Pape Village is a commercial district 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
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, located within the neighbourhood of
Old East York. It is a
mixed-use
Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...
shopping street, consisting mainly of small-scale retail, restaurant and personal service uses.
Location
The district is located along Pape Avenue, between Mortimer Avenue and Gamble Avenue, in the former Borough of
East York
East York is a former administrative district and municipality within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From 1967 to 1998, it was officially the Borough of East York, a semi-autonomous borough within the upper-tier municipality of Metropolitan Toron ...
.
The Danforth
Danforth Avenue (informally also known as the Danforth) and Danforth Road are two historically-related arterial streets in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Danforth ''Avenue'' is an east-west street that begins in Old Toronto at the Prince Edward ...
is located several blocks to the south, and the
Don Valley is located several blocks to the west and north.
Although the Pape Village name was originally the product of local
business marketing
Business marketing is a marketing practice of individuals or organizations (including commercial businesses, governments and institutions). It allows them to sell products or services to other companies or organizations that resell them, use the ...
efforts, some
real estate agent
A real estate agent or real estate broker is a person who represents sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agen ...
s and local residents have since used the term to also refer to the adjacent residential area. Otherwise, the area is generally known as
Old East York.
Business Improvement Area
The Pape Village
Business Improvement Area represents approximately 110 businesses along the thoroughfare, and undertakes efforts to promote and beautify the area. Since much of the existing building stock in Pape Village dates to the 1940s and 1950s, the City of Toronto adopted a new community improvement plan for the district in 2003, in order to assist local businesses to renovate and restore aging commercial façades.
History
![TorontoTodmordenAerial1942](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/TorontoTodmordenAerial1942.jpg)
Historically, the entire area was known as "Todmorden", which extended from the
Don Valley to the west and north, to approximately what is now Mortimer Avenue to the south and Donlands Avenue to the east. Todmorden was named by
John Eastwood, an early settler in the early 19th century, who believed that the landscape was reminiscent of
Todmorden
Todmorden ( ; ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It is north-east of Manchester, south-east of Burnley and west of Halifax, West Yorkshire, Hal ...
in Yorkshire, England. Although Todmorden was never incorporated as a village, the use of the name both colloquially and as a postal address persisted until the 1940s. Today, the name is used solely for three areas of this community
Todmorden Mills
Todmorden Mills was a small settlement located in the Don River valley in Toronto, Ontario. It started out as a lumber mill in the 1790s. Originally known as "Don Mills", it grew into a small industrial complex and village before becoming part of ...
, a historic industrial settlement in the Don Valley, for a library reference room in the East York Community Centre on Pape Avenue as well as a small street linking Cosburn avenue and Gamble Avenue, its name "Todmorden Lane".
The band Rush reference the area in the instrumental "La Villa Strangiato" from the album Hemispheres (1978), in which section VII is subtitled "Danforth & Pape".
References
*''Fascinating Facts About East York'', East York Public Library, 1996, pages 23–30.
External links
City of Toronto - Pape Village BIAPape Village Community Improvement Plan By-law
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Neighbourhoods in Toronto