Fairbank, Toronto

Fairbank
Fairbank
Neighbourhood
	View of Fairbank from Oakwood and Eglinton Avenue before the construction of Oakwood station
	Vicinity
	Location within Toronto
	Coordinates: 43°41′44″N 79°27′00″W / 43.69556°N 79.45000°W
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
City	Toronto
Established	1850 (York Township)
Established community	1891 (Postal village)
Changed municipality	1998 Toronto from York

Fairbank is a neighbourhood in

Eglinton Avenue West. Fairbank includes the neighbourhoods of Briar Hill–Belgravia (North of Eglinton Avenue West) and Caledonia–Fairbank (South of Eglinton Avenue West). The western border is the CNR lines. The northern and southern borders are the former borders of the City of York and the eastern border is Dufferin Street (Oakwood Village

).

History

The area began at the Fairbank Postal Village at the intersection of Vaughan Road (an early settler's street crossing through farmland on the way to Vaughan Township) at Eglinton and Dufferin Street. The postal village name was derived from the Fairbank Farm owned by English settler Matthew Parsons (and named by his father-in-law Jacob Mackay).^[1]

St Hilda's Anglican church (St. Hilda's Retirement Residence, added in 1975) was built at the Fairbank intersection, although a cul-de-sac was later created at the northern end of Vaughan Road to simplify the Eglinton and Dufferin intersection when Eglinton Avenue began to develop as a commercial street with many mid-rise apartment buildings.

Character

The neighbourhood has many rolling hills and steep, climbing streets. To the west, Prospect Cemetery separates Fairbank from development along the railway. Most of the neighbourhood as it exists today was planned in the interwar years (1920s & 1930s) with mostly small single family 2 and 1½ storey detached homes on north-south residential streets. Eglinton Ave. is organized into two BIAs: Fairbank Village and York-Eglinton. St. Clair Avenue to the south is organized into two BIAs: 'Corso Italia' and 'St. Clair Gardens'. The neighbour historically acts an extension of Corso Italia - having a heavy Italian influence, however is now heavily influenced and inhabited by Portuguese immigrants.

Districts

This neighbourhood contains several named areas:

Caledonia covers the area along Caledonia Rd west of Prospect Cemetery and east of the railroad tracks. For demographic purposes the city has titled the neighbourhood Caledonia-Fairbanks. As of the 2006 Canadian Census, the total population of the Caledonia-Fairbank area was 3335,^[2] and as of the 2011 National Household survey, it was said to be 3230.^[3]
North Fairbank is the area north of Eglinton and west of Dufferin.
Belgravia is the portion of the neighbourhood east of Dufferin, north of Eglinton, and south of the former Belt Line, where the tracks have been removed as part of the York Beltline Trail.
Briar Hill is the area north of Belgravia and the Belt Line. Briar Hill and Belgravia are both modest areas with house values and average incomes in the lower quadrant compared with the Toronto average. The area's inhabitants are diverse; there is a very large
Roman Catholic base, and Italian, Russian, and Portuguese are widely spoken as home languages. More than half of the immigrant population of Briar Hill-Belgravia arrived after 1981, with a majority of immigrants in 1996 and 2001 arriving from the Philippines, with Tagalog
becoming a major immigrant language of the neighbourhood.

Fairbank Village is the Business Improvement Area along Eglinton Ave. W. from Dufferin St. to Chamberlain Ave., as well as along Dufferin St. from Hunter Ave. to Schell Ave.

York-Eglinton is the Business Improvement Area Along Eglinton Ave East of Dufferin St and extends to Marlee Ave.

Eglinton West
is a stretch of multicultural retail stores and restaurants along Eglinton.

Landmarks

The main park is the Fairbank Memorial Park - built on land from Professor Dr. William Charles Gwynne (Gwynne Estate)
Fairbank Memorial Park Community Centre
Prospect Cemetery - opened for first burial in 1890 on William Sheilds farm
Fairbank United Church 2750 Dufferin Street - built 1889 as Methodist Church and dates back to earlier church in 1844; became United Church in 1925

Demographics

According to the 2006 census, the majority of the neighbourhood's population is

Roman Catholic (over 65%), and there are a large number of people who speak Portuguese and Italian, with many recognizable ethnic influences in the neighbourhood. As of the 2011 National Household survey, the population was divided into 37% Portuguese, 6% Italian, 2% Spanish, with the remaining 55% being of other Southern European origins,^[4] compared to the 75% of Portuguese reported in the 2006 census. The neighbourhood is inhabited mostly by first generation Canadians (76%).^[5]

Education

private school

in Fairbank.

The

Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud

operates public Catholic Francophone schools serving the area. Schools in the area include:

Fairbank Memorial Community School [6]
FH Miller Junior Public School
Fairbank Public School, a TDSB school^[7]
DB Hood Community School had been converted to the Lycée Français de Toronto, a private French school ^[8]

Transportation

The

Eglinton West station. The Eglinton Crosstown light rail line (Line 5 Eglinton), now under construction along Eglinton Avenue, will provide three underground stations in the Fairbank neighbourhood: Caledonia station, Fairbank station and Oakwood station.^[9]

References

^ "Ontario Roots - Lost Village of Fairbank". Archived from the original on 2009-06-01. Retrieved 2015-01-15.
^ 2006 Canadian Census
^ 2011 National Household Survey
^ 2011 National Household Survey
^ 2006 Canadian Census
^ "Fairbank Memorial Community School". Toronto District School Board. Archived from the original on 2024-02-11. Retrieved 2024-02-11.
^ "Fairbank Public School". Toronto District School Board. Archived from the original on 2024-02-11. Retrieved 2024-02-11.
^ "Contact Us | LFT". Archived from the original on 2014-07-20.
^ "What is the Crosstown? | Crosstown". www.thecrosstown.ca, Eglinton Crosstown. Retrieved 2017-09-09.

External links

[1] "Ontario Roots - Lost Village of Fairbank". Archived from the original on 2009-06-01. Retrieved 2015-01-15.

[2] 2006 Canadian Census

[3] 2011 National Household Survey

[4] 2011 National Household Survey

[5] 2006 Canadian Census

[6] "Fairbank Memorial Community School". Toronto District School Board. Archived from the original on 2024-02-11. Retrieved 2024-02-11.

[7] "Fairbank Public School". Toronto District School Board. Archived from the original on 2024-02-11. Retrieved 2024-02-11.

[8] "Contact Us | LFT". Archived from the original on 2014-07-20.

[9] "What is the Crosstown? | Crosstown". www.thecrosstown.ca, Eglinton Crosstown. Retrieved 2017-09-09.

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Etobicoke	Alderwood Clairville Eatonville The Elms Eringate-Centennial-West Deane Humber Heights-Westmount Humber Valley Village Humberwood Islington-City Centre West Kingsview Village The Kingsway Long Branch Markland Wood Mimico New Toronto Princess Gardens Rexdale Richview The Queensway-Humber Bay Smithfield Thistletown Thorncrest Village
York	Baby Point Fairbank Humewood–Cedarvale Lambton Little Jamaica Mount Dennis Oakwood Village Old Mill Rockcliffe–Smythe Silverthorn Tichester Weston
East York	Bermondsey Crescent Town Governor's Bridge Leaside O'Connor–Parkview Old East York Pape Village Thorncliffe Park
Italics indicate neighbourhoods now defunct. For information on the evolution of each neighbourhood in general, see History of neighbourhoods in Toronto.