Old Toronto Series: The History of Parkdale
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 พ.ค. 2024
- The area we now know as Parkdale, was a 240 acre gift to James Brock in 1812. Parkdale Village was incorporated in 1879, only to be annexed (controversially) by the City of Toronto ten years later. From 1911-1922 the Toronto Harbour Commission worked on "improving" the waterfront in the Parkdale region by adding a boardwalk, the Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion, and Sunnyside Amusement Park.
In the 1950's, construction of the Gardiner Expressway lead to a substantial change in the neighbourhood's demographics, causing this once relatively affluent area's transition to a more working class neighborhood. In recent years gentrification has engulfed the area as its residents struggle to salvage the diversity and inclusivity Parkdale has come to be known for.
Fifth generation Torontonian here- my great-great grandfather came from Edinburgh to help build the Prince Edward Viaduct.
I grew up in Toronto in the 90’s but in the east end. My mum would never let us go to the west end because she said that’s where “all the perverts, pedophiles and mentally ill were housed”. Parkdale had a reputation for housing sex offenders in all the gritty rooming houses and other undesirables. So the history of the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital / now I believe it’s CAMH checks out.
Also I remember being a little girl in 1991 when
3 y/o Kayla Kladusz went missing in Parkdale; it was all over the news and then the cops found that a pedo had raped her and dumped her in Lake Ontario. I think it stuck in my mind cuz I was close to her age at the time and was so scared that a little girl was just nabbed of the street. It hit close to home. RIP Kayla. Parkdale will forever be seedy and grimy in my eyes.
I remember the tragic story of little Kayla at that time. The 80's and 90's were the low point in the history of Parkdale. Most of the elegant mansions from the 1800's and early 1900's had been chopped up into substandard cheap rooming houses or "flop houses" and occupied by the poorest and most damaged people of the city. Alcoholism and then drugs were rampant in the area, prostitution was flourishing and gangs were responsible for an unusual high number of shootings and murders. The Queen Street bars were active, but sometimes dangerous places. The neighbourhood has greatly gentrified in the past two decades; Young professionals working in the downtown core, found the area location very convenient to their work. The remaining mansions have been re-converted back to single family home, or they may still contain a revenue apartment or two, but these now demand high rents. Accommodation for $20 dollars per night, no longer exists in Parkdale. It's interesting that we now see homeless people all over the city, living on the street, or in tents in parks and we wonder where they all came from. They used to occupy places like Parkdale where for the most part, they were out of sight, but they can no longer afford the neighbourhood.
This is a true Parkdale story. Back in either 1969 or 1970 there was an old school called Queen Victoria Elementary School. At the time there was a very motley gang of teens that hung around called, appropriately enough, The Queen Vic Gang. They were pretty tough, and worse yet, really into sniffing glue. Beside the school running south was a block of old Victorian rowhouses that were empty and slated for demolition to make way for more of those wretched apartment buildings mentioned in this video. One summer afternoon, the lads in the Queen Vic gang, being rather bored, decided to aid in the demolition in their own small way.
There was a tractor-trailer parked across the street from the school, so they siphoned gas out of the tank, filled up pop bottles (they were made of glass in those days), shoved some paper inside, lit them, and hurled their Molotov cocktails at those soon-to-be demolished houses. I know this is true because I saw it with my own eyes, and no, I was neither a part of the gang, nor did I sniff glue. I was there for other reasons, which is a story all to its own, albeit a silly one.
And yet so many older people lament "the good old days" when "people were decent".
@@robertruffo2134 Overall they were more decent, and more respectful to others as well as to themselves. Parkdale was a really rough area, but still pales in comparison to much of the inner city of Toronto today. These were the only glue sniffers I ever saw. Compare that with the thousands of opioid zombies you see daily in large cities. Even in my small city of 70,000 they are everywhere. That's just the truth of it whether you want to see it or not.
@@robertruffo2134 Overall, they were more decent, and more respectful toward others as well as themselves. Parkdale was a very rough area then, but pales in comparison to much of the inner-city of Toronto today. The Queen Vic gang were the only "sniffers" I ever saw. Compare that to the thousands of opioid zombies in the large cities. Even in my small city of 70,000 they are everywhere. That's the truth of it.
Lived in Parkdale in 1980 -83. Loved it . . . Even the good 'new' Poles who took over from others post WWII and held it for a time. It was a great neighbourhood to live in.
Interesting. I would love to visit Toronto someday.
I lived in Parkdale from 1994 till 2002 and again from 2005 to 08. It is exactly how it's described. The Gardiner and lakeshore cause a disconnect to the lake but I still enjoyed going to the Sunnyside park on the weekend in the summer. There are still a lot of amazing houses from the 19th and early 20th century. When I lived there it was a combination of rooming houses with people who worked downtown and needed a relatively close but inexpensive area to live and new immigrants needing a convenient but inexpensive place to live. It has had a rough reputation for years now but the hookers and drug dealers were cleared out when I was there and it's rough reputation give us a place to live that was convenient and relatively cheap. I miss the old gal.
Who exactly is the old gal that you miss?
Parkdale
I've seen photos of the mansions that were along Sunnyside before the Express Highway. What a total mistake. Parkdale in the 90s was someplace you shouldn't go at night. Stay on the trolley and head out of there. ha ha And years back, I'd venture with friends on weekends. And see the old Victorian mansions of Parkdale. That were turned into slummy rooming houses. Very sad. Most have been torn down.