My Toronto — Part 1
Parkdale
When I arrived in Canada in July 1965, after the plane touched down at then Pearson Airport, I discovered that it was incredibly hot and humid.
After retrieving my various bags, and going through customs, I struggled with the bags and my 2 year old child to the airport bus which would take us to Toronto.
The plan was to go to the Royal York Hotel which was a drop off point for the airport bus, and there I was to rendezvous with my spouse. (Actually the original plan was for my spouse to meet me at the airport, but failing that, we were supposed to meet up with him at this big, fancy down-town hotel.)
If you think the Royal York looks huge and formidable in the first photo, you should have seen how huge and scary even the back entrance was. I found a bench in the shade at the back entrance of the hotel, where the bus had dropped us, and settled the bags and ourselves there to wait. And wait, and wait…
We arrived there at 2pm and were still there at 5pm. During that time, the very kindly head porter noticed us, and first went and got fruit juice for the baby, who was understandably fretful, and water for me. Both the baby and I were completely overdressed, not ready for a Toronto July heatwave. I kept on removing layers of clothing, and piling them on top of our bags.
There were no cellphones then, and I had no way of contacting the missing spouse (don’t ask why), so was just stuck waiting and fretting.
By 5 o’clock the kindly porter said he was going off shift at 5:30 and if no one had arrived to pick us up, he was calling his wife and they would put us up for the night, and we would try contacting the spouse in the morning.
Luckily, just around then the missing spouse arrived in a cab, all flustered because of the missed connection at the airport. And the kindly porter helped to bundle me, the bags and the baby into the cab and wished us well. A lovely man.
And that, my friends, was my introduction to my new home town,Toronto. A kind and generous gesture from a complete stranger.
Over the years I lived in Toronto, I have lived in pretty much every corner of it.
First it was in the historic Parkdale neighbourhood. At the time this was pretty quiet. Nowadays not so much. My memory of this area is the incredibly long walk to the King Street streetcar during an ice storm — my first ever. Also, the very long cold wait for the King Street car!
This area had a lot of older homes with very interesting architecture. Some were larger homes which were converted into flats.
The various commercial buildings were also old, brick fronted. A lot of this has changed now, with many buildings torn down and replaced with modern structures. But, a lot of the old buildings remain.
My first home in Toronto was in a big apartment building, on a street called Spencer Avenue, full of apartment buildings. It was nothing special then, but evidently in the 1970s’, after they closed down the local psychiatric hospital, that neighbourhood turned into rather a slummy area with a lot of unemployed psych ward patients renting rooms in many of the houses.
I remained in Parkdale for several years.
Parkdale has quite a history and has been around since the 1800s. In its early days, it was a fancy area with large homes and gardens. Its’ closeness to the lake earned it the definition of a bit of a holiday resort.
History notes from Wikipedia
Parkdale is primarily a residential area of the city, with semi-detached homes predominating on most side streets. Many of the homes date from the 19th Century and early 20th Century. Around 1900, the area was a well-to-do suburb and many older mansions from around 1900 still exist, often converted to multi-unit buildings. Many of the residential streets have mature trees. Good examples of Victorian housing can still be found on Cowan Avenue and Dunn Avenue, south of King Street. Victorian-era row homes of Georgian Revival style with original gaslights can also be seen on Melbourne Place.
The Village of Parkdale was founded in 1879, but settlement of the area predated its foundation. In 1812, the 240 acres (97 ha) of land bounded from Lot Street (today’s Queen Street) on the north, and Jameson on the west and Dufferin Avenue was granted to James Brock, the cousin of Sir Isaac Brock, in lieu of salary. Brock did not occupy or improve the land during his lifetime. After Brock’s death in 1830, his widow Lucy Brock sold the lands which became the major part of Parkdale to John Henry Dunn and William Gwynne.[8] The area north of Queen Street was subdivided from the O’Hara Estate, given to Walter O’Hara for military service. Another parcel of land north of Queen was given to James Brock, east of the O’Hara estate, was developed along Brock Avenue and became Brockton Village.
The Parkdale railway station was opened at Queen and Dufferin streets in 1856. In the 1870s, the Grand Trunk Railway built a railway station at Jameson Avenue, on its east–west line. It was named South Parkdale, and the Queen Street station was given the name of North Parkdale station.
A census of residents prior to the founding showed 783 residents of the area, more than enough for the legal requirement of 750 at the time. A local legend is that Gypsies were signed up as local residents to provide enough numbers. Parkdale’s status as an independent village was controversial at the time and was opposed by the City of Toronto and the York County councils.
Parkdale was annexed by the City of Toronto in 1888.
It was purely a residential suburb, home to large Victorian mansions and views of Lake Ontario. The first house of worship in Parkdale, the Anglican Church of St. Mark, was completed on January 20, 1881, on Cowan Ave just south of Queen Street.[9] In 1884, the Village council passed a bylaw to join Toronto, to be annexed by the City of Toronto, as the village was in fact surrounded by the city of Toronto. The act did not take place immediately as the Village’s finances were not in order. Liabilities of the village were not clearly stated in the village’s financial statements. On October 27, 1888, another vote was held and the annexation was upheld. The village was annexed by the City of Toronto in March 1889. It became “St. Alban’s Ward.”.[10]
1970s: Absorption of out-patients[edit]
In the mid-1970s, the Government of Ontario decided to release many long-term care mental illness patients from its Queen Street and Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital facilities to integrate them into the community.[11] Many of the remaining mansions of South Parkdale had already been converted to boarding houses, and were only a short distance away from the Queen Street hospital. Many illegal ‘bachelorette’ units were also being created and the inexpensive rental stock of South Parkdale soon became home to many of the released patients. The area developed a reputation as a neighbourhood rife with poverty, crime, drugs, homelessness, and large numbers of people living with mental illness.[11
Parkdale Notes from Wikipedia
For more on Parkdale visit pdlhcd
