St. Clair Avenue

St. Clair Avenue is a major east-west 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.

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.

Name

The street's name is reputed to have been named after Augustine St. Clare, a character from the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin". [cite book
title = Toronto Sketches 7
author = Mike Filey
publisher = Dundurn Press
year = 2003
pages = 155
accessdate = 2007-12-27] Apparently, farm children who were reading the novel attributed names in it to the local trails and posted them at intersections, with St. Clair being the only one generally adopted.fact|date=December 2007

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".

History

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.

Community

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.

St. Clair Avenue is well-known for the high population of Portuguese, Latin American and Italian people. St. Clair is usually where the Italian and Portuguese soccer fans celebrate after a game they won. Over the years, the Italian and Portuguese people throughout Toronto have established a rivalry in soccer against each other. One of the longest-lasting celebrations on St. Clair was when Italy won the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which lasted from around 3:30p.m. until around 12:30p.m.

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.

Landmarks

* The Loring/Wyle Parkette at St. Clair and Mount Pleasant
* Imperial Oil Building
* Wittington Tower

In popular culture

"Jane St. Clair", in the Barenaked Ladies' song "Jane", is named for the intersection of Jane Street and St. Clair Avenue.

Notes

References

*Nancy Byers, "St. Clair West in Pictures", Toronto Public Library, 1997

External links

* [http://www.mystclair.com/ mystclair.com]