The historic Town of New Torontois a neighbourhood in the south-west end of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the south-centre of the former Township of Etobicoke and was an independent municipality from 1913 to 1967, one of the former 'Lakeshore Municipalities'. New Toronto is bounded by Lake Ontario to the south, with a western boundary of Twenty-Third Street (south of Lake Shore Blvd. West) and the mid-point between Twenty-Second and Twenty-Fourth Streets (north of Lake Shore Blvd. West), the Canadian National Railways mainline to the north, and Dwight Avenue to the east. Neighbouring communities consist of the Town of Mimico to the east, and the Village of Long Branch to the west.
New Toronto is centred around the intersection of Seventh Street/ Islington Avenue and Lake Shore Boulevard West with a commercial strip running east-west along the latter street. Residential streets generally run north-south from Lake Ontario north to Birmingham Street, except for the Lakeshore Grounds to the southwest which extends from Lake Shore Blvd. West south to the Lake.
New Toronto is now a neighbourhood in transition, as the industrial corridor located at the north end of the community is being redeveloped after having been vacant and fallow for many years. Industry that gradually moved out of New Toronto over the years is now being re-established, in addition to institutional uses. New Toronto also has a high senior citizen population.
Old Homes (Renovated) in New Toronto
In 1890, new streets for New Toronto were laid out in several series, essentially without names by simply using ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.). When the streets were laid out along Lake Shore Road (now Lake Shore Blvd. West), they had a single new starting point. The second numbering system began with First Street being one half block west of Dwight Ave (the boundary street between Mimico and New Toronto) and continuing westward. Originally named Mimico Avenue, what is now Kipling Ave. would also be named 18th Street more than once. The number naming convention was later applied to streets further west of New Toronto in the Village of Long Branch when theirs were renamed in 1931, continuing up to Forty-Third Street today (the section of Forty-Third Street in what is now Marie Curtis Park, and Island Road, were washed out during Hurricane Hazel).
Second Street Junior Middle School is a public elementary school located on the southwest corner of the Toronto District School Board a few blocks east of the intersection of Seventh Street/ Lake Shore Boulevard West and Islington Avenue. The original school was built in 1949 and a large second storey wheelchair accessible addition was built in 1996 where the previous single-storey wing existed. The School was built because Fifth Street School had burnt down and the students needed a new school. The Fifth Street School became the New Toronto Town Hall, then Metro Police 21 Division station, and then became the Lakeshore Area Multiservices Project (LAMP) in 1973. The City of Toronto is the owner of the building now.
Seventh Street Junior School is a public elementary school on Seventh Street. The original school opened in 1922. In 1989, a new school was built on the school yard and the old building was then demolished.
Twentieth Street Junior School is a public elementary school on the corner of Lake Shore Boulevard and Twentieth Street. There has been a school on this site serving the New Toronto community since 1920. In 1993, the original building and its additions were demolished and a new structure was constructed which opened in September 1994. The school is fully accessible and is close to a host of community recreation facilities such as Lakeshore Lions Arena and Gus Ryder Pool. Twentieth Street Junior School is a short walk from Lake Ontario.
St. Teresa Catholic Elementary School is a school on Tenth Street. Although St. Teresa Roman Catholic Church, New Toronto is older than Christ the King Roman Catholic Church, Long Branch, Christ the King Catholic Elementary School, Long Branch was established 10 years before St. Teresa's and catholic children in New Toronto attended that school or the mother school for both St. Teresa's and Christ the King; St. Leo Catholic Elementary School, Mimico. St. Teresa's school was established in 1957 during a post war population boom in the, then independent, Town of New Toronto, including many families from was devestated catholic European countries, especially Poland. Since the amalgamation of New Toronto into Etobicoke in 1967 and Etobicoke into Toronto in 1997, St. Teresa has been challenged by the deindustrialisation of New Toronto which has led to an exodus of working families to newer suburbs. At the same time, St. Teresa, whose students originally attended Etobicoke's first catholic secondary schools, Michael Power (for boys) or St Joseph's (for girls) if able to pay, or the local public New Toronto Secondary School (now Lakeshore Collegiate Institute), has benefitted from the relocation of the daughter school of Michael Power-St. Joseph's, Father John Redmond Catholic Secondary School, established after the extension of catholic school funding to secondary schools in the 1980s, from the former Aldewoood Secondary School to a new building in New Toronto's large former Mimico Lunatic Asylum grounds.
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