Thorncliffe Park

History

Thorncliffe Park takes its name from Thorn Cliff House, the first Toronto home of the Taylor family in the 19th century. The house stood on approximately 33 hectares (82 acres) of farmland purchased in 1831 by British settler John Taylor at the Forks of the Don Valley, in what is now E.T. Seton Park.

The property was acquired from Samuel Sinclair and had previously been farmed by Parshall Terry. Settlement records for the area date back to 1800, just seven years after the founding of the Town of York.

Thorn Cliff House remained the Taylor family home until 1888 and was demolished in the 1940s.

With growing business interests in horse and cattle breeding, farming, lumbering, and milling throughout the mid-19th century, John Taylor’s sons increased the family’s land holdings to thousands of acres in the Don Valley and surrounding table lands. This included all the land between the future Leslie Street and Don Valley Parkway, to a half mile north of Eglinton Avenue East, including the future Flemingdon Park. Six hundred acres of this land became known as Thorn Cliff Farm.

By 1888, a prominent Toronto businessperson and Taylor son-in-law named Robert T. Davies had purchased 600 acres of land including the original family home, Thorn Cliff. Davies founded Thorncliffe Stock Farm, sometimes referred to as Thorncliffe Stable, which became a world-famous facility for breeding Clydesdales, standardbreds, and the largest thoroughbred stable in Canada. Davies’s sons relocated the stables to Thornhill, Ontario after selling a significant portion of the farm in 1920 to American investors to operate a racetrack, doing business under the name Thorncliffe Park Racing and Breeding Association Ltd.

The racetrack was home to thoroughbred horse racing and harness racing from 1917 until 1952 when it was sold for real estate development. Today, the old racetrack site is commemorated by two streets named Grandstand Place and Milepost Place and the number of buildings that took on racetrack stable names like Churchill, Maple Glen and Wellow Glen.

The Thorncliffe Ski Jump, located west of the present day Ontario Science Centre, was opened by the Toronto Ski Club in January 1934 and operated until February 1941. Its last recorded event raised funds for the Canadian Red Cross and Norwegian War Aid Fund during World War II.

In the 1950s, developers tore down the racetrack and created one of Toronto's first high-rise neighbourhoods. The neighbourhood embodies some standard urban planning ideas of the era – high concentrations of similar housing types, strict separation of retail and residential development, and the assumption that everyone has a car. Low-rise buildings are clustered inside the enclosure created by Thorncliffe Park and Overlea, while high-rise buildings line the outside of Thorncliffe Park. Retail establishments were concentrated in a single shopping mall, now called the East York Town Centre, between the two arms of Thorncliffe Park Drive at Overlea Boulevard. Smaller retail and service plazas have recently opened along Overlea Boulevard. Many residents on Thorncliffe Park Drive are at considerable walking distance from shops, although this problem is mitigated somewhat, even in winter, by well kept sidewalks and walkways and by frequent bus service.

Street names

Some of Thorncliffe Park's street names commemorate a former racetrack located there, or recognize the Town of Leaside's role in the development of the new community.

• Leaside Park Drive – named in 1966, six months before the Town of Leaside's amalgamation into the Borough of East York.
• Beth Nealson Drive – named after Beth Nealson, the last mayor of the Town of Leaside.
• William Morgan Drive – named for Leaside's reeve from 1948 to 1950.
• Banigan Drive – named for an elected member of Town of Leaside's Council from 1951 to 1955. Banigan was defeated by Charles H. Hiscott in the 1955 election to replace retiring mayor Howard Burrell.
• Pat Moore Drive – named for a Thorncliffe Park resident and community advocate.
• Patriarch Bartholomew Way – recognizes the Toronto visit of the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians, Bartholomew I of Constantinople.

Demographics

According to the 2016 Census, Thorncliffe Park has a population of 21,108, a 9.79% increase from 2011. The top 10 non-English mother tongues are Urdu (24.4%), Pashto (5.1%), Tagalog (Filipino) (4.7%), Persian (4.6%), Gujarati (4.1%), Arabic (3.5%), Bengali (2%), Greek (1.5%), Punjabi (1.4%), and Spanish (1.4%).

According to the 2016 Census, Thorncliffe Park is an extremely diverse community, with the vast majority of its residents being Visible minorities, with many being immigrants. Just under one third, 32%, of Thorncliffe Park residents were born in Canada, and over 18% of Thorncliffe Park residents immigrated into Canada between 2011 and 2016.

Pakistani, Indian and Afghan Canadians make up 21%, 17.6% and 8.8% of the neighbourhood's population, respectively.

In 2016, 46.6% of residents identified as South Asian, 20.5% identified as White Canadian, 8.45% identified as West Asian Canadians, 7.1% identified as Filipino Canadians, 5.2% identified as Black Canadians, 3.2% identified as Arab Canadians, 2.04% identified as Chinese Canadians, 1.42% identified as Latin American Canadians and 0.6% identified as Korean Canadians.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Public Transportation

Toronto Transit Commission buses operate in the community. When the new Line 5 Eglinton line opens, the 81 Thorncliffe Park and 88 South Leaside buses will connect to Science Centre Station and Laird Station, respectively. Thorncliffe Park Station will be a new stop on the Ontario Line, expected to open in 2030. Metrolinx is also building a maintenance and storage facility in the neighbourhood. The project requires the relocation of culturally-significant amenities and services, resulting in community members calling for a redesign of the project locally.

