Ontario Highway 2

The King's Highway No. 2 was the major east-west provincial highway in Southern Ontario, running from Windsor in the west to the Lancaster in the east and joining together the towns and cities of the western two-thirds of the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor within the Canadian province of Ontario.

History

Highway 2 was the original road joining together the main settlements of southern Ontario, based on earlier trails and footpaths, and it served as the primary wagon and stage coach route before the arrival of the Grand Trunk Railroad. Most of the towns and cities in the corridor are built around the highway and use it as one of their main streets, many with names like Kingston Road, Montreal Road, or Dundas Street.

Before the Highway 2 designation was applied in the 1920's, the road was commonly referred to as the Provincial Road. Many of the original nineteenth century brick inns and taverns along the route still exist, especially in smaller towns and villages, though the buildings have typically passed to other uses.

Bypassing of Highway 2

The construction of Highway 401 during the 1940's, 1950's and '60s along a (mostly) parallel route, bypassed the town and city cores, and made Highway 2 largely redundant except for local travel and tourism, and led to a decline of many businesses built alongside it: in many cases, businesses moved from town and city centres to malls and plazas located closer to Highway 401. Provincial downloading of highways to local municipalities has largely resulted in the elimination of this highway as a provincial entity, and it has now become mostly a series of connected county roads. A short portion still maintained as a provincial highway runs in unison with Highway 49 from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory border to the former Highway 2 turnoff in the south. There is also a small section still in existence from the eastern limit of the Town of Gananoque to Highway 401. This section is about 200 m (1/8 mile) long.

Current designations of Highway 2 as it existed in 1996:

• Essex County - now County Road #42 (known also as Division Rd. near Windsor, that was a by-pass of Techumseh Road)
• Chatham-Kent - now Municipal Road #2 (known also as Queen's Line west of Chatham, Grand Ave. within Chatham and Longwoods Rd. east of Chatham)
• Middlesex County - now County Road #2 (known also as Longwoods Rd. west of London, Wharncliffe Rd. within London and Dundas St. east of London)
• Oxford County - now County Road #2 (known also as Road 68 west of Woodstock and Dundas Street within Woodstock)
• Brant County - now County Road # HWY 2 (known also as Governors Rd. west of Paris, King St. and Dundas St. within Paris, Paris Rd. between Paris and Brantford and Brant St. and Colborne St. within Brantford.)
• Hamilton - now Wilson St in former Ancaster area, Main Street in Westdale, then Dundurn Street and York Boulevard beside Burlington Bay.
• Halton RM - now Plains Road, Francis Road, Northshore Boulevard and Lakeshore Road.
• Peel RM - now Lakeshore Rd.
• Toronto - now Lake Shore Boulevard and Kingston Road. (It was once posted on the Gardiner Expressway but that may have been a city-posted designation.) Prior to the expressway age, both Queen and King Streets had been marked on older maps.
• Durham RM - now Durham Highway 2 (known also as Kingston Rd. in Pickering and Ajax, Dundas St. in Whitby, King St. and Bond St. in Oshawa and King Street (Bowmanville) and King Avenue (Newcastle) in Clarington.
• Northumberland County - now County Road #2 (known also as Toronto Rd., Mill St., and Peter St. in Port Hope and William St. and King St. in Cobourg.
• Hastings County - now Former Hwy. 2, also Dundas St. in Trenton and Dundas St. in Belleville.
• Lennox and Addington - now County Road #2
• Frontenac County - now Princess St. Kingston west and Old Hwy. 2 east of Kingston.
• Leeds and Grenville United Counties - County Road #2 (See also Thousand Islands Parkway, another former alignment of Highway 2 which has been retained in the Ontario highway system as a scenic parkway.)
• Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry United Counties - County Road #2 west of Cornwall (much of this was originally Canadian National Railway right of way, prior to the construction of the St Lawrence Seaway), then Vincent Massey Dr., Brookdale Ave., Water St. and Montreal Rd. within Cornwall. (See also The Lost Villages.)

East of Ontario

The Highway Designation # 2 continued east of Ontario into Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to Halifax.

In Quebec, Highway 2 followed the route of the present Quebec Autoroute 20 onto the Island of Montreal. It became Sherbrooke Street in Lachine, Quebec and into the city of Montreal. This became the "Kings Road" (Chemin du Roy) of the North Shore of the St Lawrence River through Trois-Rivières to Quebec City, where it then crossed to the south side of the St. Lawrence by the Quebec Bridge, and continued east to Rivière-du-Loup, then into New Brunswick.

Highway numbering changed in Quebec during the 1960s, and Highway 2 became Secondary Highway 338, 138, 132, and 185.