the Canadian province of Ontario. It has been part of the Town of New Tecumseth since the 1991 amalgamation of Alliston and nearby villages of Beeton, Tottenham, and the Township of Tecumseth. The pri ...
, the location of a
Honda Manufacturing plant.
History
Highway 50 between Steeles Avenue and Bolton was originally part of a historic road named
Indian Line
The Royal Proclamation of 1763 was issued by George III of the United Kingdom, King George III on 7 October 1763. It followed the Treaty of Paris (1763), which formally ended the Seven Years' War and transferred New France, French territory ...
, that continued the future highway's course south of the junction of Albion Road in
Claireville, prior to the southern portion of Indian Line being rerouted and subsequently subsumed into
Highway 427
The following highways are numbered 427:
Canada
*Manitoba Provincial Road 427
* Ontario Highway 427
India
*National Highway 427 (India)
Japan
* Japan National Route 427
United States
* County Road 427 (Seminole County, Florida)
* Indi ...
. It was first assumed by the
Department of Highways as part of the King's Highway network in 1936, connecting
Highway 49 with Bolton. On August 12, 1936, the route was designated.
One year later, on August 11, 1937, the route was extended north to Highway 9. On October 6, it was extended south to Highway 7 along the York–Peel boundary.
Highway 50 was ''
downloaded
In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remote s ...
'', a process that transfers responsibility for funding and maintenance of a highway to the various jurisdictions it resided within, beginning on April 1, 1997. On that day, the section between Steeles Avenue and Highway 7 was transferred to the joint jurisdiction of the Regional Municipalities of
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
and
Peel, and the connecting link agreement with the Town of Caledon through downtown Bolton repealed. The road was designated Regional Road 24 on July 10, 1997,
but renumbered as Regional Road 50 on March 26, 1998.
York Region did not follow suit with this change, and so the road is still designated as Regional Road 24 by their Public Works Department.
The remaining section of Highway 50 north of Highway 7 was transferred to the regions of York and Peel and the County of Simcoe on January 1, 1998,
decommissioning the designation entirely. A final transfer took place on August 13, 1998 between the Town of Caledon and Region of Peel, when the former connecting link through Bolton was assumed by Peel Region.
Simcoe County has since designated its portion of the former highway as County Road 50.
Simcoe County Road Map
/ref>
Major intersections
References
{{Ontario King's Highways
50
Roads in Brampton