Wal­lace Emer­son is a neigh­bour­hood in Toronto, sit­u­ated north of Bloor Street between Duf­ferin Street to the east, the CPR rail­way lines to the north and the CPR rail­way lines to the west.

As tran­si­tion neigh­bour­hoods go, this west end area is grow­ing very rapidly. This up and com­ing “artsy” dis­trict is just another exam­ple of Toronto’s gen­tri­fi­ca­tion find­ing its way west, to what was once known as a bor­ing strip of retail bar­gain stores and mod­est res­i­den­tial properties.

Blo­ordale Vil­lage is the strip of retail and com­mer­cial run­ning along Bloor between Duf­ferin to Lans­downe. The neigh­bour­hood is know as Wallace-Emerson based on the two major res­i­den­tial streets which inter­sect in the mid­dle of the area. Wallace-Emerson is the area west of Duf­ferin, east of Lans­downe, north of Bloor and south of Dupont.

Wal­lace Emer­son Real Estate Map

As gen­tri­fi­ca­tion con­tin­ues its bold march west, first-time buy­ers eager to find a home near the sub­way line have been snap­ping up homes in this up-and-coming area (which is actu­ally a col­lec­tion of smaller neigh­bour­hoods: Bloor­court, Dover­court, Blo­ordale, Wal­lace, Emer­son). New art gal­leries, bars, vin­tage stores and indie cof­fee shops have fol­lowed, spark­ing rumours that the Bloor strip between Lans­downe and Duf­ferin is the sec­ond com­ing of West Queen West.

A lot of the res­i­dences in the north­west cor­ner of the area were orig­i­nally con­structed for work­ers employed in the fac­to­ries that once lined the rail­way. Devel­op­ment pro­posal signs dot for­merly indus­trial lands and old fac­to­ries are being reworked into con­dos. The west­ern bor­der is still a lit­tle dodgy (think empty store­fronts and room­ing houses) though house prices in the east have vaulted high enough to nearly close the gap between Bloor­court and neigh­bour­ing Seaton Vil­lage.

Some streets are a com­bi­na­tion of recently ren­o­vated homes and places sorely need­ing some TLC. A large num­ber of parks (sprawl­ing Christie Pits cre­ates the nabe’s ver­dant east­ern bor­der) help ease the slightly claus­tro­pho­bic feel, but the nar­row streets also add vibrancy.

The Argyle Lofts on Dover­court Road

Many of the young pro­fes­sion­als are look­ing for an urban vibe and energy found in dense city hoods and the very thought of the “burbs” brings to mind “bor­ing and ster­ile”. They’re look­ing for a walk­a­ble area to live where the streets are lined with trees and local cafés and mar­kets are only a short dis­tance away.

One such area that is on the cusp of change is Dovercourt-Wallace Emer­son Junc­tion. It started off in the late 1800’s as an indus­trial area close to the rail­ways and fac­to­ries, hous­ing poor immi­grants and later becom­ing pop­u­lar with Por­tuguese, Ital­ians, Span­ish, Asians and Ethiopians.

Real Estate along Bloor between Lans­downe and Duf­ferin is mainly retail / com­mer­cial with res­i­den­tial apart­ments on sec­ond and third floors. North of Bloor con­sists mainly of sin­gle fam­ily dwellings. These homes were gen­er­ally chopped up to make multi fam­ily res­i­den­tial units as the neigh­bour­hood went through it’s period of decline. Now of course that mostly young cou­ples are mov­ing back into the neigh­bour­hood, many of the sinlge fam­ily homes are being con­verted back to sin­gle fam­ily with pos­si­bly inlaw / rental suites in the basement.

Wallace-Emerson Real Estate

The treed res­i­den­tial streets have a close fam­ily and com­mu­nity feel with a blend of the orig­i­nal multi-cultural fam­i­lies and the new hip­sters that are mov­ing in. The hous­ing stock is a com­bi­na­tion of older detached and semis that are tak­ing on a new look and feel with ren­o­va­tions and remod­el­ing as new own­ers move into the hood. Newer town­houses and con­verted lofts are an option for buy­ers that are adverse to updat­ing or renovating.

The Dovercourt-Wallace Emer­son Junc­tion area is unique in hav­ing a num­ber of indus­trial and her­itage build­ings con­verted to condo Lofts. In keep­ing with this up and com­ing artsy hip neigh­bour­hood, these lofts offer an edgy and inter­est­ing space for the urban­ites that won’t set­tle for bor­ing. The Chelsea Lofts; Foundry Lofts; Iron Work Lofts; Wal­lace Sta­tion Lofts; Bartlett Lofts and Mitchell Lofts are all found in this hood.

The area has seen a resur­gence of inter­est from artists and young first time buy­ers due to affford­abil­ity com­pared with prices in High Park to the west and Dover­court Park to the East.  Blo­ordale vil­lage is now the home of Mer­cer Union Gallery, a cen­tre for con­tem­pory art, Toronto Free Gallery and the Funk­tion Gallery.

Wallace-Emerson Com­mu­nity Centre

Like many other Toronto neigh­bour­hoods, the local res­i­dents and busi­nesses par­tic­i­pate in a yearly street fes­ti­val called “Big on Bloor Street” fea­tur­ing art, music and inter­na­tional food.

Dovercourt-Wallace Emer­son Junc­tion in the west end of Toronto is only min­utes away from the down­town core. The local sub­way sta­tions on the Bloor-Danforth line are Lans­downe, Oss­ing­ton and Duf­ferin, and leav­ing your car at home couldn’t be eas­ier. “Blo­ordale Vil­lage”, the coolest of this area, is get­ting lots of press includ­ing from “Toronto Life” and “Now” pub­li­ca­tions and is becom­ing known as a trendy and hip area with the local urban­ites strolling to the retro Blo­ordale Pantry for brunch and Starv­ing Artist for incred­i­ble waffles.

Walk­ing along Bloor Street are more choices for drop­ping in for din­ner or grab­bing a drink from Holy Oak Café, 3 Speed or Ortolan which is the lat­est addi­tion to the area. Res­i­dents of all ages are mak­ing Lans­downe Cone one of their favourite stops for locally-made ice-cream. The vibrancy of the City along with the eclec­tic choices of eater­ies and edgy gal­leries make this up-and-coming neigh­bour­hood that offers great value, an ideal option to con­sider when look­ing for your next urban hood to call home!

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Lau­rin & Natalie Jef­frey are Toronto Real­tors with Cen­tury 21 Regal Realty.
They did not write these arti­cles, they just repro­duce them here for peo­ple
who are inter­ested in Toronto real estate. They do not work for any builders.
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