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Cabbagetown is a neighbourhood in central
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
,
Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
, Canada. Administratively, it is defined as part of the Cabbagetown-South St. Jamestown neighbourhood. It largely features semi-detached Victorian houses and is recognized as "the largest continuous area of preserved Victorian housing in all of North America", according to the Cabbagetown Preservation Association. Cabbagetown's name derives from the Irish immigrants who moved to the neighbourhood beginning in the late 1840s, said to have been so poor that they grew
cabbage Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of '' Brassica oleracea'', is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage ( ''B.& ...
in their front yards. Canadian writer Hugh Garner's novel, ''Cabbagetown'', depicted life in the neighbourhood during the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
.


History

The area today known as Cabbagetown was first known as the village of Don Vale, just outside Toronto. Before the 1850s it consisted of farmland dotted with cottages and vegetable plots. It grew up in the 1840s around the Winchester Street Bridge, which before the construction of the
Prince Edward Viaduct The Prince Edward Viaduct System, commonly referred to as the Bloor Viaduct, is the name of a truss arch bridge system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, connecting Bloor Street East, on the west side of the system, with Danforth Avenue on the east. The ...
was the main northern bridge over the Don River. This was near the site where Castle Frank Brook flowed in the
Don River The Don () is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire. Its basin is betwee ...
. By the bridge the Don Vale Tavern and Fox's Inn were established to cater to travellers. In 1850 the Toronto Necropolis was established in the area as the city's main cemetery. In the late 19th century the area was absorbed into the city. It became home to the working class Irish inhabitants who were employed in the industries along the lake shore to the south in Corktown. Brick Victorian-style houses were built throughout the area. The name Cabbagetown purportedly came from stories of new Macedonian and Irish immigrants digging up their front lawns and planting cabbage. In this era the Cabbagetown name most often applied to the area south of Gerrard Street, with the part to the north still being called Don Vale. It was a working-class neighbourhood, with approximately 50% of the residents renting houses. It reached its peak of prosperity just before the First World War, which is from when many of the brick homes in the area date. The various architectural styles visible in the neighborhood range from Second-Empire to Bay-n-Gable and High Victorian Terraces, with excellent examples being Francis Shields' House at 377 Sackville St. After the war the area became increasingly impoverished. A large number of poorer residents moved in, many resorting to share one house among multiple families. The nineteenth-century brick houses began deteriorating and, as landlords saw less value in the neighbourhood, they were not maintained. It became known as one of Toronto's largest slums and much of the original Cabbagetown was razed in the late 1940s to make room for the Regent Park housing project. A new immigrant influx also led to the beginning of ethnic diversity in the neighbourhood. The remaining section to the north, then still known as Don Vale, was also slated to be cleared and replaced by housing projects. In 1964 a ''Toronto Star'' writer wrote that "Cabbagetown has become a downhill ride and if you're on way up, you don't dare stay there for long unless you live in Regent Park."Coreilli, Rae. "Cabbages on the Front Lawn, that was Toronto in 1900." ''Toronto Star.'' February 15, 1964. p. 1 The construction of new housing projects was halted in the 1970s. In Don Mount this effort was led by Karl Jaffary, who was elected to city council in the 1969 municipal election along with a group of like-minded councillors who opposed sweeping urban renewal plans. John Sewell led the effort to preserve Trefann Court, which covered the southern section of the original Cabbagetown. A bylaw was approved in the 1970s to ban any building higher than four storeys, in reaction to the high density high-rises being built in neighbouring St. James Town.Fumia, Dureen
"Divides, High Rise and Boundaries: A Study of Toronto's Downtown East Side Neighbourhood"
''Ethnologies'' 32.0 2010. Retrieved on 14 December 2014


Festivals and Fairs

Cabbagetown hosts a number of annual festivals and fairs. The Cabbagetown Festival takes place every year in September at Carlton and Parliament Street to celebrate local businesses and the community. The Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre (CCDT), a local dance theatre, does a public street performance at the festival every year, and vendors set up food, drinks and crafted products. The Forsythia Festival takes place on the first Sunday in May at Wellesley Park and includes a parade, food and drink from local vendors and activities for kids.


Gentrification

Cabbagetown was
gentrified Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has been us ...
by affluent professionals, beginning in the 1970s. Many residents restored small Victorian row houses and became community activists. Darrell Kent, a resident and local businessman, is recognized by the community as having been the driving force behind the restoration of many of the area’s beautiful and unique Victorian houses. As Kent was a gay real estate agent, gay men and some lesbians made up the earliest gentrifying groups of Cabbagetown. They are still a significant part of the population today, and the area is considered queer friendly. In 1983 the ''Globe and Mail'' wrote,
Cabbagetown is probably the epitome of successful labelling. The core of the area—generally defined as being bounded by Parliament, Wellesley and Dundas Streets and the Don Valley—was once Toronto's skid row. Today, about a decade after the area was invaded by young professionals, speculators and real estate agents, there are still a few derelicts around to give the area colour. The houses, meanwhile, sell for upward of $200,000.
35 years after that article was written, most homes in the area sell for well over $1 million. Vestiges of a 1960s, counter-culture ambiance remain at vintage clothing stores, health food stores and a gestalt therapy clinic. A Victorian farm, once the site of a zoo, is located adjacent to Riverdale Park West, where a weekly farmer's market is held. A short distance away is the Cabbagetown Youth Centre, home of the Cabbagetown Boxing Club, a reminder of an earlier, and rougher, past. In recent years, some businesses from the nearby "gay village" of
Church and Wellesley Church and Wellesley is an gay village, LGBT-oriented enclave in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is roughly bounded by Gerrard Street (Toronto), Gerrard Street to the south, Yonge Street to the west, Charles Street to the north, and Jarvis Street ...
, have relocated to the area, attracted by cheaper commercial rents. Despite gentrification, residents from public housing projects and affluent home owners mingle at a discount supermarket and a community medical clinic. Panhandling and drug-dealing are part of the urban landscape; so are gourmet shops, upscale boutiques and arts festivals, book launches and wine-tastings at local restaurants. Paradoxically,
The Gerrard and Parliament neighbourhood, located near Dundas and Sherbourne Streets, has the largest concentration of homeless shelters and drop-in centres in Canada. The area is also distinguished by a large number of rooming houses and other forms of low-income housing.


