Parkdale is a west-end Toronto neighbourhood centred on Queen Street West near Dufferin Street. It was incorporated as a village in 1879, became the Town of Parkdale in 1885, and was annexed by the City of Toronto in 1889. Its name is attributed to the Toronto House Building Association, which began buying land there in 1875. Later chapters include the Sunnyside waterfront, the Gardiner Expressway, and the closing of psychiatric beds in the 1970s.
Park lots, Brockton, and the asylum
West of the early city limits lay the military Garrison Commons and a belt of long park lots running north from the lake. According to City of Toronto heritage studies, Queen Street was a concession road, once called Lot Street, that divided the original land grants. Landowners sold off pieces of their lots one at a time, which is why the street grid is irregular. The Brock estate was among the first to be subdivided, in an 1850 plan, and it laid the foundation for the Village of Brockton to the north of Queen Street.
The Provincial Lunatic Asylum, built on Queen Street in 1844, stood nearby. The West Queen West study records that 23 acres of its property were sold for development in 1879, leaving the site at 27 acres. The institution is now the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and it has shaped the area ever since.
The village of Parkdale
The Toronto House Building Association bought land on both sides of Queen Street starting in 1875, in expectation of a railway station. It laid out large suburban lots south of Queen and more modest ones to the north, and promoted the district as a picturesque village with access to Lake Ontario and clean water, in contrast to a crowded downtown. The City’s studies describe the first residents as a mix of merchants, professionals, company managers, and a large share of railway and factory workers. Workers’ housing stood close to Queen Street and the tracks, and larger houses to the south, nearer the lake.
Civic life gathered at Queen Street West and Cowan Avenue, where the former fire hall and curling club, the police station, St. Mark’s Anglican Church, and the telephone exchange still stand. The former Parkdale Town Hall stood at the same corner until it was replaced by a police station in 1931. A City heritage plan notes that Parkdale’s years as an independent corporation gave it a character distinct from the commercial streets east of Dufferin Street.
Annexation in 1889
The City of Toronto’s heritage studies state that Parkdale was annexed to Toronto in 1889, after financial difficulties. The Queen Street West subway, which carries Queen Street under the railway tracks, and an extension of streetcar service in 1887 improved the connection with the rest of the city. Annexation brought City services and a sharp rise in commercial building along Queen Street West, and most surviving storefronts date from the 1880s to the 1920s.
Sunnyside on the lakeshore
The southern edge of Parkdale became the city’s lakeside playground. The Toronto Public Library records that the Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion, designed by Alfred H. Chapman, opened on June 28, 1922, under Mayor Charles Maguire. The Palais Royale dance hall opened the same year. The outdoor Sunnyside pool opened on July 29, 1925, and was described at the time as the largest outdoor pool in the world. The amusement park, with its roller coaster called the Flyer, ran from 1922 to 1955, according to the library. The Canadian Encyclopedia says most of it was demolished “without ceremony” between December 1955 and February 1956 and replaced by the Gardiner Expressway and a rebuilt Lake Shore Boulevard. The library adds that the separate Sunnyside Pavilion, with its tea garden and restaurants, was torn down in 1956 to make room for westbound Lake Shore Boulevard lanes. The bathing pavilion and the Palais Royale still stand. For the larger shoreline story, see the article on the waterfront and harbour.
Decline, high-rises, and new communities
City studies describe a shift in Parkdale from a wealthy suburb to an economically unstable neighbourhood between the 1920s and the 1940s. Many families moved to outlying suburbs, and large single-family houses were converted to rooming houses and apartments. Between 1953 and 1967 the City approved 48 high-rise apartment buildings of 8 to 23 storeys in South Parkdale, many replacing demolished houses.
The deinstitutionalization of the Queen Street asylum, now the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, sent large numbers of former patients into the neighbourhood’s residential areas. The West Queen West study dates it to the 1950s and 1960s in its timeline, and the Parkdale Main Street plan says it began in the 1960s. PARC says it was founded in September 1977 by concerned citizens, community workers, and volunteers in response to former psychiatric patients living in Parkdale rooming houses without support, and that it opened as a pilot community mental health program at 1499 Queen Street West on March 17, 1980. The City’s heritage plan also records Polish immigrants and, more recently, Tibetan and Roma communities settling in the area, drawn by lower property values.
