Old Toronto Series: The History of Parkdale

This is a true Parkdale story. Back in either 1969 or 1970 there was an old school called Queen Victoria Elementary School. At the time there was a very motley gang of teens that hung around called, appropriately enough, The Queen Vic Gang. They were pretty tough, and worse yet, really into sniffing glue. Beside the school running south was a block of old Victorian rowhouses that were empty and slated for demolition to make way for more of those wretched apartment buildings mentioned in this video. One summer afternoon, the lads in the Queen Vic gang, being rather bored, decided to aid in the demolition in their own small way. There was a tractor-trailer parked across the street from the school, so they siphoned gas out of the tank, filled up pop bottles (they were made of glass in those days), shoved some paper inside, lit them, and hurled their Molotov cocktails at those soon-to-be demolished houses. I know this is true because I saw it with my own eyes, and no, I was neither a part of the gang, nor did I sniff glue. I was there for other reasons, which is a story all to its own, albeit a silly one.

Fifth generation Torontonian here- my great-great grandfather came from Edinburgh to help build the Prince Edward Viaduct. I grew up in Toronto in the 90’s but in the east end. My mum would never let us go to the west end because she said that’s where “all the perverts, pedophiles and mentally ill were housed”. Parkdale had a reputation for housing sex offenders in all the gritty rooming houses and other undesirables. So the history of the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital / now I believe it’s CAMH checks out. Also I remember being a little girl in 1991 when 3 y/o Kayla Kladusz went missing in Parkdale; it was all over the news and then the cops found that a pedo had raped her and dumped her in Lake Ontario. I think it stuck in my mind cuz I was close to her age at the time and was so scared that a little girl was just nabbed of the street. It hit close to home. RIP Kayla. Parkdale will forever be seedy and grimy in my eyes.

Lived in Parkdale in 1980 -83. Loved it . . . Even the good 'new' Poles who took over from others post WWII and held it for a time. It was a great neighbourhood to live in.

Interesting. I would love to visit Toronto someday.

I lived in Parkdale from 1994 till 2002 and again from 2005 to 08. It is exactly how it's described. The Gardiner and lakeshore cause a disconnect to the lake but I still enjoyed going to the Sunnyside park on the weekend in the summer. There are still a lot of amazing houses from the 19th and early 20th century. When I lived there it was a combination of rooming houses with people who worked downtown and needed a relatively close but inexpensive area to live and new immigrants needing a convenient but inexpensive place to live. It has had a rough reputation for years now but the hookers and drug dealers were cleared out when I was there and it's rough reputation give us a place to live that was convenient and relatively cheap. I miss the old gal.

I've seen photos of the mansions that were along Sunnyside before the Express Highway. What a total mistake. Parkdale in the 90s was someplace you shouldn't go at night. Stay on the trolley and head out of there. ha ha And years back, I'd venture with friends on weekends. And see the old Victorian mansions of Parkdale. That were turned into slummy rooming houses. Very sad. Most have been torn down.