Our Neighbourhood
Danforth Avenue in Toronto, Ontario, Canada was named after Asa Danforth, an American Contractor who was commissioned in 1799 to cut the Danforth but didn't actually build it. The Don and Danforth Plank Road Company built Danforth Ave in 1851 connecting it to Broadview Ave and creating a viable route to the more populous surrounding communities down near Queen St East and Kingston Road. With the barriers of the Don Valley and Don River, the Danforth started out as a remote area. It was remembered as "a dusty country road - a sleepy byway that ran through open fields, market gardens, brickyards, scattered houses, the odd church, and occasional hotel or roadhouse, where Torontonians would go for weekend revels." In the early 1790's just north of the Danforth, industries began settling along the east bank of the Don Valley to take advantage of the water power potential of the Don and later to exploit the valley's rich clay deposits for brick-making purposes.
In the late 1800s, as the City of Toronto grew because of an increasing immigrant population, the City decided in 1884 to annex the previously un-serviced lands south of the Danforth, north of Queen Street East and east of the Don to Greenwood. The lands north of the Danforth and east of Donlands Ave, and Chester Village were later annexed to the City of Toronto in 1909.
The Danforth area began to prosper as a result of major transportation improvements that created more access to the area. In 1888 the Toronto Street Railway established a streetcar line along Broadview Ave from Queen Street East to the corner of Danforth Ave and in 1913 the Danforth line of the municipally-owned Toronto Civic Railways began service east of Broadview Ave.
The single most important event in the Danforth's history came in 1919 with the completion of the Bloor Viaduct bridge over the Don Valley finally connecting the Danforth to the City via Bloor Street. Initially the Bridge was called the Bloor Street Viaduct but on September 11, 1919 Toronto's City Council unanimously agreed to rename it the Prince Edward Viaduct to honour Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) who had received an enthusiastic welcome a few weeks before in his first visit to Toronto. First inhabitants to the new lower middle class suburb of Toronto were mainly immigrants from England, Ireland, and Scotland. In the 1950's an influx of Italians came to the area, followed by Greeks and other immigrants in the 1960's. In the mid-1970's second generation Greeks and Italians moved to the outer suburbs and the children of the Anglo-Saxon suburbanites attracted by low real estate prices and closeness to downtown Toronto (Bloor-Danforth Subway line opened in 1966) returned and launched a major wave of home renovations and restoration in the area.
Local Attractions
The Playter family were among the earliest settlers in Toronto. Captain George Playter, a Loyalist officer was granted lots totaling 500 acres in York Township including some around the Danforth. He established a farm on the river meadows of his 200 acres on the west side of the Don and built his home on the western edge of the hills above Castle Frank. George Playter had five daughters and five sons. John, James and Ely patented land grants on the Don River in 1796.
The farmhouse at 28 Playter Crescent was built in the mid-1870's by John Lea Playter a grandson of John Playter and his wife, Sarah Ellerbeck. Like many Playters he was a dairy farmer and market gardener and was also involved in government. The red brick, rectangular house at 28 Playter Cres decorated with "white" brick patterns was altered in the early 1900's by John Lea Playter's brothers Albert E. and William. The land around the house continued to be used for farming until approx. 1910. By 1912 the property was sub-divided, streets were opened up and substantial houses were built on what is still known as the Playter Estates. This farmhouse can be seen from the Danforth - when you look north on Playter.
The first commercial building in the area - was at the southeast
corner of Danforth Ave at Broadview Ave - built by Albert E. Playter
and his brother William around 1909. Two market gardeners interested
in developing the area - they strategically placed the building
where the Broadview Ave streetcars turned around, and it soon became
a commercial and social centre for the district. Stores were on
the bottom floors, doctor's and dentists offices, and other businesses
on the second. The third floor was for meetings of associations,
societies, card parties, and bingo games. The hall (3rd floor)
also became the east end place to dance nightly to big name bands
in the 1920's, '30s, & '40s - Guy Lombardo's orchestra played
at the Playter's regularly in the 1930's. Initially the retail
section that started at Broadview Ave extended only to Pape by
the beginning of the First World War and then building activity
continued throughout the 1920s stretching the long line of two-storey,
brick and mortar commercial buildings - many still standing today.
Allen's Danforth Theatre - (now known as the Danforth Music Hall) - 147 Danforth Avenue
Allen's Danforth Theatre was one of ten playhouses constructed in Toronto following the First World War in 1919 by the national chain owned by Julie and John J Allen. The architects Hynes, Feldman & Watson designed it to provide "artistic and comfortable surroundings," where distracting interior decorations were carefully eliminated unlike most movie theatres of the day which were in "remodeled structures with a plethora of heavy ornament." Exterior architectural features that are still visible today include extensive patterned brickwork in Flemish bond and herringbone band course; windows with concrete surrounds, entablature and sills; opal glass windows; and a marquee of chains.
This site was part of the original crown grant to the Playter family, in the 1890s. John Lea Playter built a grand, three-storey brick house on the Northeast corner of Danforth and Jackman Avenues. In the 1960's the house was torn down and replaced with a used car lot.
When the Prince Edward Viaduct opened - automobile traffic to the area increased - W.S.Giles opened one of the districts first car dealerships in 1919 and opened a second showroom in 1926 near this location - soon other entrepreneurs followed suit and virtually every block along Danforth Ave had at least one car lot - used car lots became the next big thing along the Danforth in the 1950's - a decade later many lots left to spread out over the city and suburbs - this location remained a car dealership until about 1982.
As land values along the Danforth boomed during the 1980s Tridel took out an option on the Danforth-Jackman property in about 1985 and planned to build a high rise building but was forced to cancel the project due to strong neighbourhood opposition.
In July 1986, Big Carrot Natural Food Market , a cooperatively-owned natural food store founded in 1984 then located across the street at Danforth and Hampton (where the Second Cup is today) acquired the site and the following year in October 1987 they along with other partners opened the Carrot Common named in tribute to the mall's most famous tenant (Big Carrot Natural Food Market). The 17 store shopping centre with a central courtyard- was and still is a popular neighbourhood meeting place.
In 1856 the City of Toronto paid the Scadding family $40,000 for the remaining 119.75 acres of their farm that had been a crown grant to John Scadding in 1793 and originally consisted of 230 acres running from the waterfront to the Danforth Ave between the Don River and today's Broadview Ave. The City considered this a safe location for a jail and industrial farm that at that time was still outside city limits and unpopulated except for farmers and market gardeners. The Don Jail opened in 1865. In the early 1960s Riverdale Park was bisected by the Don Valley Parkway and its area reduced to 104 acres. To compensate - Toronto Parks Department unveiled in 1962 a $1,250,000 plan to improve the parks recreational facilities with soccer and football fields, baseball diamonds, a quarter-mile track, a wading pool, a fifty-foot toboggan slope, a swimming pool, an ice rink, field houses, and tennis courts that are still available for recreation today.
Streetname Origins
Danforth Avenue
Playter Crescent
Jackman Avenue
Bowden St.
Sources This information was obtained from the following website: http://www.thedanforth.ca
The area history was taken from the following Toronto Public Library
Board Publications by Barbara Myrvold:
The Danforth in Pictures. Toronto Public Library Board Local History Handbooks
Other helpful references include: |
History
of the Danforth