New Toronto
New Toronto is a neighbourhood and former municipality in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the south-west area of Toronto, along Lake Ontario. The Town of New Toronto was established in 1890, and was designed and planned as an industrial centre by a group of industrialists from Toronto who had visited Rochester, New York. New Toronto was originally a part of the Township of Etobicoke. It was an independent municipality from 1913 to 1967, being one of the former 'Lakeshore Municipalities' amalgamated into the Borough of Etobicoke, and eventually amalgamated into Toronto. The neighbourhood has retained the name.
Boundaries
New Toronto is bounded by Lake Ontario to the south, with a western boundary of Twenty Third Street and the midpoint between Twenty-Second and Twenty-Fourth Streets, the Canadian National Railway mainline to the north, and Dwight Avenue to the east. To the east is the neighbourhood of Mimico and the neighbourhood of Long Branch is to the west.Character
New Toronto is now centred around the intersection of Seventh Street/ Islington Avenue and Lake Shore Boulevard West with a commercial strip running east–west along the latter street. Residential streets generally run north–south from Lake Ontario north to Birmingham Street, except for the Lakeshore Grounds to the southwest which extends from Lake Shore Blvd. West south to the Lake. North of Birmingham Street has historically been a large industrial district, although many industries moved or closed in the period from 1987 to 1991.New Toronto is now a neighbourhood in transition, as the industrial corridor located at the north end of the community is being redeveloped after having been vacant and fallow for many years. Industry that gradually moved out of New Toronto over the years is now being re-established, in addition to institutional uses.
Lakeshore Village, a community of co-operative housing between 9th and 13th Streets, north of Lake Shore Boulevard. West, was built by The Daniels Corp. developers, on the former Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company site. The loss of the former employment base resulted in a considerable downtrend in local business viability, which the lower-income housing could never replace.
In September 2009, the new Toronto Police College training facility opened at 70 Birmingham St., and also houses a 22 Division Police Substation. This is the site of the former Continental Can Company of Canada Ltd. New Toronto Plant.
In 1890, new streets for the Town of New Toronto were laid out in several series, essentially without names by simply using ordinal numbers. When the streets were laid out along Lake Shore Road, they had a single new starting point. The second numbering system began with First Street being one half-block west of Dwight Ave and continuing westward. Originally named "Mimico Avenue", and for most of the 20th century as "Eighteenth Street", Kipling Avenue is the westernmost north–south major road. The street-number naming convention was later applied to streets further west of New Toronto in the Village of Long Branch when their streets were renamed in 1931.
History
Establishment
The largest farming families in what would become New Toronto were the Northcote family to the east, and the Goldthorpe family to the west at Mimico Avenue, where the Mimico Lunatic Asylum was later built.In the 1880s, the Goldthorpe farm south of the Lake Shore Road Lake Shore Boulevard West and east of Mimico Avenue was purchased by the Ontario Government. In 1888, it became the location of the Mimico Lunatic Asylum It was built to alleviate overcrowding at Toronto's Asylum on Queen Street West.
In 1890, a plan of subdivision was filed by a group of industrialists and the first streets laid out for the Town of New Toronto by the Mimico Real Estate Security Company. With the first industries in New Toronto already operating, or to be operational by the end of 1890, New Toronto was promoted with the publication of an article in the edition of October 25, 1890 of the Toronto Globe newspaper entitled "Toronto's Growing Suburb – New Toronto – As it is and what it will be". New Toronto, as an industrial centre "was expected to rival – if not exceed – 'old' Toronto in manufacturing output". A few worker's homes were built on early streets north of Lake Shore Road while development proceeded.
New Toronto was planned and designed as a "town", with manufacturing as its focal point, but also including retail business and residential areas in the plan. The Town of New Toronto would become a fully independent, self-sufficient municipality.
John Sheane's Hotel was located across from the Asylum grounds at Mimico Avenue and the Lake Shore Road. In 1892, a post office was established in New Toronto. The next year, the pastor of Mimico's Methodist Church began holding separate services in New Toronto, establishing a church building as a branch of Mimico's new Methodist Circuit in 1909.
