Mount Dennis

Mount Dennis
—  Neighbourhood  —
Aerial view of the Kodak campus in Mount Dennis in 1917.
Coordinates: 43°41′6.14″N 79°29′9.37″W
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
City	Toronto
Community	York
Changed Municipality	1998 Toronto from York
Government
• MP	Mike Sullivan (York South—Weston)
• MPP	Laura Albanese (York South—Weston)
• Councillor	Frances Nunziata (Ward 11 York South-Weston)

Mount Dennis is a working class neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was part of the former City of York before the amalgamation of Toronto in 1998. The area is bordered by Clouston Avenue (north of the intersection of Jane Street and Weston Road) to the north, and Black Creek to the east and south, as the creek curves parallel to Alliance Avenue before crossing under Jane Street on its way to drain into the Humber River, which creates a natural border to the west. Eglinton Avenue West is a major transportation corridor within Mount Dennis. Had Metropolitan Toronto's planned municipal expressway system been completed, the neighbourhood would have been bisected by the Richview Expressway.^{[citation needed]}

The area gets its name from the Dennis family (led by John Dennis (1758–1832)), Loyalist shipbuilders who owned the property, as well as a boatyard on the Humber, at the turn of the 19th century.^{[citation needed]} It remained largely rural, with orchards, gravel and clay pits and a few market gardens.^{[citation needed]} Kodak Canada moved its factory to a site at Eglinton Avenue and Weston Road, along the rail line running next to Weston Road, in 1913. This factory complex, known as "Kodak Heights," was a major employer for Mount Dennis' residents until it was shut down in 2005.

The area became what urban geographer Richard Harris described as an "unplanned suburb" in his book, Unplanned Suburbs: Toronto's American Tragedy 1900 to 1950. Workers at Kodak and the nearby stockyards once located at Weston Road and St. Clair Avenue, as well as CCM, Willys Overland and other factories north and south of Mount Dennis built their own homes before municipal services were in place, and small developers built "infill" homes, gradually filling the streets with the current housing stock of former cottages and small, fully detached homes, among the most affordable housing stock in Toronto for recent immigrants and first-time homeowners.

The area is a classic example of Toronto's diversity, with dozens of ethnic groups represented, however the largest ethnic group by far are from the Caribbean and West Africa with the vast majority of visible minorities of Jamaican descent.^{[citation needed]} With respect to religion, there are many black store front churches representing the many faiths of the African and Caribbean communities as well as Western-European, Middle Eastern and Asian faiths such as Christian, Roman Catholicism, Pentecostalism, Seventh Day Adventist), Muslim, and Buddhist.^{[citation needed]} Among the languages spoken are Spanish, Vietnamese, and Portuguese.(Source: Statistics Canada 2006 Census).^{[citation needed]}

Schools

• Dennis Community School — A public elementary school on Dennis Avenue, near Weston Road and Eglinton Avenue.^{[citation needed]} Mount Dennis was founded in 1797.^{[citation needed]} The first Mount Dennis school opened in 1891.^{[citation needed]}

Transit

The westernmost terminus of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT will be within Mount Dennis. The carhouse for the vehicles on the Eglinton Crosstown line, where vehicles will be maintained, and stored, when not in service, will be on the site of the old Kodak plant in Mount Dennis. According to some reports the terminal station will be adjacent to the carhouse, and a 15-bay bus terminal will allow local bus routes to feed the LRT.

External links

• City of Toronto - Mount Dennis Neighbourhood Profile