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 in length, while the Pickering section and Twyn Rivers Dr. is long.
History
Sheppard is named for Joseph Shepard I, who acquired 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. Sheppard was a sideroad between lots 15 and 16 York Township In the former Scarborough municipality, Sheppard was once called the Lansing Sideroad. A post office known as "Lansing" occupied the corner of Yonge and Sheppard.
Route description
Sheppard Avenue East
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. Sheppard continues straight east through Scarborough until just east of Meadowvale Road, where the Rouge River valley presents steep grades, 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 Sheppard again 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.
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 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. 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,, and, as well as the and termini. Sheppard West station is located at the corner of Sheppard and Allen Road, and Downsview Park station is located between Keele Street and Allen Road. Four bus routes runs along Sheppard Avenue in Toronto from Sheppard–Yonge station:
