St. Clair Avenue
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
St. Clair Avenue is a major street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was laid out in the late eighteenth century by the British as a concession road (the Third Concession), 2 km (1.25 mi) north of Bloor Street and 4 km (2.5 mi) north of Queen Street (formerly Lot Street).
St. Clair Avenue has two sections. The western section extends from Moore Park in the east to Scarlett Road in the west, a distance of approximately 10 km. An eastern section picks up on the far side of the Don Valley at Taylor Creek Park, extending for 7 km to Kingston Road. Like all streets in Toronto which cross Yonge Street, St. Clair is divided into separate East and West sections, each with its own street numbers beginning at Yonge Street.
One notable fact about St. Clair is its relative shortness for a major concession street. In the west, it does not even reach the Humber River. This contrasts sharply with parallel crosstown streets such as Bloor Street or Eglinton Avenue, both of which continue into Etobicoke and eventually, Mississauga.
Its name is reputed to have become St. Clair after farm children who were reading the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin gave names from the book to the local trails and posted them at intersections, the St. Clair name being the only one generally adopted. Another story has their father, Albert Grainger, adopting St. Clair as his middle name after reading the novel, and the street later being named for him. The first known printed use of the St. Clair name was in an 1878 publication, Illustrated Historical Atlas of the County of York.
The first European settlement on St. Clair was at Yonge Street, where the Heath family bought land in 1837. A thriving neighbourhood, Deer Park, was established by the 1850s. The next settlement was about 5.5 km west, at Old Weston Road (then Weston Road), where settlement of Carlton Village began in the late 1840s. The western end of St. Clair experienced substantial development, with the municipalities of West Toronto, Earlscourt, Dovercourt, and Oakwood established there.
These municipalities were annexed by Toronto between 1908 and 1911, and the western section of St. Clair Avenue became entirely managed by the City of Toronto. To stimulate development along what was then largely a rural road, the city's Toronto Civic Railways built a streetcar line from Yonge Street to Caledonia Road (this line, extended west, still survives as the Toronto Transit Commission's 512 St. Clair route, the city's northernmost streetcar line). The street was heavily developed by 1930.
Much of the development from this era survives. St. Clair West is one of many streets in Toronto which has experienced little development since an initial building boom. The exception is the intersection with Yonge Street, which has experienced heavy nodal development since the opening of the St. Clair subway station there in 1954. The buildings there include the world headquarters of George Weston Foods Inc. St. Clair now intersects with two more subway stations, Warden station in the east and St. Clair West station near Bathurst Street.
The eastern section of St. Clair passes through several prominent neighbourhoods starting with Moore Park and Deer Park. West of Avenue Road are Forest Hill, Oakwood, Earlscourt (including Corso Italia), and The Junction. The eastern section of St. Clair passes eastward through Parkview Hill, Woodbine Gardens, Clairlea, Birchmount Park, and Kennedy Park to Cliffcrest.
Corso Italia, Toronto's other Italian enclave is found on St. Clair Avenue West, between Bathurst Street and Old Weston Road. St. Clair West is also used as an umbrella term to refer to all neighbourhoods from Old Weston Road to Bathurst as they share a similar building style, and its inhabitants are predominantly lower middle class and of Italian descent. However there are large Jewish, Black, Portuguese and Hispanic minorities.
St. Clair Avenue West has heavy automotive and public transit traffic. Over half the commuters in the congested rush hour traffic travel by streetcar. The 512 St. Clair streetcar line connects with the St. Clair and the St. Clair West stations on the Yonge-University-Spadina subway line. As of October 2006, the Toronto Transit Commission is rebuilding the streetcar line in a reserved right-of-way separated from car traffic similar to that of the 510 Spadina route on Spadina Avenue.
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[edit] Pop culture references
"Jane St. Clair", in the Barenaked Ladies' song "Jane", is named for the intersection of Jane Street and St. Clair Avenue.
[edit] See also
Major streets in Toronto which intersect with St. Clair West (east to west):
Major streets in Toronto which intersect with St. Clair East (west to east):
- O'Connor Drive
- Victoria Park Avenue
- Warden Avenue
- Kennedy Road
- Midland Avenue
- Kingston Road
[edit] References
- Nancy Byers, St. Clair West in Pictures, Toronto Public Library, 1997
[edit] External link
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| North-South streets: | Albion • Avenue • Browns • Bathurst • Bay • Bayview • Birchmount • Bridle Path • Brimley • Broadview • De Grassi • Don Mills • Dufferin • Homewood • Islington • Jane • John • Keele • Kennedy • Kipling • Leslie • Markham • McCaul • McCowan • Morningside • Oakwood • Palmerston • Roncesvalles • Spadina • University • Vaughan • Victoria Park • Warden • Weston • Woodbine • Yonge |
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| East-West streets: | Bloor • Carlton • College • Danforth • Dundas • Eglinton • Ellesmere • Finch • Front • Gerrard • King • Kingston • Lake Shore • Lawrence • Parkwoods Village • Pemberton • Queen West • Queen's Quay • Queensway • Sheppard • St.Clair • Steeles • Wilson • York Mills | |
| Expressways and highways: | 2A • 27 • 400 • 401 • 404 • 427 • Allen Road • Black Creek Drive • Don Valley Parkway • Gardiner | |
| Defunct expressways: | Crosstown • Richview • Spadina Expressway • Scarborough Expressway | |