Prior to the Ontario Line, rapid transit service to Thorncliffe Park was considered in a number of proposed but unbuilt projects from the late 1960s onward, including: Queen Street Subway, GO-Urban Network, Central Radial Line, Downtown Relief Line, Don Mills LRT, and Relief Line North.

Roads

The Overlea Bridge, formally known as the Charles H. Hiscott Bridge, was built in 1960 to cross the west branch of the Don River and connect Overlea Boulevard to Don Mills Road, linking Thorncliffe Park to Flemingdon Park. The bridge was named for former mayor of Leaside Charles Henry Hiscott (1956 to 1961). Reconstruction is planned for the 2022-2025 period as part of the Renewing Overlea Boulevard project and will included widened sidewalks, the addition of cycle tracks and public art.

Education

The Toronto District School Board operates two schools in Thorncliffe Park: Fraser Mustard Early Learning Academy, and Thorncliffe Park Public School.

Recreation

Toronto Parks, Forestry & Recreation (PF&R) manages the Jenner Jean-Marie Community Centre and is responsible for the maintenance of R.V. Burgess Park, Leaside Park and Outdoor Pool, and E.T. Seton Park, which is a part of the Toronto Ravine System. The Thorncliffe branch of the Toronto Public Library operates in the neighbourhood. Leaside Park has been home to the Thorncliffe Park Tennis Club since the 1970s.

In culture

The neighbourhood has been depicted in the films Arrowhead and Concrete Valley.

Notable people

• Michael Bliss, historian, author and Officer of the Order of Canada.
• True Davidson, former mayor of East York.
• William Dennison, former mayor of Toronto.
• Peter Lynch, Canadian filmmaker.
• Robert Baird McClure, medical missionary and Moderator of the United Church of Canada.
• Beth Nealson, former mayor of Leaside.
• Alan Redway, former mayor of East York, and former Member of Parliament for Don Valley East and York East.

References

References

1. (12 April 2022). "Neighbourhood Profile Data". City of Toronto.
2. Kennedy, Scott. (2017). "Don Mills". Dundurn Press.
3. Kennedy, Scott. (2017). "Don Mills". Dundurn Press.
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5. Kennedy, Scott. (2017). "Don Mills". Dundurn Press.
6. Kennedy, Scott. (2017). "Don Mills". Dundurn Press.
7. Kennedy, Scott. (2017). "Don Mills". Dundurn Press.
8. Rempel, J.I.. (1982). "The Town of Leaside: A Brief History". East York Historical Society.
9. Guthrie, Ann. (2017). "Don Valley Legacy: A Pioneer History". Boston Mills Press.
10. David Wencer, [https://torontoist.com/2014/02/historicist-all-ski-jumpers-are-not-intent-on-suicide/ "Historicist: "All Ski Jumpers Are Not Intent on Suicide""]. ''Torontoist'', February 1, 2014.
11. Pitfield, Jane. (2000). "Leaside". Natural Heritage Books, A Member of The Dundurn Group.
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13. Bradburn, Jamie. (19 July 2014). "Historicist: The Battle of the Belles".
14. Pitfield, Jane. (2000). "Leaside". Natural Heritage Books, A Member of The Dundurn Group.
15. Pitfield, Jane. (2000). "Leaside". Natural Heritage Books, A Member of The Dundurn Group.
16. Pitfield, Jane. (2000). "Leaside". Natural Heritage Books, A Member of The Dundurn Group.
17. (April 15, 2018). "Renaming of a portion of Thorncliffe Park Drive west of Beth Nealson Drive". City of Toronto.
18. (June 24, 1998). "Request to Rename a Portion of William Morgan Drive to Patriarch Bartholomew Way". City of Toronto.
19. (12 April 2022). "Neighbourhood Profile Data - Thorncliffe Park".
20. (2022-04-12). "Neighbourhood Profile Detail".
21. "2022 Annual Service Plan". Toronto Transit Commission.
22. Jessica Cheung. "Metrolinx facility driving out community hubs in Thorncliffe Park, residents worry". CBC News.
23. Levy, Edward J.. "Rapid Transit in Toronto: A Century of Plans, Progress, Politics & Paralysis". Neptis Foundation.
24. "Charles H. Hiscott Bridge, Toronto {{!".
25. (15 February 2022). "Renewing Overlea Boulevard". City of Toronto.
26. "Find your School".
27. "Parks & Community Recreation Centres Map". City of Toronto.
28. "Thorncliffe". Toronto Public Library.
29. (25 January 2026). "About Thorncliffe Park TC".
30. "Director digs deep to uncover urban life Arrowhead an archeological excursion into highrise life". ''[[Toronto Star]]'', January 19, 1994.
31. Mira Miller, [https://www.blogto.com/film/2022/09/immigrating-throncliffe-park-concrete-valley-toronto-tiff/ "A movie about immigrating to Thorncliffe Park is getting its world premiere in Toronto"]. ''BlogTO'', September 11, 2022.
32. Bliss, Michael. (2 December 2015). "Our Leaside includes Thorncliffe Park".
33. Wong, Jan. (3 April 2004). "All that space, the neighbours marvel".
34. "East York's Leaside Tower in Thorncliffe Park, Toronto Mayor William Dennison and his wife stand by the window". [[Toronto Public Library]].
35. "Even while relaxing at home in his 22nd-floor Leaside apartment, Toronto Mayor William Dennison has an attache case full of work beside him.". [[Toronto Public Library]].
36. (1996). "Fascinating Facts about East York". Toronto Public Library Board.
37. Pitfield, Jane. (2000). "Leaside". Natural Heritage Books, A Member of The Dundurn Group.