Gentrification began in the 1980s. The Parkdale Village Arts Collective was founded in 1994, and the revitalization of the Drake Hotel in the 2000s is cited in the West Queen West study as a catalyst. The same study calls the result a socially diverse neighbourhood still dealing with economic and demographic change.
Key dates
| Year | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1844 | Provincial Lunatic Asylum built on Queen Street | West Queen West heritage study |
| 1850 | Brock estate plan of subdivision | Parkdale Main Street heritage plan |
| 1875 | Toronto House Building Association begins buying land | Parkdale Main Street heritage plan |
| 1879 | Village of Parkdale incorporated | City of Toronto heritage studies |
| 1885 | Town of Parkdale | Parkdale Main Street heritage plan |
| 1889 | Annexed by the City of Toronto | City of Toronto heritage studies |
| June 28, 1922 | Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion opens | Toronto Public Library |
| 1955 to 1956 | Amusement park and pavilion cleared for the Gardiner and Lakeshore Boulevard | Toronto Public Library |
| September 1977 | PARC founded | PARC |
| December 1955 to February 1956 | Most of the Sunnyside amusement park demolished | Canadian Encyclopedia |
Disputed and uncertain points
- Incorporation of the village: 1879 in the City’s Parkdale Main Street plan and West Queen West study, but a timeline in the same West Queen West study lists 1861, and some local accounts give 1878.
- The Parkdale railway station: one City timeline dates its construction to 1875, while the Parkdale Main Street plan says North Parkdale Station opened in 1878.
- Brockton: the West Queen West study says it was incorporated in 1881 and annexed in 1885, while other lists give 1884 for its annexation.
- Dates for the end of Sunnyside run from 1955 to 1956: the library dates the amusement park to 1922 to 1955 and the pavilion’s demolition to 1956, while the Canadian Encyclopedia gives December 1955 to February 1956 for the demolition of most of the park.
- Deinstitutionalization of the asylum: the West Queen West timeline gives the 1950s and 1960s, the Parkdale Main Street plan says it began in the 1960s, and PARC’s founding in 1977 shows its effects were still being felt in the late 1970s.
- The Toronto House Building Association: the West Queen West timeline lists its first land purchase as 1852, while the Main Street plan dates its purchases to 1875.
Frequently asked questions
When did Parkdale become part of Toronto?
The City of Toronto’s heritage studies give 1889. The village had been incorporated in 1879 and was a town from 1885.
Where does the name Parkdale come from?
City heritage plans attribute the name to the Toronto House Building Association, which began buying land in the area in 1875 and promoted it as a suburban village.
What happened to Sunnyside Amusement Park?
It operated from 1922 to 1955 and was then removed to make way for the Gardiner Expressway project. The bathing pavilion and the Palais Royale remain.
Why did so many rooming houses appear in Parkdale?
City studies link them to the conversion of large houses after the 1920s and to the arrival of former psychiatric patients in the 1970s. PARC was founded in 1977 in response.
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- City of Toronto, Parkdale Main Street Heritage Conservation District Plan (Draft), supplementary materials, April 2022
- City of Toronto, West Queen West Heritage Conservation District Study, History and Evolution, with timeline, 2017
- Toronto Public Library, Local History and Genealogy blog, Remembering Sunnyside Amusement Park and Bathing Pavilion, 2016
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, Toronto Feature: Sunnyside Pavilion
- Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre, PARC history
Related reading
- Toronto Harbour and the making of the waterfront
- Garrison Creek and the city’s buried streams
- The Canadian National Exhibition grounds next door
- High Park, Parkdale’s northern neighbour
- How Toronto’s neighbourhoods grew
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 23). Parkdale: History of the West-End Neighbourhood. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/parkdale-history
MLA: “Parkdale: History of the West-End Neighbourhood.” History of Toronto, 23 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/parkdale-history. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Parkdale: History of the West-End Neighbourhood.” Last modified October 23, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/parkdale-history.
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