As a result, there are in the region of 9,600 (mostly) exclusive names for just about every thoroughfare in the city.
In the past, when outlying towns and villages were annexed into Toronto, the street names of the absorbed communities were replaced in order to avoid conflicts with those in the old city.
For example, Midway, a village formerly located between Greenwood and Coxwell, south of the Danforth, was given a bunch of new street names. Lincoln became Ladysmith, Linden was switched to Bastedo, and Vernon was renamed Walpole, among others.
Despite the best efforts of city officials, there are still duplicates. There's an Evans Ave. in the former town of Mimico and another north of Bloor, east of Jane, for example.
This effort to give every street a unique name has inspired special creativity around the city, particularly as pertains to laneways, but also when it comes to our neighbourhood streets.
Here are some of the weirdest street names and their origins in Toronto.
Strange Street
Running dead straight for just a few metres south of Queen in Riverdale, there's really nothing that unusual about Strange St. Seekers of the paranormal will be disappointed to learn that the name comes from Maxwell Strange, an auctioneer who lived in the area around 1837. Until at least 1924, Strange St. resumed south of the rail tracks and continued to a point just north of Lake Shore Blvd.
Disco Road
It's a shame Toronto's only street apparently named for a genre of dance music is home to a detention centre and a bunch of anonymous industrial complexes. What's interesting, however, is the name actually predates the musical style. A clue to its origins may lie in 1959 classified ads for workers at the Dominion Structural Steel Ltd., which had a plant on the road and was (I think) a descendent of the former Dominion Iron and Steel Company--DISCO for short.
Sesame Street
Unlike Disco Rd., Sesame Street near Pharmacy and Sheppard in Scarborough really does appear to be a cultural reference. Perhaps its location next to Fairglen Public School prompted developers to name the street after the popular long-running kids show starring Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and Elmo.
Avenue Road
Avenue Road isn't necessarily a strange street name. After all, an avenue is just name for a tree lined street or approach. For example, there are numerous Avenue Roads in the U.K. and there's an Avenue Street is Oshawa. In the US and Canada, "avenue" was primarily used as a suffix for particularly wide or important streets, but has since become interchangeable with street.
Cummer Avenue
Farmer Jacob Cummer--father of 14 kids--couldn't have known when he moved from Pennsylvania to the future site of Willowdale in 1797 that his last name would elicit giggles and guffaws from residents of Toronto more than 200 years later. The Cummers (sometimes "Kummers") operated a saw mill on the Don River near the street that currently bears their name and were devout Methodists. Their descendants still live in the city.
Follow Chris Bateman on Twitter at @chrisbateman.
Image: scarboroughcruiser/blogTO Flickr pool.
by Chris Bateman via blogTO
No comments:
Post a Comment