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History of King's Highway 3A (Maidstone):
PLEASE NOTE: The short highway connection through Maidstone was initially thought to have been signed as King's Highway 3B between 1931 and 1938. This was
based on a number of gasoline road maps produced by American mapmakers throughout the 1930s, on which the highway connection at Maidstone is labelled as King's
Highway 3B. However, a recently-discovered Canadian source (an Ontario Motor League publication) clearly indicates that the highway connection at Maidstone was in
fact signed as King's Highway 3A. The Ontario Motor League publication is considered to be the more authoritative of the two contemporary sources. In light of this
new information, the highway connection through Maidstone that was previously identified on this website as King's Highway 3B will now be listed as King's Highway 3A. King's Highway 3A was a short connector highway in Essex County which joined Highway 2 and Highway 3 together in Maidstone. Originally, this tiny route was a part of Highway 2. In 1929, a new cut-off highway route was established for Highway 2 west of Maidstone, which bypassed a tiny 1.9 km section of its former route (See Map). The short jog in the highway at Maidstone which eventually became Highway 3A was initially numbered as Highway 2A. In 1931, the Department of Highways of Ontario (DHO) assigned new route numbers to several highways in the Windsor area. The short section of Highway 2A in Maidstone became Highway 3A, while the old route of Highway 2 from Windsor to Tilbury became the new route of Highway 2A. Subsequently, Highway 2 was shifted onto the original 1930 route of Highway 18 from Windsor to Tilbury (See Map). Another highway renumbering took place in Essex County in 1935, when Windsor's Highway 3A was renumbered as Highway 3B. This change in route numbers was apparently due to confusion amongst motorists, since Windsor's Highway 3A connected to Highway 3 at Oliver only 6 miles west of the Highway 3A Junction in Maidstone. In order to differentiate Maidstone's Highway 3A from Windsor's Highway 3A, the DHO decided to renumber the Windsor route as Highway 3B in 1935. Further improvements to highway numbering in Essex County took place in 1938, when Highway 2A was renumbered as Highway 98 (See Map). In turn, Highway 3A through Maidstone was renumbered as Highway 98A. Maidstone's Highway 3A was one of the shortest King's Highways to ever exist. Only a handful of Ontario's King's Highways were below two miles in length. Two other routes have been designated as Highway 3A in Ontario. The first is the aforementioned Highway 3A in Windsor, while the other route was located near Niagara Falls. Neither of these Highway 3A routes were related to the Highway 3A route through Maidstone. 
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