The Highways of Hamilton /

Ontario 52 and Hamilton Regional Road 52

Highway	Duration	Start	Terminus	Length (km)
ON 52	1937-1986	Wellington County line east of Clyde	Wilson St. (ON 2/53) west of Duff's Corners	30
ON 52	1986-1997	ON 5 & ON 8, Peters Corners	Wilson St. (ON 2/53) west of Duff's Corners	10
RR 52	1997-2005	ON 5 & ON 8, Peters Corners	Wilson St. (historic ON 2/53) west of Duff's Corners	10
RR 52	2005-	ON 5 & ON 8, Peters Corners	RR 52 and Brant County CR 22, Brant County line	17

Overview

Highway 52 is a north-south road tying together some of the rural areas of the municipality west of Dundas and urban Hamilton. It intersects the 403, passes through Copetown, and grazes the outskirts of Ancaster.

The configuration of the highway has changed significantly over the years. Its original course was a real head-scratcher, with a northern segment utilizing concurrencies to reach the Wellington County line...where it abruptly terminated at a minor road in the middle of nowhere! It was also classified as a provincial highway, yet was confined entirely to Wentworth County.

The north terminus was pared back to its intersection with Highway 5 in the 1980s, with the discontiguous segments reclassified. Later still, the highway number was extended southward to the Brant County line, absorbing a portion of RR 222 in the process (see below).

History

Hamilton RR 52 originated in 1937 as an Ontario provincial highway. Highways 53, 55, and 56 were numbered off in tandem, and all were part of a "second wave" of numbered roads taken on by the province to help flesh out the map. Its initial routing was upon pre-existing infrastructure from the nineteenth century.

The original configuration of the highway extended to Wentworth County's north edge via the following present-day roads:

Highway 52 north from Wilson St. (historic Highway 2 & 53) to Peters Corners
Highway 8 concurrency west from Peters Corners to Rockton
Kirkwall Rd. north from Rockton to Highway 97
Highway 97 concurrency west to Cooper Rd.
Cooper Rd. north from Highway 97 to Gore Rd. at county line

Since Highway 52 preceded Highway 97 by a year, the fourth segment was not originally a concurrency.

The highway has seen the following adjustments in the intervening decades:

A: By 1960, a 1.5 km segment of the concurrency with Highway 8 through Rockton was bypassed.
B: By 1972, a very minor adjustment was made in Kirkwall.
C: By 1978, a large jog of the road at the crossing of the TH&B Railway in Summit had been smoothed out.
D: Also by 1978, a smaller jog a mile south at Jerseyville Rd. was straightened...
E: By 1984, a jog was removed at Concession Road 6 north of Rockton.
F: In 1986, ON 52 was truncated north of its intersection with ON 8 in Peters Corners.
G: In 1997, the entire remaining length of ON 52 in Hamilton-Wentworth was reclassified as a Regional Road.
H: In 2005, RR 52 was extended southward 7 km to its current terminus at the Brant County line, replacing a portion of RR 222.

Related highways and alternate routes

RR 552

RR 552 was the designation assigned to the former course of ON 52 north of Highway 8 from 1986 to 2005. It's unclear whether the number applied to the entire decommissioned portion, or just the segment south of Highway 97.

Currently, this segment is officially unnumbered.

Gallery

All photos are by the author, 2022-2025:

Since 2005, this intersection on the Brant County line has formed Regional Road 52's south terminus. (And yes: This sign is actually posted in Brant County!) The "JCT" plaque is much older than the flowerpot by an order of magnitude, and once topped a white sign for RR 22.

Who said that Highway 52 wasn't still an Ontario provincial highway? This errant crown sign appears at a roundabout constructed in 2012, so it's not a leftover of the pre-1997 era.

Another recently-constructed roundabout on RR 52, this time featuring a vaguely-British directional sign with inverted blue-on-white flowerpot symbols. A stub of road left over from a 1970s realignment is nearby.

More strangeness. This sign is posted on Ontario Highway 8 at the point where ON 52's former course split off on Kirkwall Road as RR 552. The catch? The number says "52," not "552," and this portion of the highway no longer officially bears a number at all!

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