Ontario Highway 5A Photographs - History of Ontario's Kings Highways

Left - Aerial view of Hwy 5A (Eglinton Avenue East) in 1949, facing east from Dawes Road (today's Victoria Park Avenue). This photo shows the western terminus of Hwy 5A at Dawes Road in Scarborough Township. The section of Eglinton Avenue East from this point easterly to Hwy 2 (Kingston Road) was an assumed provincial highway, under the jurisdiction of the Ontario Department of Highways. Up until 1952, a discontinuous west section of Hwy 5A ran along St. Clair Avenue and Dundas Street from the Hwy 5 Junction at Bloor Street easterly to Hwy 11 (Yonge Street). However, the eastern and western legs of Hwy 5A never actually connected, since Eglinton Avenue did not continue across the Don River. Based on land plans registered prior to World War II, it appears that planning was underway to link the eastern and western legs of Hwy 5A by extending the highway along Eglinton Avenue through Leaside. The completion of Hwy 5A across the Don River would have provided an alternate route for traffic wishing to bypass Downtown Toronto. However, these plans never came to fruition, presumably due to the outbreak of war in 1939. By the time World War II ended in 1945, the Department of Highways was already studying plans for a new Toronto Bypass (today's Hwy 401) which would be built around the north limits of Toronto. As a result, the route of Hwy 5A (which was renumbered as Hwy 109 in the early 1950s) was considered superfluous to the needs of the overall provincial highway network. The highway was eventually decommissioned in 1954, shortly after the creation of Metropolitan Toronto. Ultimately, the extension of Eglinton Avenue between Leaside and Dawes Road was completed under the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Toronto in 1956. See an Enlarged Photo here. Photo taken in December, 1949.
(Photo courtesy of Lockwood Survey Corporation)

Right - Aerial view of Former Hwy 5A in 1969, facing east from Victoria Park Avenue in Toronto. Compare this 1969 photo to the 1949 photo above, showing the incredible growth of Scarborough over the previous two decades. See an Enlarged Photo here.
(Photo courtesy of Lockwood Survey Corporation)