Eglinton was a small farming village located at what is today the intersection of

Yonge Street Yonge Street (; pronounced "young") is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. Once the southernmost leg of provincial Hi ...

and

Eglinton Avenue Eglinton Avenue is a major east–west arterial thoroughfare in Toronto and Mississauga in the Canadian province of Ontario. The street begins at Highway 407 (but does not interchange with the tollway) at the western limits of Mississauga, as a ...

in York County, Ontario, Canada. It was first settled in the early 19th century and became the agricultural hub for the area just north of the city of

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 ...

. During the early 19th century, the area was part of the largest cattle-grazing region in

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...

(now the southern region of Ontario). The region was the first in North America to extend the use of cowbells to all cattle in a herd. Prior to this, it had been standard practice for a cowbell to be attached only to the best and leading animal in a group of livestock."A Brief History of Toronto", ''Maclean's Magazine'', Dec. 1991, p43 To honour this proud and storied heritage, the City of Toronto named a local street Cowbell Lane. The village was also an important stop on Yonge Street, the main road north from Toronto. One of the first settlers was John Montgomery, who founded a tavern catering to travelers. He likely named the village after the Earls of Eglinton, who had the family name Montgomerie and with whom he believed he had some connection. The name of the village would later be given to the east-west trail running through it, which would become Eglinton Avenue. In 1837 Montgomery's Tavern served as the base of

William Lyon Mackenzie William Lyon Mackenzie (March12, 1795 August28, 1861) was a Scottish Canadian-American journalist and politician. He founded newspapers critical of the Family Compact, a term used to identify elite members of Upper Canada. He represented Yor ...

's rebels and was the site of the

Battle of Montgomery's Tavern The Battle of Montgomery's Tavern was an incident during the Upper Canada Rebellion in December 1837. The abortive revolutionary insurrection, inspired by William Lyon Mackenzie, was crushed by British authorities and Canadian volunteer units ne ...

. A successful village of 700 people, the area's character changed in 1884 when the

Metropolitan Street Railway The New York Railways Company operated street railways in Manhattan, New York City, United States between 1911 and 1925. The company went into receivership in 1919 and control was passed to the New York Railways Corporation in 1925 after which al ...

began running a horse-drawn streetcar up Yonge Street to the village. Rapid housing development soon followed. As the population grew, the settlement was in 1890 incorporated with the smaller

Davisville Village Davisville Village is a neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located near the intersection of Davisville Avenue and Yonge Street. There is a subway station named Davisville at this intersection. The area directly abuts Mount Pleasant ...

into the town of

North Toronto North Toronto is a former town and informal district located in the northern part of the Old Toronto district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Currently occupying a geographically central location within the city of Toronto, the Town of North Toronto w ...

. North Toronto was annexed to

two decades later. Both Eglinton Avenue and

Eglinton station Eglinton is a subway station on Line 1 Yonge–University of the Toronto subway. Located on Eglinton Avenue, it is central to the Yonge–Eglinton neighbourhood in Midtown Toronto. Eglinton station is the seventh busiest station of the Toronto T ...

(on Lines 1 and 5 of the

Toronto subway The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It is a multimodal transport, multimodal rail network consisting of three Pa ...

system) are ultimately named after the village.

References

*F. R. Berchem. ''Opportunity Road: Yonge Street 1860-1939'' Dundurn, 1996. {{coord, 43.707, -79.398, type:city_region:CA-ON, display=title Former municipalities in Toronto History of Toronto