Woburn is a neighbourhood located in eastern

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 anch ...

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, in the former suburb of Scarborough. Woburn is bordered by

Highway 401 King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian provin ...

to the north, Orton Park Road to the east, Lawrence Avenue to the south, and

McCowan Road McCowan can refer to the following: * McCowan Baronets, British baronetcy * Millar McCowan, Scottish confectionery company * McCowan (surname) * McCowan Road, a major thoroughfare in Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ** A local name for York ...

to the west. Residences are split between high rises and single detached homes, which account for almost ninety per cent of all residences.

History

A Wyandot

burial mound Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

Taber Hill Taber Hill, also spelled Tabor Hill, is a Wyandot (Huron) burial mound in Toronto, Ontario. It is located northeast of the intersection of Lawrence Avenue and Bellamy Road in Scarborough. It is estimated to date from the 14th century and conta ...

is situated in Woburn. Dating to 1250, the burial mound contains over 500 graves, with skeletons buried in a manner consistent with the Huron Feast of the Dead. A post-office south of Painted Post Drive (formerly Danforth's Road) and

Markham Road Markham may refer to: It may also refer to brand of of clothing which originates from South Africa which saw it's establishment in 1873. Biology * Markham's storm-petrel (''Oceanodroma markhami''), a seabird species found in Chile and Colombia * ...

, and a schoolhouse on Ellesmere Road west of The Markham Road, today the site of

Woburn Collegiate Institute Woburn Collegiate Institute (Woburn CI, WCI, or Woburn) is a non-semestered, English-language public secondary school on Ellesmere Road in the Woburn neighbourhood of the Scarborough district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada operated by the To ...

, were important sites in the early community. The intersection of Painted Post and Markham Road was also the site of the Woburn Hotel, and across the road was the Woburn Hall. The Woburn Hotel housed the meetings of the first Scarborough Council from 1850 until 1922. Painted Post Drive connected Woburn to the southwest via Danforth Road and

Danforth Avenue 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 Edwar ...

to Toronto, and to the east via Military Trail and Colonel Danforth Trails to Kingston Road and points east (''for more details, see

'').

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 sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

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 Woburn, the

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 ...

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), and the separate Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB). TDSB and TCDSB elementary schools include: * Bellmere Junior Public School is a one-storey school designed by architect, John Andrews, who also designed the University of Toronto's Scarborough College and The Arab Pavilion for Montreal's Expo '67. The school opened in 1965 as a K-8 school and gained junior status in 1968. In the 1970s, Bellmere had a huge fire in four of its classrooms and the library. A blazing fire burned through Bellmere's rooms and created an enormous disaster. Fortunately, no one was injured. The library was moved into the gym and a new gymnasium and classrooms were built on the site of the fire. Bellemere is a feeder school for J.S. Woodsworth. * Cedarbrook Public School (TDSB) * Churchill Heights Public School (TDSB) * Cornell Junior Public School (TDSB) * George B. Little Public School (TDSB) * Golf Road Junior Public School (TDSB) * Heather Heights Junior Public School (TDSB) * Henry Hudson Senior Public School (TDSB) * St. Barbara Catholic School (TCDSB) * St. Thomas More Catholic School (TCDSB) * Tecumseh Senior Public School (TDSB) * Tredway Woodsworth Public School is located on 112 Sedgemount and is named after a prominent Scarborough pioneer. The school opened in September 1956 as ''William Tredway Public School'' with ten classrooms and one Kindergarten room. In September 1969, William Tredway became a junior school when ''J.S. Woodsworth Senior Public School'' opened with 628 students in attendance, named after

James Shaver Woodsworth James Shaver Woodsworth (July 29, 1874 – March 21, 1942) was a pre– First World War pioneer of the Canadian Social Gospel, a Christian religious movement with social democratic values and links to organized labour. He was a long-time leader ...

. William Tredway and JS Woodsworth combined in 2015 to become Tredway Woodsworth Public School and now operates from Kindergarten to Grade 8. * Willow Park Junior Public School (TDSB) * Woburn Junior Public School opened in September 1964 as a successor to Woburn Public School (S.S.#6) with a student population of 200. The original school was built in 1863 and closed in 1956 with the building demolished in 1963 to make way for the present

In addition to elementary schools TDSB also operates two

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 '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

in Woburn,

Cedarbrae Collegiate Institute Cedarbrae Collegiate Institute (CCI or Cedarbrae CI), formerly Cedarbrae Secondary School is a semestered public secondary school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Woburn neighbourhood in former suburb of Scarborough. It was e ...

, and

. TDSB is the only school board to operate a public

. The French-based public secular school board, Conseil scolaire Viamonde, and it separate counterpart, Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir also offer schooling to applicable residents of Woburn, although they do not operate a school in the neighbourhood. Along with

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works ...

and

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final ph ...

institutions, Woburn is also home to the Progress Campus of Centennial College, a

post-secondary Tertiary education, also referred to as third-level, third-stage or post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank, for example, defines tertiary education as including univers ...

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

Recreation

The south and south east sections of Woburn, along

West Highland Creek West Highland Creek is a river in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, a tributary of Highland Creek in the Lake Ontario drainage basin. The creek and its tributaries are entirely within the old City of Scarborough, and it provides the watershed for the n ...

, have a great amount of green space, echoed by the tree lined and winding roads typical of the neighbourhood. Woburn holds a number of undeveloped green space, making up portions of the

Toronto ravine system The Toronto ravine system is a distinctive feature of the city's geography, consisting of a network of deep ravines, which forms a large urban forest that runs through most of Toronto. The ravine system is the largest in any city in the world, w ...

. In addition, Woburn is home to several municipal parks, including Cedar Ridge Park, Curran Hall Ravine Park, Highland Creek Park, and Morningside Park. Municipal parks in Toronto are maintained by the

Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division Toronto Parks, Forestry & Recreation (PFR) is the division of Toronto's municipal government responsible for maintaining the municipal park system and natural spaces, regulation of and provision of urban forestry services, and the delivery of rec ...

. In addition to municipal parks, the division also manages local

community centre Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole c ...

s situated in the neighbourhood, including Cedarbrae Community Centre, and Curran Hall Community Centre. The neighbourhood is also home to several

shopping plaza A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

s and a mall,

Cedarbrae Mall Cedarbrae Mall is a shopping mall 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 popul ...

Transportation

The neighbourhood is served by

Toronto Transit Commission The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and larges ...

(TTC) bus system. These include the 54 Lawrence East and 954 Lawrence East Express (which predominantly serves the area), 102 Markham Road, 902 Markham Road Express, 9 Bellamy, and the 16 McCowan, (the latter four connect to

Warden station Warden is a station on the Bloor–Danforth line in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at the southeast corner of St. Clair Avenue East and Warden Avenue. The station is located perpendicular to St. Clair Avenue, and is the only Line 2 st ...

). The area is also served by three bus routes on Ellesmere Road, which are 95 York Mills, 38 Highland Creek, and the 133 Neilson (the latter two serve the

Scarborough Centre station Scarborough Centre is a rapid transit station and bus terminal in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving Line 3 Scarborough of the Toronto subway system and multiple bus routes of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It is located north of Ellesme ...

). The area is also served by

which runs through the

Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater ...

from east-to-west.

References

* * (11 MB) {{authority control Neighbourhoods in Toronto Scarborough, Toronto