William Mackenzie and Donald Mann chose the level farmland directly north of the Leaside Junction station as the site for the massive new railway repair and marshalling facilities.
To finance this large capital project, Mackenzie and Mann7 would use the profits from a new model town much like their very profitable towns of Port Mann (Vancouver) and Mount Royal (Montreal). And thus, Leaside with all its railway connections would come into being.
The original Leaside Station of 1894 and its 1946 replacement operated as one of Toronto’s busiest stations for over 75 years. At least ten daily passenger trains on the busy Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal triangle stopped at the station along with 40 or so freight trains, many of which paused briefly after their climb up the Don Branch.
With the elimination of passenger trains by the Canadian Pacific, the station closed in 1970. Ten years later, the station was re-opened by CP Hotels as the Village Station Restaurant with a caboose and three classic railway dining cars. In 1985 the restaurant closed and the cars were removed.
BACK TO THE FUTURE—SOME PREDICTIONS ABOUT THE RAILWAY
The three railways in sequence then, chose the location, selected the name, and literally drew the map of Leaside.
What does the future hold for the railway? In 2000, there are an estimated 2.4 million automobiles in the Greater Toronto Area. By the year 2010, that number will grow to 3.5 million. We simply cannot lay enough asphalt to accommodate those cars.
Means other than the automobile must be found to move large numbers of people into and out of Toronto. Ultimately, the railway lines, built over 100 years ago and which radiate out from the city core to all of the suburbs will carry those people. The future of railway passenger service lies in carrying suburban commuters to and from the city.
Canadian Pacific’s North Toronto Station circa 1949. The once busy terminal served the Canadian Pacific and briefly the Canadian Northern Railway. Those trains travelled the Leaside main line. The building became Toronto’s busiest LCBO outlet. Now in private hands, the station is slated for restoration. City of Toronto Archives.
Leaside’s railway line provides a ready-made, cross-town transportation corridor. The line connects the Toronto suburbs with Union Station; it intersects all north/south arterial roads and it crosses both of the north/south subway lines. The railway line through Leaside may play a pivotal role in the future transportation plans for Toronto.
The old 1916 North Toronto8 Canadian Pacific Railway Station (once a liquor store) could become an important connection with the Yonge Street subway’s Summerhill Station.
The trip by train from Leaside Junction to the heart of downtown Toronto takes just 12 minutes. That could be 21st century convenience delivered by a 19th century railway line.
FROM THE YORK LAND COMPANY TO FREDERICK TODD TO LEASIDE
THE HISTORY of Leaside has many connections with the railway. Once the Canadian Northern chose the land north and west of the Leaside Junction station for the location of its new real estate project, William Mackenzie and Donald Mann established the York Land Company as Canadian Northern’s development arm. Quietly, the Company began assembling property in the area. Prices varied from $900.00 to $4000.00 an acre. The total CNoR purchase exceeded two million dollars. By 1912, the Company had accumulated over 1,000 acres bounded on the south by the Canadian Pacific tracks, on the west by Bayview Avenue, on the east by Leslie Street and, on the north, three farms above Eglinton Avenue.
This massive land purchase was made public in The Toronto World March 1912. The purchase of land in York Township was described under the headline of “Toronto’s largest land deal.” The acquisition included: Lea property (300 acres); Pugsley Farm (100 acres); Hunt (Junior) Farm (100 acres); odd lots (50 acres); Dr. Norman Allen (135 acres); Atkinson Farm (100 acres): a total of 900 acres. All of the owners were required to vacate the land by August 1912.1
In April 1912, the Canadian Northern Railway announced its intentions to build a large residential community in what was known as North Toronto. Canadian Northern’s plans for the project did not include railway service to the community immediately, but the Railway did build the planned extensive repair facilities adjacent to the Canadian Pacific’s Leaside yards and main line.
Mackenzie and Mann engaged Frederick Todd,2 the town planner and landscape architect from Montreal, to lay out the plan for a “model town.” Leaside was intended to be the new upper class residential area of Toronto, the “new Rosedale.” The detailed street and lot plan of the community was completed in late April, 1913 and the project was named and incorporated as the Town of Leaside. The project was innovative for its time – a pre-planned town, laid out fully before a building existed. The railway service to be provided by the CNoR was intended not only to foster residential growth but to attract industrial activities.
Map outlining the York Land Company property. Redrawn by J. Rempel (1931) from map in The Toronto World3 March 22, 1912.
But, the anticipated residential development of the new town did not happen. A global recession, the outbreak of the First World War, the bankruptcy of the Canadian Northern Railway and Leaside s isolated location, all combined to prevent the project from proceeding. However, extensive industrial development did grow along the Canadian Pacific Railway corridor, accelerated by the First World War munitions factories.
The wide and steep-sided valley of the Don posed a major physical barrier to convenient access from the south to the Leaside open land. Without a road connection which spanned the valley, the undeveloped land would remain that way. As well, Millwood Road, the route to the south, dead-ended at the Leaside (north) side of the CPR tracks.
Two major construction projects were required to connect the open land of Leaside to Toronto in the south. In October 1927, both projects were completed—a high level bridge across the Don Valley (now called the Leaside Viaduct) and an underpass.
Leaside’s open land was now readily accessible by car although many still considered the area to be in “the middle of nowhere.” Growth was slow for that reason, coupled with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929.
Building the Millwood CPR Underpass; date circa 1926. Lopking northwest under the Canadian Pacific main line from what would become Millwood Road and the southern entrance into Leaside. What would you see today if you looked northwest from this spot? City of Toronto Archives.
The residential Leaside community with which we are familiar, began taking form in the late 1930s as the economy emerged from the Depression. Streets, sewers and water mains could not be built for the entire area of Leaside all at once. Construction took place as sections of Leaside became populated. Its development continued through the 1950s, finally with the completion of North Leaside. There is no neatly defined “completion” of Leaside. The community today continues to change and grow with new development.
A RETROSPECTIVE VIEW OF FREDERICK TODD’S TOWN PLAN FOR LEASIDE
“The Factories” (The Industrial Zone)