Notable people

*
Brent Butt Brent Leroy Butt (born August 3, 1966) is a Canadian actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for his role as Brent Leroy on the CTV sitcom ''Corner Gas'', which he created. He also created the television series ''Hiccups'' and wrote the 2 ...
— comedian *
Tarek Fatah Tarek Fatah ( Punjabi/Urdu: ; Pakistani-Canadian journalist">əteh">̪aɾɪk fətah/ [fəteh20 November 1949 – 24 April 2023) was a Pakistani Canadians">Pakistani-Canadian journalist and author.Gains, Larry (1976) ''The Impossible Dream'', Leisure Publications Ltd, 14 Fleet Street, London EC4 *Ivaan Kotulsky — artist and photographer *Phyllis Grosskurth - Academic, Critic and Biographer *
Avril Lavigne Avril Ramona Lavigne ( ; ; born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. She is a key musician in popularizing pop-punk music, as she paved the way for female-driven, punk-influenced pop music in the early 2000s. List of awa ...
— Canadian singer, songwriter and actress * Amy Millan — indie folk/rock singer and guitarist *
Robbie Robertson Jaime Royal Robertson (July 5, 1943 – August 9, 2023) was a Canadian musician of Indigenous and Jewish ancestry. He was the lead guitarist for Bob Dylan's backing band in the mid-late 1960s and early-mid 1970s. Robertson was also the ...
— musician, songwriter, film composer, producer, actor, and author * Tonetta — singer-songwriter and visual artist, born in Cabbagetown * Kenny Hotz & Spencer Rice — filmed multiple seasons of Kenny vs Spenny in a house located in Cabbagetown *
Noah Richler Noah Richler is a Canadians, Canadian author, journalist, and broadcaster who was raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and London, England. He is the son of Canadian novelist Mordecai Richler. Richler worked for many years as a radio documentary ...
— author/political candidate and commentator. As part of a project called "Cabbagetown People," historical plaques have been placed on noteworthy homes. A map of the locations has been erected in Riverdale Park West, and a
index
of the addresses, with the names of the former residents, is posted on a website devoted to this project. The people listed include: * Hugh Garner * Ernest MacMillan * Betty Oliphant *
Al Purdy Alfred Wellington Purdy (December 30, 1918 – April 21, 2000) was a 20th-century Canadian free verse poet. Purdy's writing career spanned fifty-six years. His works include thirty-nine books of poetry; a novel; two volumes of memoirs and four ...
* Gordon Sinclair *
Ernest Thompson Seton Ernest Thompson Seton (born Ernest Evan Thompson; August 14, 1860 – October 23, 1946) was a Canadian and American author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians in 1902 (renamed Woodcraft League of America), and one of the foun ...
* Thomas P. Kelley — author of ''
The Black Donnellys ''The Black Donnellys'' is an American drama television series that debuted on NBC on February 26, 2007, and last aired on May 14, 2007. ''The Black Donnellys'' was created by Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco and starred Jonathan Tucker, Oliv ...
''


See also

* List of annual events in Toronto *
List of neighbourhoods in Toronto The strength and vitality of the many neighbourhoods that make up Toronto, Ontario, Canada has earned the city its unofficial nickname of "the city of neighbourhoods." There are 158 neighbourhoods officially recognized by the City of Toronto (in ...
* List of parks in Toronto


References


Further reading

*''Cabbagetown Store'', J.V. McAree (short stories): Ryerson Press (1953) (113 pages) *''Working People'': Life in a downtown city neighbourhood, James Lorimer & Myfanwy Phillips: James Lewis & Samuel Ltd (1971) (hardcover) (274 pages): James Lewis & Samuel Ltd (1971) (paperback) (274 pages) *''Cabbagetown'', Hugh Garner (novel): McGraw-Hill Ryerson/Trade (1978) (415 pages): McGraw-Hill Ryerson/Trade (2002) (424 pages) *''Cabbagetown: The story of a Victorian neighbourhood'', Penina Coopersmith: James Lorimer & Co (1998) (96 pages) *''Cabbagetown Remembered'', George H. Rust-D'Eye: The Boston Mills Press (1984) *''Cabbagetown in Pictures'', Colleen Kelly: Toronto Public Library (1984) *''Touring Old Cabbagetown'': Cabbagetown Preservation Association (1992) *''The Banker of Cabbagetown'', Eric S. Rosen: s.n. (1991) *''Images of Cabbagetown'' Photography by James Wiley: V.A. Gates (1994) (128 pages) *''The Knot'', Tim Wynne-Jones (novel): McClelland and Stewart Limited (1982) *''The Intruders : A Novel'', Hugh Garner: McGraw-Hill Ryerson (1976) *''Cabbagetown Diary : A Documentary'', (novel) Juan Butler: Peter Martin Associates, Ltd. (1970)


External links


Cabbagetown/Regent Park Community Museum
{{authority control Cabbagetown Historic districts in Canada