TORONTO | Cabbagetown

[niwell]

Great pictures! I love Cabbagetown and have spent some time there. My mom actually lived on a place on Sumach st in the 70s and was somewhat of a pioneer gentrifier.

Originally Posted by kool maudit

you can tell from these photos that toronto was smaller than montreal in, say, 1915. that said, now that it's larger, having such neighbourhoods in the centre of the city gives it a real laid-back sort of charm.

Toronto wasn't actually that much smaller at the time.

The big difference was the puritanical reformist attitude which prescribed single family homes instead of apartments, despite the fact that these were often split into 3 or more apartments. You have neighbourhoods of flat roofed row-to-row plexes while we have 2 and 3 story houses crammed together.

The result is that Montreal clearly has many more "big city" feeling neighbourhoods.

[kool maudit]

i was under the impression that - at least by about 1925 - it was like 1,100,000 to 675,000 or so.

you might be right though. in any case, it's a meaningless side-issue i was using only to comment on the relatively low-and-open character of this neighbourhood - which in the context of a 2,800,000-strong toronto is quite something.

[Rizzo]

Toronto has such amazing housing stock. You've motivated me to make another trip here before Christmas comes around. As you mentioned, it's much easier to photograph a lot of the houses when leaves are gone.

[WhipperSnapper]

I didn't suggest all immigrants are poor, but the typical immigrant to Canada doesn't start off by buying a house in Cabbagetown or Rosedale. The typical Canadian born person doesn't get to have a house in Cabbagetown either.

I was responding to another poster who certainly implied poor and immigrant as interchangeable.

[flar]

^^now I see, sorry!


RE: Toronto's housing stock:

You can see remnants of the Victorian city amongst the highrises throughout old Toronto, and there are a few impressive intact Victorian neighbourhoods like The Annex and Cabbagetown. As you can see in the chart below, Toronto started a big growth spurt at about the same time as the Cabbagetown houses were built (1870s-90s). Toronto became a big city during the late Victorian period.

Populations of Canada's largest cities at the end of the Victorian Period

		1861	1871	1881	1891	1901

Montreal	90323	107225	140747	182695	267730

Toronto		44821	56092	86415	144023	208040

Quebec City	51109	59699	62446	63090	68840

Hamilton	19096	26716	35961	47245	52634

Halifax		25026	29582	36100	38495	40832

I think neighbourhoods like Cabbagetown were the normal urban form for southern Ontario back then, you'll find the same format of 2.5 storey townhouses, semi-detached and rows in Hamilton. I've always found it interesting that although Hamilton and Toronto share the same basic format, the details are often different. Toronto has more Second Empire and Romanesque, while Hamilton has more Georgian. Montreal, being much older and with different cultural influences, is another story altogether.

[Thundertubs]

Flaronto!
Great tour. I love the sharply pitched roofs.

[someone123]

Part of the difference between the Toronto and Montreal neighbourhoods is that they are a little older in Montreal (so you find a lot of rowhouses from the 1870s or earlier). Montreal also would have had a lot more money floating around that manifested itself in the form of more elaborate housing (for those not living in Third World equivalent slums) and institutional buildings.

Cabbagetown townhouses are not cheap but I don't really think of Toronto as an "expensive" city. It's very cheap given that it is a major city with a (typically.. I don't know about right now) decent economy.

At any rate, nice photos. This is a great part of Toronto.

[Swinefeld]

Stupendous. Another winner. I bet Cabbagetown smells better than Pigtown.

[ColDayMan]

Beautiful shots!

[Evergrey]

awesome neighborhood!

[xzmattzx]

Great pictures. Cabbagetown is one neighborhood in Toronto that I would really like to see when I am up there next time.

[i_am_hydrogen]

Great area & photos, flar. Toronto's killer housing stock goes on and on (and on)...

[flar]

Thanks! Hopefully I'll have a chance to visit some other Toronto neighbourhoods soon.

[boden]

I know Cabbagetown well....a beautiful area, although somewhat reduced in value because it is surrounded by some pretty poor areas on Parliament and Carlton. Actually I bought a house for $502,000 on Metcalf St. nine years ago.... where you took some of the pics. To make a long story short I didn't keep it long. To be sure the architecture is stunning.

[Wigs]

great pics! thanks

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by flar

Populations of Canada's largest cities at the end of the Victorian Period

		1861	1871	1881	1891	1901

Montreal	90323	107225	140747	182695	267730

Toronto		44821	56092	86415	144023	208040

Quebec City	51109	59699	62446	63090	68840

Hamilton	19096	26716	35961	47245	52634

Halifax		25026	29582	36100	38495	40832

not to thread hijack, but here's pop. stats for the same time frame of Toronto's oft maligned American Cousin for comparison. interesting to show Buffalo's importance during this era. Yet as quickly as it rose it also did fall.

                 1860	1870	1880	1890	1900

Buffalo, NY      81129  117714  155134  255564  352387

[ShadowMaster]

Simply an amazing tour, I enjoy the neighborhood neighborhood walk tours. What's the next nabe in Toronto you have planned for us to see ?

[LAsam]

Toronto has a surplus of charm... thanks for the wonderful photos!

[TinChelseaNYC]

Are there other areas like this in Toronto? I've never been, but most of the pics I see are of modern skyscrapers and sprawl. I didn't know places like this even existed there (although I thought that they might have in the early days and they had just been knocked down). This area is absolutely beautiful.

[flar]

Originally Posted by WIGS

not to thread hijack, but here's pop. stats for the same time frame of Toronto's oft maligned American Cousin for comparison. interesting to show Buffalo's importance during this era. Yet as quickly as it rose it also did fall.

                 1860	1870	1880	1890	1900

Buffalo, NY      81129  117714  155134  255564  352387

Just goes to show what a young country Canada is. I'm surprised Buffalo was that much bigger than Montreal back then, but even today Buffalo would be the fourth largest city in Canada.

Originally Posted by TinChelseaNYC

Are there other areas like this in Toronto? I've never been, but most of the pics I see are of modern skyscrapers and sprawl. I didn't know places like this even existed there (although I thought that they might have in the early days and they had just been knocked down). This area is absolutely beautiful.

Check out my tour of the Annex for another mostly Victorian neighbourhood: http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=148837

I don't know Toronto history very well, but it looks like much of the old Victorian city has been lost. You will see streets lined with older homes here and there and other old buildings scattered among skyscrapers. I'm sure there are several other old neighbourhoods tucked away.