Eatonville is a neighbourhood in

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, Ontario, Canada. It is located west of the central core in the former suburb of

Etobicoke Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district and former city within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west end, Etobicoke is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the east by the Humber River (Ontario), Humber River, on the ...

. Eatonville is bisected by Highway 427, with the community generally located north of Dundas Street West and south of Rathburn Road. Eatonville consists mainly of low density residential homes (constructed primarily in the 1950s east of Highway 427, and in the 1960s and 1970s west of Highway 427). The main arterial roads in the community, such as the West Mall, the East Mall and Burnhamthorpe Road, contain a mix of rental and condominium high-rise apartments and townhouses. Cloverdale Mall is in the neighbourhood, and there are community retail areas along Bloor Street West and Dundas Street West.

History

Eatonville began as a farm owned by Peter Shaver at the end of the 19th century. The farm was one of two purchased by the

Eaton's The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, was a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's g ...

department store in the 1890s (the other was in

Georgetown, Ontario Georgetown is a large unincorporated community in the town of Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada, in the Regional Municipality of Halton. The town includes several small villages or settlements such as Norval, Ontario, Norval, Limehouse, Ontario, Lime ...

) to provide a reliable supply of milk for the store's lunchroom and drug store lunch counter. Eaton's donated a parcel of the farm land to the local elementary school, which was named "Eatonville School" in honour of its benefactor. The name of the school led to the area becoming known by the Eatonville name. The Eaton Farm supplied milk, poultry and vegetables to Eaton's until the 1950s, when it was sold and subdivided for residential development. Today, Eatonville is the home of the Etobicoke Civic Centre, which used to be the city hall of the former City of Etobicoke. The community is also home to the Eatonville branch of the

Toronto Public Library Toronto Public Library (TPL) is a public library system in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest public library system in Canada, and in 2023 had averaged a higher circulation per capita than any other public library system internationally, making i ...

, which was reconstructed in 2003. The Shaver homestead has been preserved, and was relocated to the West Mall; it now serves as a local historic museum. The area used to have a second mall, just a short walk from Cloverdale. Honeydale Mall is now being redeveloped.

Education

*Broadacres Junior School – A

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 ...

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

located at 45 Crendon Drive, located north of

Burnhamthorpe Road Burnhamthorpe Road is a major arterial road in the cities of Toronto and Mississauga, Ontario; beginning at Dundas Street (from which it initially angles away from before running parallel with), near Islington Avenue, running west and becoming a ...

and west of the West Mall. It was opened in October 1959 in Broadacres Park, the site of the local Shaver family's historic 'Applewood' farm house and across the street from Etobicoke's former

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

. * Bloorlea Middle School – A public

middle school Middle school, also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school, is an educational stage between primary school and secondary school. Afghanistan In Afghanistan, middle school includes g ...

located at 4050 Bloor Street West, at the corner of

Bloor Street Bloor Street is an east–west arterial road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Bloor Street runs from the Prince Edward Viaduct, which spans the Don River (Ontario), Don River Valley, westward into Mississauga where it ends at Central Parkway. East ...

and the East Mall. It opened its doors in 1957. * Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Institute – A public

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

located at 500 the East Mall. *Eatonville Junior School – A public elementary school located south of Burnhamthorpe Road and west of the West Mall. Eatonville has been situated on its present site since 1827 and was first known as the "Swamp School". The Eaton family donated the land for the original school site. The current school was built in 1955. In 1998, students of the school created a time capsule to be opened on the 200th anniversary of the school. * West Glen Junior School * Wedgewood Junior School- A public elementary school located at 5 Swan Avenue, south of Burnhamthorpe Road. * St. Elizabeth Catholic School *Olivet School – A private elementary school located at 279 Burnhamthorpe Road, north of

and east of the East Mall. It was opened in September 1959 and is still running today.

Institutions

* Etobicoke Civic Centre *Applewood Shaver House *Eatonville Library (founded 1964) *

Sherway Gardens Sherway Gardens is a shopping mall in the Etobicoke district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, near the interchange of Ontario Highway 427, Highway 427 with Queen Elizabeth Way and the Gardiner Expressway. The mall spans of selling space and 215 stor ...

* Cloverdale Mall *Burnhamthorpe Mall *Bloordale Plaza * Eatonville Care Centre, which suffered many deaths during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Churches

*St James United Church *Bloordale United Church *Renforth Baptist Church & Cemeteryhttp://torontocemeteries.blogspot.com/2009/06/history-of-renforth-baptist-church.html

References

External links

Toronto Neighbourhoods: Eatonville

{{authority control Etobicoke Neighbourhoods in Toronto Eaton's