Weston and Mount Dennis
History of Weston and Mount Dennis
Information taken and consolidated from the City of Toronto's: Picture Mount Dennis Planning Framework, CBC's "A Community in Profile: Weston & Mount Dennis" article, and the Mount Dennis BIA Website.
Weston and Mount Dennis started off as a suburb that was anchored at the turn of the 19th century by a boatyard on the Humber River.
It was previously a sparsely populated rural area, however the land on which Mount Dennis sits today has been a human settlement area and transportation route for thousands of years. The Mount Dennis neighbourhood, as part of the City of Toronto, is on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples.
The growth in the area over the decades has been shaped by both transportaion and industry, including: Weston Road, a portion of which was constructed on the historic Indigenous Toronto Carrying Place Trail; the Grand Trunk Railway; and the Kodak Factory, which became the largest employer in the area following its construction in 1916.
Kodak Canada arriving during World War I triggered massive industrial development in the area.
The photography company set up its factory at Eglinton Avenue and Weston Road, right beside the railway corridor. Workers at Kodak and the nearby stockyards built homes, gradually filling the streets with the current housing stock of cottages and small, fully detached homes.
Today, Weston and Mount Dennis is one of the most culturally diverse neighbourhoods in the Greater Toronto Area, representing more than 30 ethnic groups, the largest being from the Caribbean and West Africa.
Due to the construction of the Eglinton LRT, the area is undergoing a massive transformation.
To learn more, please the websites listed above!
