Lost Road: Fifth Line West

[Lone Primate]

And, just for good measure, there's also this. The photo below looks south down Erin Mills Parkway across the current course of Thomas Street, as it looked in the winter of 1990-1991. This view looks down the original course of Fifth Line. Today, you'd see a walkway through here with houses on either side, but at the time, there were no houses on the corner. Directly behind me would be what was left of the original intersection of Thomas Street and Fifth Line, which, by then, was simply a turn in Turney Drive. I like that you can still see the rows of trees on the right that once formed a windbreak along some farm. If I remember correctly... and it's been a long time now, these trees are long gone.

Just incidentally, when I got my license at the end of the 80s, Thomas Street running west of Erin Mills Parkway to Winston Churchill Blvd. (where it ended) was such a tight, narrow affair that one night when I met a Jeep coming the other way, we had to squeeze carefully past each other. That changed pretty quickly afterwards; probably around or not long after this photo below was taken. Things sure have changed. Mind you, 30 years'll do that, I guess.

 

[Transportfan]

This is a journal entry I wrote about Fifth Line West back in June, 2005.

I find it odd that the little stub of Fifth Line was kept so long.

Another thing I find weird is that as par the double survey grid used in Mississauga, the running of Fifth Line through both grids shouldn't even be possible given how the only other roads that run through both grids only occur at four km. intervals (eg: Hurontario, then Dixie; but how Cawthra in the southern survey, and Kennedy or Tomken (the part formerly part of Heart Lake Road) in the northern survey. end at Eglinton). But Fifth Line/Erin Mills and Winston Churchill run through both despite only 2 km. apart. The shift north of Dundas played a part but that doesn't seem to be enough to account for the adjustment.

 

[adma]

I find it odd that the little stub of Fifth Line was kept so long.

Another thing I find weird is that as par the double survey grid used in Mississauga, the running of Fifth Line through both grids shouldn't even be possible given how the only other roads that run through both grids only occur at four km. intervals (eg: Hurontario, then Dixie; but how Cawthra in the southern survey, and Kennedy or Tomken (the part formerly part of Heart Lake Road) in the northern survey. end at Eglinton). But Fifth Line/Erin Mills and Winston Churchill run through both despite only 2 km. apart. The shift north of Dundas played a part but that doesn't seem to be enough to account for the adjustment.

Might it have something to do with Winston Churchill being a "town line"?

 

[Transportfan]

Might it have something to do with Winston Churchill being a "town line"?

It's not that as Winston Churchill is 8 km. west of Hurontario and fits the spacing pattern. But Fifth Line was broken and I just checked and realized Erin Mills was built to keep shifting west as it went north, adjusting for the grid change as the two sections were connected. EMP is unique in Mississauga as being a new arterial that ran all the way from south to north by connecting a disconnected road across the grid, though Mavis comes close.

Another feature of the old Toronto Township grid was that since there were more north-south roads in the northern survey, new ones were added to the southern survey to match up the sideline numbers. Tomken Rd. (south of Eglinton), Wolfedale Rd, and Erindale Station Rd. are the additional lines.

 

[Lone Primate]

Another thing I find weird is that as par the double survey grid used in Mississauga, the running of Fifth Line through both grids shouldn't even be possible

I don't think it originally did, actually. If you look at the atlas of Peel County from 1867, they don't line up. The grid south of Eglinton is kind of irregular and I think might have been partly based on usage rather than imposed top-down like the lines north of Eglinton. It's clear that at some point the road south of Base Line Road (Eglinton) got the name Fifth Line, but I don't think it was because it actually was the fifth concession line. The atlas shows that the lots south of Base Line Road were numbered westward from Etobicoke Creek, not Hurontario Street. My guess is people simply started calling that road the same name as the analogous one northward and just a little to the west. At some point, the township deleted the road southward at Eglinton and built a new course due southward from Fifth Line, but I really don't know when that happened. It's just clear it wasn't the original course.