Earlscourt is a neighbourhood in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. It is centred on St. Clair Avenue West, with

Dufferin Street Dufferin Street is a major north–south street in Toronto, Vaughan and King, Ontario, Canada. It is a concession road, two concessions (4 km) west of Yonge Street. The street starts at Exhibition Place, continues north to Toronto's northe ...

Davenport Road Davenport Road is an east–west arterial road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is believed to follow an old native trail along the foot of the scarp of the old shoreline of glacial Lake Iroquois. It currently runs from Yonge Street in the eas ...

, and Old Weston Road forming its boundaries. It is contained within the larger city-recognized neighbourhood of

Corso Italia-Davenport Corso Italia-Davenport is a neighbourhood in central Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its boundaries, according to the City of Toronto, are the CNR tracks to the west, Morrison Avenue to the north, Westmount Avenue to the east on the northern portion and ...

. Earlscourt Park is located on the south side of St. Clair between Caledonia Park Road and

Lansdowne Avenue Lansdowne Avenue is an arterial road in Toronto, Ontario. It runs north–south and starts at Queen Street West and proceeds north to St. Clair Avenue West. Lansdowne Avenue is primarily a four-lane arterial road, with two lanes regularly used fo ...

History

Earlscourt began as a

squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

settlement in the early 20th century and annexed by the City of Toronto in 1910. It was initially settled by British and Scottish immigrants. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the area had some of the highest enlistment rates in the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

. Several of the original settler shacks are still visible in the area. After the war the area became the centre of Toronto's Italian community, and it has remained a centre for Italian culture in Toronto. The stretch of St. Clair West that runs through the neighbourhood is known as Corso Italia.

Education

Two

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

school board A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

s operate

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

s in Earlscourt, the

Toronto Catholic District School Board The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB, known as English-language Separate District School Board No. 40 prior to 1999) is an English-language public-separate school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada, headquartered in North York. I ...

(TCDSB), and the

Toronto District School Board The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), formerly known as English-language Public District School Board No. 12 prior to 1999, is the English-language public-secular school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The minority public-secular franco ...

(TDSB). TDSB is

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

public school board, the latter schools being operated by the

Toronto Board of Education The Toronto Board of Education (TBE; commonly known as School District 15), officially known as the Board of Education for the City of Toronto, is the former secular school district serving the pre-merged city of Toronto. The board offices were l ...

. TCDSB is an English-based separate public school board. Elementary schools in the area include: * General Mercer Junior Public School (TDSB/TBE) * Earlscourt Junior Public School (TDSB/TBE) and Stella Maris Catholic School (TCDSB/MSSB) * Richard W. Scott Catholic School (TCDSB/MSSB) - closed in 2001, demolished TCDSB operates one anglophone

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

in the neighborhood,

Loretto College School Loretto College School (a.k.a. Loretto College, or Loretto), formerly the Loretto Abbey Day School and Loretto Abbey Day School and College, is a Catholic high school for girls in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is operated by the Toronto Catholic ...

, founded in 1915 by the

Sisters of Loreto The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose members are commonly known as the Loreto Sisters, is a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women dedicated to education founded in Saint-Omer by an Englishwoman, Mary Ward, in 1609. The congr ...

on Brunswick Avenue. The current building was built in 2005 on the former Richard W. Scott property, whose building was partly used by students of Bishop Francis Marrocco Catholic High School since its inception in 1986. One

private school Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

serves this neighbourhood,

Hudson College Hudson College is a co-educational, non-denominational private school for students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12. It is situated on a 4.5-acre campus in the former Earlscourt Junior Public School in central Toronto, Ontario. History H ...

, which was opened in 2002 in the Earlscourt school building.

References

External links

Toronto Neighbourhoods; Earlscourt
History of Toronto Neighbourhoods in Toronto {{Toronto-geo-stub