The Mimico Yard was established in 1906, encouraging many more industries to relocate to New Toronto. The same year a public school was established on Sixth Street. A proper school house was opened in 1909 on Fifth Street. By 1911, an Anglican church had been completed in New Toronto called St. Margaret's.
While some early factory housing was built on Sixth Street, and later Fifth Street, little residential development in New Toronto took place until after World War I. Farming was still prevalent south of the Lake Shore Road. Although some realtors began to advertise subdivisions for housing around 1910, it still took at least a decade until a sufficient base of local retail stores existed to support a permanent local population.
Town of New Toronto (1913–1967)
In 1913, New Toronto was incorporated as a separate village, with a population of 500. In 1915 the Methodist church became a separate Methodist Parish from Mimico. 1916 saw a referendum on joining New Toronto to Mimico which passed in Mimico but was defeated by New Toronto residents.With the First World War raging, new industries arrived in New Toronto - most notably Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company established a plant in 1916-17 which quickly became the town's largest employer. Other major industries included: E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company 'Fabrikoid' plant, Anaconda American Brass Company of Canada, Campbell Soup Co. of Canada, W & A Gilbey Ltd. distillery, and the Continental Can Company of Canada Ltd..
In 1919 Loblaws introduced their "self-shopping" concept with the first Loblaw Groceteria at 2879 Lake Shore Boulevard West in New Toronto.
New Toronto became a fully independent municipality in 1920 and established a Library Association. In 1924 a St. Teresa's Catholic Church was created in New Toronto out of Mimico's St. Leo's Catholic Church.
By 1927 a new school was needed and Seventh Street Public school was opened.
With the creation of the United Church of Canada after the union of the Methodist, Congregational and Presbyterian Churches, the New Toronto Methodist Church opened a new church building, the first to be built specifically as a United Church, called the Century United Church.
In 1929, the New Toronto fire station was built. Designed in an Italianate style, it was also used as the Town Hall for a time. It is still a fire station today. At the same time, the new mayor William Jackson donated land for a Public Library Building. Jackson would go on to be mayor almost continuously until 1952. In 1930, the Campbell Soup Company Ltd. had arrived in New Toronto commissioning architects Mathers and Holdenby to build an Art Deco factory at 60 Birmingham Street. In 1947 the Fifth Street Public School burned down and was replaced with the new Second Street Public School. The former Fifth St. Public School was then rebuilt to become the Town of New Toronto Town Hall.
Because of New Toronto's large industrial base, a new high school was needed to educate and train future workers for industry. In 1951, New Toronto Secondary School was opened. The curriculum of NTSS focused on the sciences and skilled trades.
In 1953 the Town of Mimico, Town of New Toronto, Village of Long Branch, Etobicoke Township, Village of Swansea, Village of Forest Hill, Town of Weston, Town of Leaside, East York Township, North York Township, York Township, Scarborough Township and City of Toronto joined together to create a new common level of government: Metropolitan Toronto. Each municipality retained its own town council and government, but several infrastructure departments were transferred to Metro. This lasted until 1967, when the number of municipalities in Metro was reduced.
In New Toronto, to serve the large local population of Ukrainians who had settled in the area over the years, St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church was built in 1954 on Sixth Street. While many Ukrainian and Polish immigrants lived in New Toronto and surrounding communities beginning early in the 20th century, more arrived after the Communist Bloc collapsed in 1989.
Growing freight traffic in the Toronto area necessitated the creation of an amalgamated facility and a by-pass of the congested Toronto Terminal downtown. In 1965, a new rail freight facility, first named Toronto Yard and then MacMillan Yard, was opened north of Metro Toronto. The local Mimico Railway Yard was downgraded considerably, resulting in the dislocation of much railway employment. At the same time the Toronto By-Pass line allowed for the creation of GO Transit commuter service between Oakville and Pickering. GO named its facility Willowbrook, after the nearby Willowbrook Road. Old CNR facilities in Mimico Yard were used for the startup of this trial train service. Its subsequent growth has resulted in new facilities being built for GO. In 1985, Via Rail facilities at Spadina Avenue were relocated from downtown Toronto to New Toronto's underused former Mimico Yards at the newly completed Toronto Maintenance Centre.