West Toronto Junction celebrates centennial of independence
BY LISA RAINFORD
April 10, 2008 06:39 PM
The history of the Junction is a cross between Road to Avonlea and Deadwood, according to Neil Ross, a longtime local resident, historian and member of the West Toronto Junction Historical Society.
"The Junction feels like a Wild West town," said Ross of the area's roots with a cast of colourful characters, he added.
Leave it to Ross to find similarities between his neighbourhood and two popular television series. It's what he does.
"I was a pop culture kid," he said.
And, a "historian by nature," who was challenged by a friend to delve into the Junction's past.
Discovering a wealth of information from the West Toronto Junction Historical Society (WTJHS), whose archives are in the basement of Annette Street Library, he was "blown away" by what he learned and it wasn't long before he joined the group.
In his research, Ross stumbled upon a significant date.
April 14, 1908 was the day the Junction became its own city, the City of West Toronto, which it remained for a year and 19 days - until, as Michael Menegon, director of the Junction Arts Festival, put it, "the City of Toronto was formally bankrupt and said, 'We'll pay off your debts if you'll amalgamate.'"
Admittedly, it's a loose retelling of historical facts, he said.
"This was not a mere annexation," Ross said. "It was the amalgamation of two cities."
A quote from journalist A.B. Rice, who covered the Junction for 60 years, illustrated for Ross the fact that becoming a city was something the Junction was really proud of.
"This was not a mere annexation of territory," wrote Rice. "It was the amalgamation of two cities. It was like a marriage preceded by a courtship and in this case the bigger city was the wooer.
"Before the negotiations... " Rice continued, "West Toronto folk were so confident of the future greatness of the little city that they thought little of possible union with Toronto. The community was proud of the difficulties they had overcome and they were happy."
Rice started writing about the area when he arrived as editor of John Taylor Gilmour's York Tribune in 1888 and was covering it thorough his columns 'Stray Thoughts on Matters of Public Concern' in the West Toronto weekly when he died in 1948.
"We only know about the Junction because of A.B. Rice," Ross said. "He was the Dean of Junction journalism."
The WTJHS captured the area's history when it published The Leader and Recorder's History of the Junction, a collection of memoirs, in 2004. The book's publisher, Diana Fancher told The Villager at the time that the group was inspired by its quarterly newsletter in which an historic article - a memoir or researched piece appears. The book is comprised of reprinted stories from the Leader and Recorder as well as other newspapers.
"It's the characters who fascinate me the most," Ross said, citing Junction Police Chief Josiah Royce as one of his favourites.
"He was our frontier marshal, a quintessential Canadian," Ross said.
Royce was with the Junction Police force from 1889, just after he ended his stint with the North West Mounted Police until 1907 or '08 when he went out to Alberta to become a Justice of the Peace and Juvenile Court judge.
Royce was police chief on a fateful day in 1904.
Pubs and taverns had became permanent fixtures in the Junction at that time, as was the case with many railway and factory workers' town. By 1903, alcohol was such a serious problem for families and a public embarrassment - drunks were visible from passing trains - that the town voted to go dry in 1904.
As the story goes, 10,000 men descended on the Junction that day - Junction men out for 'last call' in the little city, and also Toronto men whose bars were closed due to the election held in their city.
"There was nowhere else to go," Ross said.
Royce was a lone soldier left to face the angry mob.
Most of the area remained dry until 1997. The last dry pocket, including Shoxs Billiards and Sports Bar, began serving alcohol in 2000.
The bar at 2827 Dundas St. West had been in business five years when that year, it could finally apply for a liquor license.
The Koutoumanos' family, the owners of Shoxs, took up the crusade to convince business owners and residents in the area bounded by the intersection of Dundas and Keele to Dundas and Humberside to bring liquor back. They knocked tirelessly on doors, put up signs and made the Junction liquor vote part of the November 2000 municipal election, at which time residents voted to allow local businesses to serve alcohol.
"This area has a phenomenal history," said Menegon, "not only in this city, but in this country."
The Junction was a manufacturing community that experienced a boom in the late 1800s. Foundries, mills, wire factories and industries, such as Canadian Cycle and Motor Co., Dominion Showcase and the Heintzman piano company began moving into the area.
Other firms came because land, labour and taxes were cheaper than in Toronto. These are what attracted many immigrant or second generation Irish Catholics to the area, many of whom moved there from then poor, crowded tenement housing in areas of the city such as Cabbagetown and Brockton Village during the 1880s. Many also came from working-class English industrial cities such as Birmingham and Manchester. They were soon followed by many Macedonian and Croatian immigrants, many of whom worked in the meat industry.
The Junction Triangle, bounded by Keele, St. Clair, and Dundas streets, was for many decades the location of the Ontario Stockyards, once Canada's largest livestock market and the centre of the province's meat-packing industry.
Now, it's the site of such box stores as Canadian Tire and Home Depot.
In recent years, the Junction has undergone an economic redevelopment, which has led to new businesses opening up along Dundas Street West and a resurgence in the area.
