The Junc­tion is a neigh­bour­hood near the junc­tion of four rail­way lines in the area known as the West Toronto Dia­mond. The neigh­bour­hood was pre­vi­ously an inde­pen­dent city called West Toronto, that was also its own fed­eral elec­toral dis­trict until amal­ga­mat­ing with the city of Toronto in 1909. The main inter­sec­tion of the area is Dun­das Street West and Keele Street.

As with most Toronto neigh­bour­hoods out­side of the cen­tral down­town core, the area was pri­mar­ily rural up until the 1870s. Much of the area that is now the Junc­tion once was the site of the Carl­ton Race Course from 1857–1876, which was owned by the Keele fam­ily. The track was the site of the first Queen’s Plate. Fol­low­ing the arrival of the rail­ways in the 1880s, the old race­track and sur­round­ing area was devel­oped by Daniel Web­ster Clen­de­nan. The approx­i­mate loca­tions of the two main straight­aways of the track are now High Park Avenue and Pacific Avenue.

The Vil­lage of West Toronto Junc­tion was founded in 1884 at the inter­sec­tion of Dun­das and Keele Streets. In 1889, it merged with the nearby vil­lages of Carl­ton and Dav­en­port to the north-east to become the Town of West Toronto Junc­tion. It grew fur­ther, into the Town of Toronto Junc­tion in 1892, then the City of West Toronto in 1908 before it was amal­ga­mated with the City of Toronto one year later in 1909.

Junc­tion Real Estate Map

Res­i­den­tial hous­ing is located in the neigh­bor­hood cen­tre, with the area’s remain­ing indus­tries con­fined to the periph­ery adja­cent to the rail­way tracks. The fac­to­ries of the Junc­tion Tri­an­gle are a tra­di­tional source of employ­ment for many res­i­dents of the neighborhood.

The name of this neigh­bour­hood dates back to a time when the train played a much larger role in the daily lives of Toronto res­i­dents. The Junc­tion neigh­bour­hood (orig­i­nally the town of West Toronto Junc­tion) was so named at the turn of the cen­tury because it is the meet­ing points of sev­eral rail­way lines.

The area quickly attracted busi­nesses and res­i­dents because of this urban net­work and it became a hub of shop­ping, indus­try and travel in the late 1800s. By the 1920s churches, schools and parks were added and the neigh­bour­hood was fully devel­oped. His­tor­i­cally, the bound­aries of the Junc­tion neigh­bour­hood cov­ered a larger area, but today the name “The Junc­tion” is applied to the area north of Annette, south of the CP rail cor­ri­dor (just above Dun­das) & between Run­nymede Road and the CN cor­ri­dor to the east.

Dun­das and Keele – His­tor­i­cal Junction

Pubs and tav­erns became per­ma­nent fix­tures in The Junc­tion, as was the case with many rail­way and fac­tory work­ers’ towns. By 1903, alco­hol was such a seri­ous prob­lem for fam­i­lies and a pub­lic embar­rass­ment (as drunks were vis­i­ble from pass­ing trains), that a tem­per­ance move­ment grew in the area, lead by the strong Methodist com­mu­nity. The town voted to go dry in 1904, and con­tin­ued to enforce local option as late as 2000, being at the time the last area of Toronto to ban the sale of alcohol.

Toronto annexed The Junc­tion in 1909 and the two have grad­u­ally grown together, though res­i­dents have retained their com­mu­nity iden­tity and remained very loyal to the neigh­bour­hood, despite fur­ther eco­nomic hard­ship. The com­mer­cial stretch of Dun­das Street went into decline, attrib­uted at least partly to the pro­hi­bi­tion. The pro­hi­bi­tion law dis­suaded restau­rants from estab­lish­ing them­selves there, and bars were not permitted.

As a con­se­quence of the local abat­toirs and other indus­tries which pro­duced vol­umes of toxic waste, the res­i­dents of the neigh­bour­hood are highly con­cerned about pol­lu­tion issues, and the city of Toronto has put sig­nif­i­cant efforts into clean­ing up for­mer indus­trial sites.

Real Estate in The Junction

The elim­i­na­tion of pro­hi­bi­tion has had a pos­i­tive effect on the com­mu­nity, how­ever. Rapid gen­tri­fi­ca­tion has meant new chic restau­rants and bars have opened up along Dun­das Street, attract­ing young hip­sters, while lower rents make the neigh­bour­hood appeal­ing to artists. Some see The Junc­tion as the next big “hip place to live” with a sur­plus of vacated indus­trial space and ware­house loft con­ver­sion possibilities.

The Junc­tion has been prone to booms and busts dur­ing its tumul­tuous his­tory. In the past few years the area has started to expe­ri­ence a much needed surge in pop­u­lar­ity and gen­tri­fi­ca­tion. Much of the indus­try located just above the north­ern CP rail­way lands is gone, replaced by a large group of big box stores like Cana­dian Tire, Metro, Future Shop and Rona. After the rail­ways dis­con­tin­ued ser­vice in the 1960s the rail grounds were aban­doned. The defunct rail lands are cur­rently being con­verted into a lin­ear park with cycling and pedes­trian trails called the West Toronto Rail Path – which will con­nect the Junc­tion and sev­eral neigh­bour­hoods. When com­pleted the path will run diag­o­nally through to King West/Strachan Ave and then downtown.

Her­itage Streetscape in The Junction

The Junc­tion BIA & the city have helped revi­tal­ize the his­toric & charm­ing main streetscape along Dun­das West, with period style lights and sig­nage. Art gal­leries, restau­rants & funky cafes, organic gro­cers & bars have begun tak­ing up res­i­dence along Dun­das to ser­vice the young fam­i­lies and sin­gles that have been attracted to the area because of its prox­im­ity to down­town, great schools & parks – and gen­er­ally more afford­able prices than neigh­bour­ing areas like High Park or Bloor West.

The nar­row tree-lined streets of the Junc­tion Tri­an­gle offer two and three-storey Victorian-style houses, mostly built in the 1910′s and 1920′s, with many of the brick exte­ri­ors col­or­fully painted. Most hous­ing in this neigh­bor­hood has been con­verted into two and three fam­ily dwellings by investors look­ing for income pro­duc­ing prop­er­ties and owner/users seek­ing to off-set their mort­gage costs.

There are sev­eral loft con­ver­sions in the area (on Med­land and at Clen­de­nan and Dun­das), as well as a new high rise condo on the for­mer Cana­dian Tire site north of Keele & Dundas.

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Con­tact the Jef­frey Team for more infor­ma­tion – 416−388−1960

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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