Finch Avenue is an arterial thoroughfare and concession road which travels east–west through the city of Toronto. The road also has short extensions into Peel and Durham Regions as Peel Regional Road 2 and Durham Regional Road 37.
History
The street is named after hotel owner John Finch, who operated a hotel at the northeast corner of Finch Avenue and
Yonge Street in Toronto. The road allowance was a
concession road, and at one time, there were a number of older churches, schoolhouses, and cemeteries on each side of the road. In the 1950s,
Ontario Hydro constructed a series of
transmission lines around Toronto, and paralleled Finch from
Highway 400 eastward into
Pickering. This routing is also a
compressed natural gas pipeline.
As suburban development in North York progressed northward in the 1960s, Finch was rapidly reconstructed from a gravel road into a four-laned traffic artery. This began with the realignment of several sections, such as at Bayview where Newtonbrook Creek flows diagonally beneath the crossroads. A rail overpass west of Leslie was built by 1968.
West of Islington Avenue, Finch ended at the Humber River. Traffic proceeding west had to travel on Islington, northwards towards Steeles Avenue, or south across the Humber to Albion Road. As urban development came to the Toronto area, a Finch Avenue alignment was developed in this area, and was completed in the 1980s within Toronto (at Islington), and then briefly into Mississauga with the construction of Highway 427, and Brampton, turning northwestward onto the Gorewood Road concession (formerly Toronto Gore Township Concession 3). The road now ends at Steeles Avenue, where Gorewood Road is cut off by Highway 407. The concession is then called MacVean Drive in northeastern Brampton, north of Queen Street, the former Highway 7. It then continues into Caledon as Centerville Creek Road.
Sink holes
On August 19, 2005 a freak
rainstorm in Toronto caused the
Black Creek water level to rise, which caused a section of Finch Avenue West near Sentinel Road (due south of
York University between
Keele and
Jane Streets) to collapse, leaving a deep pit that prevented any pedestrian or vehicular traffic from passing through. The crater left where a 4 lane roadway once was is approximately 20–25 feet (7 metres) deep. Two lanes reopened in late 2005, and the remaining lanes opened in April 2006.
On July 24, 2009 two
sink holes appeared on Finch Avenue West between
Dufferin Street and
Bathurst Street.
Transit hub
At the intersection of Finch Avenue and
Yonge Street is the northernmost station of the
TTC subway network and
GO Transit Finch Terminal (formerly
York Region Bus Terminal), which is a transfer hub for
Viva and
YRT bus lines. TTC bus service on Finch runs 24 hours, on the 36 Finch West (309 Blue Night), and 39 Finch East (308 Blue Night). There is also a peak hours 139 Finch-Don Mills Express bus that serves the
Don Mills Station on the
Sheppard Subway line.
Preliminary planning is currently underway for the Etobicoke-Finch West LRT, a light rail line that is intended run in a private right-of-way along Finch Avenue West as part of the TTC's Transit City light rail plan.
Neighbourhoods
Other sites and neighbourhoods along Finch:
* Wild Water Kingdom — at Steeles Avenue East (Brampton), located within Brampton, Ontario.
Humber College Main Campus, near Highway 27
Etobicoke General Hospital
Albion Mall — at Albion and Kipling Avenue
Thistletown Regional Centre for Children and Adolescents
Thistletown
Rexdale
Emery — at Weston Road
York-Finch Hospital — Humber River Regional
Yorkgate Mall — near Jane Street
Norfinch Mall — near Jane Street
Jane Finch Mall — near Jane Street
York University, north on Keele Street and Sentinel Road
G. Ross Lord Dam and Reservoir, on the Don River (Western Branch), near Dufferin Street/Allen Road
North York Branson Hospital, near Bathurst Street
Herb Carnegie North York Centennial Recreation Complex (opposite Branson)
Esther Shiner Stadium, behind Northview Heights SS at Bathurst
Finch Transit Terminal at Yonge Street.
Finch Parkette — site of John Finch's Hotel and tavern in 1848; demolished in 1873
Historic Zion Schoolhouse near Leslie Street
Old Cummer GO Station at Leslie Street
Seneca College Newnham Campus at Highway 404
Bridlewood Mall at Warden Avenue
Scarborough Grace Hospital at Birchmount Road
Woodside Mall at McCowan Road
Malvern
Rouge Park at the Rouge River
Toronto Zoo
Street details
Despite its length (one of the longest streets in the
Greater Toronto Area), few major landmarks are located on Finch; it runs primarily through business and residential areas. When it intersects Yonge in
Uptown, there are located office high-rises and condominiums.
Most of Finch Avenue west of Morningside Avenue is a four to six-lane principal arterial, with a speed limit of 60 km/h (35–40 mph) in most sections. East of Morningside, Finch is a discontinuous collector or minor arterial road (as Old Finch Avenue to Meadowvale) and detours via Meadowvale Road, Plug Hat Road and Beare Road. The road was broken up by residential development and Rouge Park. The street continues briefly east of Beare Road, and enters into the City of Pickering in Durham Region after Scarborough-Pickering Townline.
In Pickering, Finch Avenue is also Durham Road # 37 and continues east to Brock Road (Durham Regional Road 1). It ends at a cul-de-sac at Kingston Road (Durham Regional Road # 2 and formerly Highway 2), and the highway follows this concession line to the eastern boundary of Oshawa.
Side streets
Pawnee Avenue and Old Finch Avenue are both former alignments of Finch Avenue. Pawnee Avenue runs along the former North York Township road alignment between Highway 404 and Victoria Park Avenue. Old Finch Avenue runs in northeastern Scarborough, and includes a section of the original road alignment east of Morningside Avenue to Meadowvale Avenue, including the routing through the
Rouge Park, and the northern edge of the
Toronto Zoo.
References
External links
Etobicoke-Finch West LRT details at City of Toronto website
Finch Avenue portal: North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke local information and services
Category:Streets in Toronto
