Little Italy, Toronto
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Little Italy, is a district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is well known for its numerous Italian Canadian restaurants and businesses. The district is centred around a restaurant/bar/shopping strip along College Street, the heart of which being the intersection of College and Grace Streets and the adjacent residential area, but spreading out between Bathurst Street and Dufferin Street. It overlaps into two official City of Toronto neighbourhoods: Palmerston-Little Italy north of College Street and Trinity-Bellwoods to the south.
Contents |
[edit] Character
College Street was fully laid out in the area by 1900 and the area is filled with buildings from the 1900 era. College Street is fronted by two or three-storey buildings, with commercial uses on the ground floor and residential or storage uses on the upper floors.
From Manning Avenue to the east to Shaw Street to the west, there are numerous sidewalk cafes. Some of the names include Cafe Diplomatico, Riviera Bakery, Sicilian Ice Cream and many others. Two nightclubs have opened on the block between Shaw and Crawford, and there is a small plaza and supermarket on the south side of College between Shaw and Crawford. The curved street between Grace and Crawford was laid out with larger sidewalks. This section was laid out later to cross Garrison Creek, which was buried under Crawford. The wider sidewalks have led to more extensive cafe patios in this area. At Clinton, on the north side, is the Royal repertory cinema, which was recently renovated and has an upgraded projection system as it is used for movie editing purposes during the day and repertory cinema in the evenings. While the street commercial usage is dominated by cafe and restaurant uses, there are numerous small businesses serving the neighbourhood.
The side streets are mostly detached or semi-detached single family homes dating to the early 1900s Edwardian period, with front porches and the smaller lots as was the custom at the time.
[edit] History
Italians arrived in Toronto in large numbers during the early 20th century. Italians first settled in an area then known as "The Ward" - centred around University Avenue and College Street. By the 1920s, most Italians had moved west of Bathurst Street and the College-Clinton area had emerged as the city's major Little Italy. The affordable Edwardian homes that line the side streets of this neighbourhood were bought by Italian immigrants, many of whom found work on the railways and in road construction. Italians started businesses around College St.
The first multi-cultural radio station in Canada was CHIN which was launched in 1966 by Johnny Lombardi from studios on the south side of College between Grace and Clinton, on the second floor of Lombardi's supermarket at 637 College Street. Lombardi at first purchased air time on English radio stations before the establishment of CHIN Radio, producing Italian programming. The studio, much expanded is now located at 622 College Street, and the section of the street in the area has been officially nicknamed Johnny Lombardi Way by the city of Toronto and a historical plaque is installed on the south-west corner of College and Grace Street. Lombardi died in 2002 and CHIN is now run by his son, broadcasting in 30 languages.
The area is much more ethnically diverse today. Italian-Canadians born during the Baby Boom and Italian immigrants from the 1960s onwards have tended to settle in the Corso Italia neighbourhood around St. Clair Avenue and Dufferin Street and Toronto's suburbs. There are now further concentrations of Italian Canadians in Downsview in Toronto; Woodbridge and Maple in Vaughan; Richmond Hill, and Mississauga.
By the 1960s, the Hispanic Canadians had become the largest ethnic group in the Little Italy area. Little Italy has also become quite popular with younger crowds because of its vibrant nightlife and its proximity to the downtown core. Since the 1980s, many young professionals have been buying homes in the neighbourhood.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
 |
Palmerston-Little Italy |
|
|||||
| Dufferin Grove |  |
Kensington Market | |||||
 Little Italy  |
|||||||
 |
|||||||
| Trinity-Bellwoods |
