Islington Village
Islington-City Centre West (also known as Six Points or Etobicoke City Centre) is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the historic central business district of the former City of Etobicoke. Islington is bounded on the north by Rathburn Road, on the east by Mimico Creek and Islington Avenue, on the south by Bloor Street West, with a western boundary east of Martin Grove Road.
Urbanisation
Urbanisation began in central Etobicoke in the 1950s post war boom with growing residential areas in Islington and to the north and industrial growth to the south. This led to Etobicoke's incorporation which separated from the County of York to form a part of the new Metropolitan Toronto in 1954, reincorporating the lakeshore municipalities into that level of government. With growing traffic along Dundas and increasing traffic fatalities in Islington, the intersections of Royal York Road and Kipling Avenue with Dundas St. W. were redesigned as highway style interchanges with bridges. The new Borough of Etobicoke in 1967 created several plans to raise the level of commercial and residential density in Islington with the aim of creating a western 'downtown' for Metropolitan Toronto. The Toronto Transit Commission's Bloor–Danforth line was extended into Etobicoke as far as Islington in 1968 with the establishment of Islington station at Islington Avenue and Bloor Street West. After the station was constructed, there was a boom in high-density office and residential development. In 1980, the Bloor-Danforth line was extended one stop west from Islington to Kipling and GO Transit's Kipling GO Station, further enhancing the neighbourhood's access to Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area.
- Redevelopment
The physical segregation of Islington with the redesigning of the surrounding interchanges on Dundas St. W. (at Kipling Ave. and at Royal York Road) as well as the Etobicoke council's move in 1958 from the historic Etobicoke Council Offices to a new complex beside the new Highway 427, limited the success of plans for the area to be developed as a western downtown. Recent plans have called for the levelling of the Kipling Ave. and Dundas St. W. intersection (Six Points), possibly as a roundabout, with a view to increasing the density there. A heated debate over the demolition of the Montgomery's home (Briarly) beside Montgomery's Inn in the 1980s led to a greater emphasis on the historic nature of the area.Montgomery's Inn has been preserved as the Etobicoke Community Museum and is open to the public and Islington has a designated Business Improvement Area known as the Historic Village of Islington which has commissioned a large number of historic wall murals along Dundas St. W..
History
Different groups of First Nations peoples used the land that is now Etobicoke at different times. As the Algonquins gradually moved west from the Atlantic to Lake Erie, it is almost certain that they would have occupied this land at some point. By the time they were mostly settled on the shores of Georgian Bay, The Huron-Wendat were the primary residents of the north shore of Lake Ontario and, somewhere in the 1600s, they were pushed out by the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people. After continued harassment from the south, a coalition of the Ojibway, Odawa and Potawatomi Algonquin nations, known as the Three Fires, gradually pushed the Haudenosaunee off this land and the Mississaugas settled there by 1695, fishing and growing crops more locally in the summer and hunting further afield in the winter.
It is thought that the French explorer, Étienne Brûlé, was the first European to visit the area, circa 1615.
The name "Etobicoke" was derived from the Mississauga word wah-do-be-kang (wadoopikaang), meaning "place where the black/wild alders grow", which was used to describe the area between Etobicoke Creek and the Humber River. The first provincial land surveyor, Augustus Jones, also spelled it as "ato-be-coake". Etobicoke was finally adopted as the official name in 1795 on the direction of Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe.
Settlers began to move in from Britain. Early settlers included many of the Queen's Rangers, who were given land in the area by Simcoe to help protect the new capital of Upper Canada. In 1795 the Honourable Samuel Bois Smith, a captain in the Queen's Rangers, received a grant of 1530 acres, extending from Kipling Avenue to Etobicoke Creek, and north to Bloor Street. The first land patent was issued to Sergeant Patrick Mealey on March 18, 1797 for a plot on the west side of Royal York Road on Lake Ontario. More land was given to the members of the Queen's Rangers between Royal York Road and Kipling Road south of Bloor Road.
On May 18, 1846 the Albion Road Company was incorporated. Its purpose was to build and maintain a road to the north-west corner of Etobicoke, where a new community was planned. At the same time, John Grubb, who had already founded Thistletown, hired land surveyor John Stoughton Dennis to plan a community at the intersection of Islington Avenue and Albion Road, to be named Saint Andrew's. Plan 6 for this community was registered on October 15, 1847. The French master of Upper Canada College, Jean du Petit Pont de la Haye, contracted land surveyor James McCallum Jr to create a plan for the community planned by the Albion Road Company, and Plan 28 was registered for Claireville on October 12, 1849.
