West Toronto Junc­tion has man­aged to retain its orig­i­nal small town charm and appeal despite it’s prime loca­tion in Toronto’s bustling west end. Iron­i­cally the same rail­way tracks that skirt this neigh­bour­hood and were respon­si­ble for it growth have seem­ingly also had the dual impact of shel­ter­ing the West Toronto Junc­tion from the wide­spread gen­tri­fi­ca­tion that has taken place in many Toronto neigh­bour­hoods. It is a lit­tle bit off the beat and path but well worth discovering.

Billed by many as the next West Queen West, The Junc­tion is already attract­ing artists and entre­pre­neurs for its cheaper rents and con­verted indus­trial and ware­house spaces. A raw food restau­rant and organic gro­cer are two recent addi­tions to the Dun­das West strip, join­ing estab­lished res­i­dents like Vesu­vio (touted by fans as the best pizza in the city). The neigh­bour­hood is also turn­ing into some­thing of a fur­ni­ture and design des­ti­na­tion, sport­ing three great shops in Post + Beam Recla­ma­tion, For­ever Inte­ri­ors and Smash.

Travel a few blocks east and you enter the Junc­tion Tri­an­gle, often taken as a sep­a­rate neigh­bour­hood, squeezed in between the Junc­tion, Ron­ce­valles and Blo­ordale Vil­lage (in the lit­eral tri­an­gle of rail lines bounded roughly by Dun­das, Lands­downe and Dupont). In 2009, a con­test was run to come up with a new name for the area, both to dis­tin­guish it from the Junc­tion proper, as well as to reflect its his­tor­i­cal ties to the railroad.

West Junc­tion Real Estate Map

So named for its loca­tion among four rail lines built in the late 1800s, The Junc­tion has shed its rep­u­ta­tion as a ’hood from the wrong side of the tracks. Thanks to cheaper rents and real estate val­ues, it’s home to bur­geon­ing num­bers of fam­i­lies and trans­planted down­town­ers who have been priced out of the core.

Close to High Park and Bloor West Vil­lage, The Junc­tion offers the same easy access to tran­sit and reli­ably good schools and its late 19^th and early 20^th cen­tury homes are more afford­able than its sis­ter neigh­bour­hoods (though the gap is shrinking).

West Toronto Junc­tion is still afford­able and appeals to a wide demo­graphic from young fam­i­lies, to artists to urban pro­fes­sion­als. This is as true a neigh­bour­hood as you are likely to find in Toronto. It has a strong sense of pride and his­tory, a beau­ti­ful main street shop­ping dis­trict on Dun­das Street West, cher­ished local schools, parks and library, and a diverse pop­u­la­tion that runs the gamut from gen­tri­fi­ca­tion to an edgy urban grittiness.

The com­mer­cial strip was belea­guered by empty store­fronts in the early aughts, but Dun­das has seen a boom in new busi­nesses (if there’s any doubt as to which direc­tion the dis­trict is head­ing, a Star­bucks recently opened in the area). The north­ern cor­ner is see­ing the devel­op­ment of big-box stores on the site of the for­mer stock­yards at St. Clair Avenue and Weston Road, but the neigh­bour­hood still retains a small-village feel. West of Keele and Dun­das, the streetscape is teem­ing with new restau­rants, inde­pen­dent shops and a con­glom­er­a­tion of stores spe­cial­iz­ing in vin­tage interiors.

Dun­das Street West in the Junction

West Toronto Junc­tion has some of the finest archi­tec­ture in Toronto. The wind­ing tree-lined streets north of Annette Street fea­ture rich red brick Vic­to­rian houses on gen­er­ous size lots that boast dec­o­ra­tive fea­tures such as roof top tur­rets, whim­si­cal front porches and glam­orous arch­ways. There are some fine exam­ples of Queen Anne and Arts and Crafts style house in this part of the neighbourhood.

Closer to Dun­das Street the houses are Vic­to­rian in style but much smaller and much less descrip­tive. The lots at the north-end of the neigh­bour­hood are also nar­rower. You will find a that a fair num­ber of the larger houses par­tic­u­larly on the main streets have apart­ments with two or more units which help pay for the upkeep and prop­erty taxes.

West Toronto Junc­tion began as a rail­way town in the 1870s. A con­ver­gence of rail­way lines oper­ated nearby and opened sta­tions and rai­l­yards, attract­ing man­u­fac­tur­ers and their employ­ers to the area. Many of the houses clos­est to Dun­das Street housed the labour­ers and their fam­i­lies that first set­tled here. Exces­sive drink­ing and row­di­ness led to a pro­hi­bi­tion on alco­hol being sold on Dun­das Street West that lasted until 2000.

West Toronto Junc­tion Real Estate

In 1882 an ambi­tious young lawyer named D.W Clen­de­nan in part­ner­ship with his uncle D. J. Laws pur­chased the Carl­ton Race Course prop­erty (the first run­ning of the Queens Plate was held there in 1860owned by the Keele fam­ily. They then reg­is­tered the West Toronto Junc­tion plan of sub­di­vi­sion. By 1884 lots were being sold with ads in news­pa­pers beck­on­ing buy­ers to West Toronto Junc­tion where they would enjoy com­mand­ing views of Lake Ontario and High Park. There were 5 miles of streets paved and over 1500 shade trees planted.

By 1888 West Toronto Junc­tion had enough res­i­dents to incor­po­rate as a Vil­lage and by 1891 a Town with a pop­u­la­tion of 5,000. Churches, libraries and schools would soon fol­low. Through­out it’s early his­tory the West Toronto Junc­tion expe­ri­enced boom and busts cycles. In 1909 the increased demand for more util­i­ties and bet­ter roads led the ratepay­ers to vote in favour of annex­a­tion with the City of Toronto.

Once a gritty rail­road town, it was annexed by the City of Toronto in 1909 and remained under the real estate radar for nine decades as a place with “a fierce, inde­pen­dent spirit,” says Mr. Wencer. Since the late 1990s, how­ever, the secret’s been out as artists look­ing for cheap stu­dio space and bargain-hunting hip­ster cou­ples dis­cover its rough charm.

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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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