The Ward (Toronto)

The Ward was a neighbourhood in central Toronto that for several decades was the centre of the city's Jewish community and later other immigrant groups. Today the area has been consumed by the central business district and the old neighbourhood has wholly disappeared. It was located in the area bounded by College Street, Yonge Street, University Avenue, and Queen Street and was centered on the intersection of Teraulay (now Bay Street) and Dundas.

The earliest Jewish settlers in Toronto had come from Britain, the United States, or Western Europe. With only a few hundred Jewish citizens in the city they settled in several neighbourhoods and mostly integrated with the rest of the city. In the 1890s an influx of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe began arriving in Toronto. For the several thousand new arrivals, mostly impoverished and unable to speak English, the densely packed houses of The Ward became their new community. The area was known officially as "St. John's Ward," one the municipal wards the city was divided into, but it quickly became known as simply "The Ward."

The development of the neighbourhood caused much consternation in Toronto, including anti-semitic riots and government clearance efforts. In 1909 eight acres of The Ward were demolished to build the Toronto General Hospital. The neighbourhood also began to change in character. As the Jewish imigrants became more settled, they moved westwards to the Kensington Market area and the the Ward increasingly became a centre for Italian immigrants, who were then arriving in great numbers. The Italians also moved west to what is today Little Italy and by the Second World War the Ward had become Toronto's first Chinatown.

In the post war years the Ward was slowly demolished as land was expropriated for office towers, hotels, and most prominently Nathan Phillips Square, named after the city's first Jewish mayor. For many decades the area was almost wholly commercial and institutional, but recent years have seen a return of residents to what used to be the Ward with multiple condominium towers being erected in the area.

References

* [http://www.ontariojewisharchives.org/exhibits/TorontoSynagogues/introduction.html - Toronto's First Synagogues - Dr. Stephen Speisman]