Lost road: Fourth Concession Etobicoke

[Transportfan]

An interesting thing I noticed while looking at a historical map of Etobicoke and noticed an extra concession road which appears to no longer exist. I checked on Google Earth and discovered that it still does---in three different sections; Carlingview, Humberline, and Renforth Drives I wondered why the road was broken up and decided to do some research:

I looked at some aerial photos from the City of Toronto archives. Here is a stitch of photos from 1947, showing its course from its foot at Rathburn Road to the future 401/427 interchange:

The 401 and 427 are not yet built. Eglinton Avenue was two separate roads; Richview Side Road and Lower Baseline. Indian Line and even Airport Road continued down to Lower Baseline and oddly converged at its eastern terminus with either of them linking both sections of the future combined arterial. And the 4th Concession was still intact. Even before the present massive interchange, this area was a complicated meeting of roads.

***

By 1969, the 401 is present and has now severed the 4th Concession into Carlingview and Renforth Drives. Construction has begun on the 401/427 interchange, with the latter's precursor, the Airport Expressway, already in place. The original Airport Rd. alignment and Indian Line have fallen victim to the 401 and the expanded airport, though both remain in service south of the freeway as connectors between the still-separate roads that will soon be joined as Eglinton. The abandoned portion of Indian Line will soon be resurrected as an extension of Renforth (dashed Line), as it is switches between the two old road alignments---and the still-open section (which appears to actually have been improved ) will be abandoned completely:

For comparison; the massive 401/427 interchange today:

South of Rexdale Boulevard in 1947, 1957 and 2018: The 4th Concession persists through the Mimico Creek Valley and points north---and still crosses the creek today, with the bend along the original bank being retained in Carlingview Dr. after the creek was re-channellized--- but was broken again after the construction of the new Woodbine Racetrack. through which it (temporarily) ran as a service roadway:

Even further north, the 4th Concession was broken again to form Humberline Drive in the mid-70's north of the Finch Avenue extension, (also under construction at the same time, but only to Humberline initially) after being abandoned through the valley of the west branch of the Humber River:

The northernmost section, between Albion Road and Steeles Avenue, was surprisingly, already closed in 1947 despite there being no obvious reason for doing so, and a house has been built on Albion in its right-of-way. Part of this short section is now incorporated into Signal Hill Avenue, and the rest still forms a lot line:

 

[Lone Primate]

I did a lot of poking around out there about 10, 15 years ago. I was curious to see if there were ever a bridge crossing the Humber there. It's possible there was at some point in the past, but I never found anything that made me reasonably certain... not aerial shots of one and no evident abutments on site. Somebody somewhere I saw had a few shots of them closing up the section just north of the extension of Finch sometime in the 80s.

Meanwhile, something very similar happened at the other end of town. Staines Road just south of Finch has been utterly obliterated as a concession line since the 1960s. Its name survives in a road that bears almost no resemblance to the road it commemorates.

 

[Transportfan]

Well. the historical map does show it going through.

And thanks for being the first reply!

 

[adma]

Meanwhile, something very similar happened at the other end of town. Staines Road just south of Finch has been utterly obliterated as a concession line since the 1960s. Its name survives in a road that bares almost no resemblance to the road it commemorates.

And it's weird how its pattern isn't really even vestigially discernable on the map, at least to anything like the same degree as Passmore.

However, it must be noted that Brooks Road Park off Military Trail is named for the now-vanished S-of-the-401 portion of the Staines ROW,; and its path is still discernable by a line of trees--and farther south, Galloway's a further continuation of that ROW...

 

[Lone Primate]

Well. the historical map does show it going through.

And thanks for being the first reply!

I'm not saying it's necessarily wrong, but I've seen lots of maps that imply features that weren't actually there. I'm inclined to think that a lot of map-makers up to the 1950s simply softly implied this bridge, or that obvious road extension or another, already existed... probably in the hopes of extending the map's application into the future. I have a map at home from the 1950s that shows a bridge connecting Woodbine across Massey Creek to St. Clair! I wouldn't advise you to conduct yourself driving in such as manner as to accept that map's assurances.

Sometimes what you're looking at on old maps is simply an indication of a road's right-of-way, which has implications for the boundaries of the adjoining properties, but doesn't actually mean they ever put the road through in fact. Maps of Woodbine at the Don, before it became the DVP, are a good example of this.

 

[Goldie]

Yes, Lone Primate, it's interesting that old maps often show "proposed" extensions (and bridges).
Since I once lived on Donlands Ave., I'm aware that it's identified on old maps as Leslie St.
Those maps indicate by dotted lines that Leslie St. (at Eglinton) might extend south to connect with the lower Leslie (Donlands).

 

[Transportfan]

Maps show proposed roads, but with dashed lines and labelled. I guess older maps often didn't. I remember seeing pre-urbanization maps showing Leslie north of Eglinton as Donlands.

 

[adma]

And often the dashed roads don't represent "proposals" so much as simple concession-esque ROWs--to what practical purpose, I don't know (maybe as carryovers from old county atlases?)

 

[Lone Primate]

And often the dashed roads don't represent "proposals" so much as simple concession-esque ROWs--to what practical purpose, I don't know (maybe as carryovers from old county atlases?)

I know that the ROWs were important even if the municipality hadn't seen the need to clear it and build an actual road. The clearance remained a public right-of-way even without it. Often they didn't build a road to something like a river where the going was steep... why go to the expense? But people would use the ROW to access it without trespass (fish, swim, harvest ice, dump garbage, drown bags of kittens, all those great things people on our rivers back then), and so you often found foot trails there regardless. And it was important to know where the property boundaries were because, sooner or later when the future came, the county would build that road, and that $7000 (oooo!!) truss bridge, and then it was all big city livin', boy howdy.