Etobicoke is the western district of the City of Toronto, along Lake Ontario between the Humber River and Etobicoke Creek. It was incorporated as a township on January 1, 1850, became a borough on January 1, 1967, and became a city on June 29, 1983, according to the City of Toronto Archives. It has been part of Toronto since the amalgamation of January 1, 1998, so it is not a separate city today. The overview of where Toronto is and what counts as Toronto lists Etobicoke among the six former municipalities.
Etobicoke at a glance
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| Before 1850 | Part of York County |
| January 1, 1850 | Incorporated as a township |
| 1911 to 1930 | Long Branch, Mimico, and New Toronto separate and incorporate as villages or towns |
| April 15, 1953 | One of 13 municipalities in Metropolitan Toronto |
| January 1, 1967 | Township joins the other three to form the Borough of Etobicoke |
| June 29, 1983 | Incorporated as a city |
| January 1, 1998 | Becomes part of the amalgamated City of Toronto |
The dates come from the City of Toronto Archives list of former municipalities. The Archives dates its own Etobicoke records from 1851, a year after incorporation, which reflects where the surviving series begin and not a different founding date.
The name and the land before the township
The name Etobicoke comes from the language of the Mississaugas. Sources spell it in several ways, including wah-do-be-kaug and wadoopikaang, and usually translate it as a place where alders grow. Britannica describes it as a term first applied to the creek. Accounts differ on when the colonial administration adopted it: Wikipedia gives 1795, while the Etobicoke Historical Society summary and a Toronto wiki give 1796. Neither date has been checked against an original survey record for this page.
The land belonged to the Mississaugas of the Credit before the Crown claimed it. The Crown’s purchase of 1787 was recorded in a deed that was later found to have no description of the land, and a survey attempt in 1788 met Mississauga opposition. Officials questioned the validity of the deal for years. On August 1, 1805, the Crown bought about 250,830 acres (about 1,015 square kilometers, or 392 square miles) for 10 shillings, in what is now called Treaty 13 or the Toronto Purchase. The Mississaugas kept the exclusive right to fish on Etobicoke Creek. In 2010 the federal government settled the Mississaugas’ claims over the Toronto Purchase and the Brant Tract for $145 million, then the largest claims settlement in Canadian history, according to the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. Etobicoke lies within the treaty lands.
Farms, mills, and lakeshore villages
The City of Toronto Archives describes Etobicoke as a place of “a number of different landscapes and communities”: prosperous farms, lakeshore resorts, mill villages on the Humber River, and a commercial corridor along Lakeshore Road. European settlement began in the 1790s according to secondary histories, and the township was organized in 1850 as a mostly agricultural district. The Humber, which forms the eastern edge of the district, supplied water power. The river is covered with other buried and surviving streams in the article on Toronto’s lost rivers and ravines.
The lakeshore changed first. Between 1911 and 1930, three communities on the water, Long Branch, Mimico, and New Toronto, left the township and incorporated separately as villages or towns. Each ran its own council until 1967, when the province merged the three with the township into the Borough of Etobicoke. Published sources give different incorporation years for individual villages, so this page uses the Archives range of 1911 to 1930 and does not assign a year to each.
Metro, growth, and the car suburb
On April 15, 1953, Etobicoke became one of the 13 municipalities in the new Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. The next two decades produced the largest change in its history. A City of Toronto exhibit built from the Etobicoke Clerk’s Department photographs states that the population grew from under 40,000 to over 200,000 in the two decades after the Second World War. That period brought thousands of houses, dozens of schools, and new roads, and the exhibit sums up the planning approach with the phrase “The car was king.”
The exhibit documents the commercial buildings of that suburb: Thorncrest Plaza and Humbertown Mall, built in 1955 and 1956 a few hundred yards apart to serve neighborhoods near The Kingsway, and a motel strip on Lake Shore Boulevard West between the Humber River and Mimico Creek. The strip’s peak was the 1950s and 1960s, with motels, drive-through restaurants, dance halls, and bars. It declined in the 1970s, and many of its buildings have since been demolished for condominiums. About 600 photographs taken for the Clerk’s Department recorded the change from rural to urban.
Borough, city, and amalgamation
When the province reduced Metro’s 13 municipalities to six on January 1, 1967, the township and its three lakeshore neighbors became the Borough of Etobicoke. Borough status gave way to city status on June 29, 1983. The Archives sorts its Etobicoke records by these stages: township to 1966, borough from 1967, and city from about 1983. Searching by those labels is the quickest way to find a record in the right file.
Amalgamation ended the city on January 1, 1998. The provincial government introduced Bill 103 in December 1996 to merge the six municipalities and the Metro government. The Canadian Encyclopedia, citing a Maclean’s report of March 17, 1997, says about three-quarters of voters who took part in the local referendum said no, on a turnout of about one-third. The bill went ahead regardless. Mel Lastman, formerly the mayor of North York, became the first mayor of the amalgamated city and served from 1998 to 2003. For the other former municipalities, see the histories of Scarborough, North York, East York, and York.
Where to find Etobicoke records
The City of Toronto Archives holds the township, borough, and city records, including assessment rolls, council papers, development agreements, and photographs. Its page on resources on former municipalities links to photograph series and finding aids. The Etobicoke Historical Society publishes local studies, among them a work on the Humber mills. Census population counts by year for the whole city are collected on the page about Toronto population history.
Frequently asked questions
Is Etobicoke a city?
Not any longer. Etobicoke was a city from June 29, 1983, to December 31, 1997. Since January 1, 1998, it has been a district of the single City of Toronto, and addresses there are Toronto addresses.
Is Etobicoke part of Toronto?
Yes. The six municipalities of Metropolitan Toronto, Etobicoke among them, were merged into one city on January 1, 1998. The word Toronto is also used in a narrower sense for the old downtown municipality, which is the usual meaning in searches that compare Etobicoke and Toronto.
What does Etobicoke mean?
The name is Mississauga in origin and is usually translated as a place where alders grow. Spellings and the date of its first official use vary between sources.
When did Etobicoke join Metropolitan Toronto?
On April 15, 1953, as one of the 13 original municipalities, according to the City of Toronto Archives.
Sources
- City of Toronto Archives, resources on former municipalities (Etobicoke dates)
- City of Toronto, online exhibit “Etobicoke: A Modern Suburb”
- Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, “The Toronto Purchase Treaty, No. 13 (1805)”
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Toronto’s Struggle Against Amalgamation” (Maclean’s, March 17, 1997)
- City of Toronto, online exhibit page on Mel Lastman (North York exhibit series)
- Secondary, read through search summaries only: Etobicoke Historical Society summary and Britannica entry for the name
Related reading
- How Toronto’s neighbourhoods and districts developed
- Scarborough as a township, borough, and city
- North York from township to City with Heart
- The Humber and other lost rivers
- Where Toronto is and the six former municipalities
Last verified: October 2026
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 23). Etobicoke: History of the Former Municipality. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/etobicoke-history
MLA: “Etobicoke: History of the Former Municipality.” History of Toronto, 23 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/etobicoke-history. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Etobicoke: History of the Former Municipality.” Last modified October 23, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/etobicoke-history.
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