| New Toronto | |
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| — Neighbourhood — | |
| Old Post Office 2930 Lake Shore Boulevard West at Islington Avenue | |
| Motto: Intelligence, Industry, Integrity | |
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Ontario |
| City | Toronto |
| Community | Etobicoke-York |
| Established | 1890 (Subdivision) 1892 (Postal village) |
| Incorporated | 1913 (Village) 1920 (Town) |
| Changed Municipality | 1954 Metropolitan Toronto 1998 Toronto from Etobicoke |
| Annexed | 1967 into Etobicoke |
| Government | |
| • MP | Bernard Trottier (Etobicoke-Lakeshore) |
| • MPP | Laurel Broten (Etobicoke-Lakeshore) |
| • Councillor | Mark Grimes (Ward 6 Etobicoke-Lakeshore) |
The historic Town of New Toronto is a neighbourhood in the south-west end of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the south-centre of the former Township (and later, City) of Etobicoke and was an independent municipality from 1913 to 1967, one of the former 'Lakeshore Municipalities'. New Toronto is bounded by Lake Ontario to the south, with a western boundary of Twenty-Third Street (south of Lake Shore Blvd. West) and the mid-point between Twenty-Second and Twenty-Fourth Streets (north of Lake Shore Blvd. West), the Canadian National Railways mainline to the north, and Dwight Avenue to the east.
Neighbouring communities consist of the Town of Mimico to the east, and the Village of Long Branch to the west.
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This neighbourhood is 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 (formerly the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital) to the southwest which extends from Lake Shore Blvd. West south to the Lake. North of Birmingham Street has traditionally been a large industrial district, although a number of industries moved or closed in the period from 1987 to the early 1990s.
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. New Toronto also has a high senior citizen population.
The area contains a large amount of government-assisted housing between 9th and 13th Streets, north of Lake Shore Blvd. West, built by The Daniels Corp. developers, on the former Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company site.
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.
The Lakeshore Campus of Humber College is located on the former grounds of the Mimico Lunatic Asylum (later the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital), at the foot of Kipling Avenue.
New Toronto's high school, now called Lakeshore Collegiate Institute, was originally built and operated as New Toronto Secondary School with first classes beginning in 1950. It is located on the northwest corner of Kipling Avenue and Birmingham Street.
In 1890, new streets for New Toronto were laid out in several series, essentially without names by simply using ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.). When the streets were laid out along Lake Shore Road (now Lake Shore Blvd. West), they had a single new starting point. The second numbering system began with First Street being one half block west of Dwight Ave (the boundary street between Mimico and New Toronto) and continuing westward. Originally named Mimico Avenue, what is now Kipling Ave. would also be named 18th Street more than once. The number naming convention was later applied to streets further west of New Toronto in the Village of Long Branch when theirs were renamed in 1931, continuing up to Forty-Third Street today (the section of Forty-Third Street in what is now Marie Curtis Park, and Island Road, were washed out during Hurricane Hazel).
The largest farming families in what would become New Toronto were the Northcote family to the east around where Seventh Street/Islington Avenue meets Lake Shore Blvd. West today, and the Goldthorpe family to the west at Mimico Avenue (now Kipling Avenue) where the Mimico Lunatic Asylum was later built.[1][2] In 1888, a farm south of the Lake Shore Road and east of Mimico Avenue (Kipling Avenue) which had been purchased by the Ontario Government, was used to create the Mimico Lunatic Asylum (alleviating overcrowding at Toronto's Asylum on Queen Street West - now the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health). In 1890 a plan of subdivision was filed by a group of industrialists and the first streets laid out in what is now New Toronto by the Mimico Real Estate Security Company.[3] 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 October 25th, 1890 edition of the Toronto Globe newspaper (now the Globe & Mail) entitled "Toronto's Growing Suburb - New Toronto - As it is and what it will be".[4] New Toronto, as an industrial centre "was expected to rival - if not exceed - 'old' Toronto in manufacturing output". A few workers homes were built on early streets north of Lake Shore Road while Mimico's planned development proceeded slowly.
John Shean's Hotel (later, The New Toronto Hotel and the Almont Hotel) was located across from the Asylum grounds at Mimico Avenue (Kipling Ave.) and The Lake Shore Road (now Lake Shore Blvd West). 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.[5]
The Mimico Yards (The Grand Trunk Railway freight yards) were established in 1906 in what was already a Postal Village, 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 (Fifth Street Public School).[6] By 1911 an Anglican church had been completed in New Toronto called St. Margaret's.