The township of Etobicoke was incorporated on January 1, 1850. The first meeting of the town council was held on January 21st. Present at the meeting were reeve William Gamble, vice-reeve W. B. Wadsworth and aldermen Moses Appleby, Thomas Fisher and John Geddes. The council convened monthly meetings at a variety of places. In 1850, the population of the township was 2904.
In 1881, the population of Etobicoke township was 2976.
In 1911, the community of Mimico was incorporated on land taken from Etobicoke township. New Toronto was incorporated on January 1, 1913. Early on there was talk of merging Mimico and New Toronto. A 1916 referendum on amalgamating the two communities was approved by the residents of Mimico, but rejected by residents of New Toronto. In 1920, the village of New Toronto became the town of New Toronto. Long Branch was incorporated in 1931.
In 1954, Etobicoke Township became a part of the newly-formed regional government, the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto ("Metro"). In 1967, the township of Etobicoke was merged with three small lakeside municipalities - Long Branch, New Toronto, and Mimico - to form the borough of Etobicoke. The borough was reincorporated as a city in 1983. In 1998, six local municipalities (including Etobicoke) and the Metropolitan Toronto government merged to form the amalgamated city of Toronto.
Real Estate in Islington Village
HOUSING STOCK: Islington Village is a truly matured as a neighbourhood in the 1950's with bungalow type homes on good size lots for the average family. We have seen a bit of a tranformation in this area where we have seen additions or more 2 storey homes on these lots. Townhouses are advancing on the old industrial lands and condos are converging on key transportation hubs, such as Islington and Kipling stations.
BARGAIN ZONES: The best deals may be townhouse developments, such as the one on Islington south of Bloor. One real estate agent calls the 1,800- to 2,600-square-foot homes in Dunpar's Bloorview Village development the best bang for your buck in the city this area has continued to be affordable and a very family friendly neighbourhood with good schools and many programs for kids to grow up with. Builders eager to cash in on the area's convenient location are scooping them up and converting the best of them into $1-million-plus new builds, especially on such key streets as Shaver, Fairlin, Botfield and Goswell.
THE VERDICT: The area's original bungalows have a quiet, unassuming feel, it's redeemed by its sporadic bits of history. The least fashionable and most convenient part of central Etobicoke, the location offers easy access to the Gardiner and GO Transit, as well as the Islington and Kipling subway stations.
Average Home Price Range:
| Detached |
$550,000 -over $1.5 million |
| Semi's |
$500,000 -over $1 million |
| Townhouse |
$500,000 -over $1 million |
| Condominiums |
$300 - $800,000 |
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Education
Public schools in Etobicoke are overseen by the Toronto District School Board. High schools include Weston Collegiate Institute, Central Etobicoke High School, Etobicoke Collegiate Institute, founded in 1928, Kipling Collegiate Institute, Lakeshore Collegiate Institute, Martingrove Collegiate Institute, North Albion Collegiate Institute, Richview Collegiate Institute, founded in 1958, Silverthorn Collegiate Institute, Thistletown Collegiate Institute, West Humber Collegiate Institute, founded in 1966, Etobicoke School of the Arts, founded in 1981, Scarlett Heights Entrepreneurial Academy, and the School of Experiential Education, an alternative school founded in 1971.
In addition to the public school system, Etobicoke is home to several Catholic schools, overseen by the Toronto Catholic District School Board. These include Michael Power/St. Joseph, Bishop Allen Academy, Don Bosco (formerly Keiller Mackay Collegiate Institute), Father John Redmond, Father Henry Carr, Holy Child, Our Lady of Sorrows Elementary School, Nativity of Our Lord Elementary School, and Monsignor Percy Johnson.
Other schools include Humberwood Downs J.M.A., West Humber Junior, Smithfield, Elmbank, Humbercrest, Eatonville Junior School and Missisauga private school. West Glen Junior School, located on Cowley Avenue, educates in grades JK-5. The school was founded in 1953 and the principal is Jeanette Lang. An English-language school, it is attended by around 240 students. David Hornell Junior School, situated on Victoria Street, educates in grades JK-5. The school was founded in 1961 and the principal is Carolyn Wright. An English-language school, it is attended by around 190 students.
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