Dufferin Street
Dufferin Street is a major north-south street in Toronto and York Region, Ontario, Canada. It is a concession road, 2 concessions (4km) west of Yonge Street.
The southern end of Dufferin is within the Canadian National Exhibition grounds at Dufferin Gates. Immediately north of Queen Street West, Dufferin is cut off by the railway (nicknamed the "Dufferin jog" by locals) and resumes before Peel Avenue. For most of its length south of Eglinton Avenue, Dufferin is lined with homes built from the late 19th century to the 1920s, and traverses very steep hills. North of Eglinton, it becomes an arterial road through industrial land. North of Wilson Avenue, Dufferin is interrupted by Downsview Airport and Allen Road, the latter of which feeds Dufferin north of Sheppard Avenue. North of Steeles Avenue, Dufferin Street is also known as York Regional Road 53.
The street is named for Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, who served as Governor-General of Canada from 1872 to 1878.
In 2003 and 2007, it was voted as one of Ontario's Worst 20 Roads in the Ontario's Worst Roads poll organized by the CAA.[1][2]
Toronto's City Council approved the building of an underpass that would connect the portions of Dufferin south of Queen and north of Peel. Expropriation of lands has begun, but work did not begin and the extension of the roadway has not been started as of June 2008.
Italian community
Dufferin Street has long been an important thoroughfare for Toronto's Italian community. An Italian neighbourhood developed around Dufferin and Davenport in the 1890s and soon became known as "little Little Italy". In the 1950s, Italian Canadians from the main Little Italy around College Street and Grace Street headed northwest up Dufferin past St. Clair Avenue and were joined by a new wave of immigrants from Italy. By the 1960s, the Dufferin-St. Clair area (known as Corso Italia) had supplanted College-Grace Little Italy as the centre of Toronto's Italian community.
References
- ^ "Ontario's worst municipal roads – top 20" (PDF). Canadian Automobile Association. 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
- ^ "Top 20 Worst Municipal Roads in Ontario for 2007". Canadian Automobile Association. 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
External links
Google Maps of Dufferin Street
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