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 The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company established a plant in New Toronto in 1916-17 that quickly became the town's largest employer. Other major industries included: Canadian Industries Limited (1915), Anaconda American Brass Company of Canada (1922, after taking over the operations of Browns Copper & Brass Rolling Mills Ltd., 1915), W & A Gilbey Ltd. distillery (1933), and the Continental Can Company of Canada Ltd. (1936).
New Toronto became a town in 1920 and established a Library Association.[7] 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 the Seventh Street Public school was opened.[8]
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 an Italianate style building was built for a New Toronto Fire Station and was also used as the Town Hall for a time, it is still a Fire Station today.[9] 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, he also served as Warden of York County (leader of the Regional Government).[10] In 1930, the Campbell Soup Company Ltd. had arrived in New Toronto.[11] In 1947 the Fifth Street Public School burned down and was replaced with the new Second Street Public School.[12]
To serve the large local population of Ukrainians who had settled in New Toronto over the years, St. Michaels Ukrainian Catholic Church was built in 1954 on Sixth Street (just north of St. Margaret's Anglican Church).
In 1953 with urbanisation spreading north from the Lake Shore municipalities (Mimico, New Toronto, Long Branch) into Etobicoke Township, these municipalities were separated from York County along with the other municipalities south of Steeles Ave to create a new 'urban' region: Metropolitan Toronto.
Growing freight traffic in the Toronto area necessitated the creation of an amalgamated facility and a by-pass of the congested Toronto Terminal downtown. A modern hump yard in Maple, first named Toronto Yard and then MacMillan Yard, the freight by-pass opened in 1965 at which time Mimico was downgraded considerably, resulting in the loss of much employment. At the same time the Toronto By-Pass line allowed for the creation of GO Transit commuter train line 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 1967 New Toronto was amalgamated with the other Lake Shore municipalities (Mimico and Long Branch) back into Etobicoke to create the Borough of Etobicoke. In 1984 Etobicoke became a city. 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 (which would have its major operations moved to Quebec just a few years later).
In May 1987, Goodyear Canada Inc., which was the largest employer in New Toronto, shut down its plant[13] contributing to a general loss of employment in the area. While many Ukrainian and Polish immigrants traditionally lived in New Toronto and surrounding communities beginning early in the 20th Century, more arrived after the Communist Bloc collapsed in 1989. By the mid-1970s the population aged as many younger people moved further west to Mississauga and other new suburbs where large houses were being built. At this time the former Century United Church closed to be replaced with a mosque. New Toronto's Library was demolished in 1993 to be replaced with a new building.[14] In 1998 Etobicoke was joined with the other municipalities of Metropolitan Toronto and the Metropolitan government itself to form the new City of Toronto. Recent attempts to rejuvenate New Toronto include the protection of remaining industrial lands (for employment) and the old Mimico Lunatic Asylum buildings and grounds with the establishment of Humber College's Lake Shore campus and the Lakeshore Grounds, as well as the construction of the new Lakeshore Lions Arena on the former W & A Gilbey ditillery site.
New Toronto always had a large industrial base including plants operated by: Ritchie and Ramsay Co. paper mills, Anaconda American Brass Ltd., Canadian Industries Ltd., Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. Ltd., Plibrico, Charis Ltd., W & A Gilbey Ltd., Continental Can Company of Canada Ltd. (all demolished), as well as the Campbell Soup Company of Canada Ltd. and Dominion Colour Corporation Ltd. (surviving), McDonald Stamping Works/Robert Menzie Wallpaper Co./Reg. N. Boxer Co./Canadian Wallpaper Manufacturers Ltd., Mel-O-Ripe Bananas (buildings survive).
The Toronto Transit Commission's 501 Queen streetcar line, which runs along Lake Shore Boulevard, connects New Toronto to the downtown core. Though Mimico GO Station is nearby and GO Transit trains use track in the northern reaches of the neighbourhood, there is no active railway station in New Toronto. Two TTC bus lines serve the area. The 44 Kipling and the 110 Islington routes connect to the Bloor-Danforth subway to the north.
| Islington | ||||
| Long Branch | Mimico | |||
| New Toronto | ||||
| Lake Ontario |
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