Living History: eglinton origins

Eglinton Avenue is named for the small farming village in York county that was an agricultural hub settled in the early 19th century. The area where Eglinton Avenue West is situated today was largely farmland with a few farmhouses and several ravines until the early 1930s when several lots were sold and developed particularly in the Cedarvale area and Oakwood.

One notable person who lived in the developing area was Nathan E. Redmon, father-in-law to NHL star Herb Carnegie. Redmon to Toronto with his wife and purchased two plots of land on Belgravia Ave. (two blocks north of Eglinton Ave. West). By 1937, Redmon had designed and built his house and opened the first Black-owned truck haulage business at 122 Belgravia Ave.

After the Second World War, Toronto entered a time of major city development and population rise as soldiers returned from war and Europeans escaping conflict moved to the city. Newcomers from Italy, Portugal and Germany, many of Jewish descent arrived in Toronto to build new lives and some of them began investing in the housing and business developments on Eglinton Avenue.

Many of the new immigrants would help build the city of Toronto, working in construction, machine operation, or as farm hands. Eglinton Avenue was initially constructed on the east on Yonge, but the road was progressively extended westward over the years. Housing communities and businesses emerged along Eglinton and off the side streets as well. Several apartment buildings went up in the area to accommodate the working class, but those who could afford it were encouraged to buy plots of land in the developing area or purchase already-built single family homes.

Eglinton’s midtown location would make it a prime location for several proposals to aid transit across the metro Toronto area. The exact reasons Jamaican and other Caribbean immigrants chose to settle in the area varies, but historian Frances Henry noted that English Canadians were reported to be notoriously cold and harsh to anyone who wasn’t in their racial or social group. Other newcomer groups, such as Jewish and Italian communities, were more welcoming and did not hold the same reservations about Black immigrants in the city.

One of the major transit operations that shaped the area now known as Little Jamaica was the Spadina or William R. Allen Expressway. Proposed in 1951, the expressway would have connected Spadina Road south of St, Clair Avenue to Wilson Heights Boulevard. The hope was to extend Spadina Road and bring people from northwest of the city to downtown Toronto. The City approved the plans and construction began in the late 1950s. The road was built with space for a subway at Lawrence Avenue and steady progress was made on it into the 60s.

However, it soon became obvious that the initial budget of $73 million was not enough. The planned expressway would have cut through the Cedarvale Ravine and the Annex. Local residents organized protests against the plans for years during the construction.