Toronto’s Ukrainian community began with three men from the Pennsylvania coal mines who arrived on April 15, 1903, according to an article in Polyphony, the journal of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario (MHSO). By the First World War, Toronto was the largest Ukrainian centre in eastern Canada. The city’s Ukrainian population peaked in the census of 1961 at 26,097 people, 3.9 percent of the city, before many families moved to the suburbs.
This article follows the community through its main stages: the laborers of St. John’s Ward and the Junction, the Bathurst Street years, and the postwar arrivals who gave Bloor West Village its Ukrainian character. Its figures come from two MHSO Polyphony articles, one of them from Summer 1984, which draw on census counts and on community histories.
The first arrivals, 1903 to 1914
Zoriana Sokolsky’s article, “Beginnings of the Ukrainian community in Toronto,” dates the start of settlement to April 15, 1903, when Panteleymon (Peter) Ostapowich and two companions reached the city from Pennsylvania. A second MHSO article names the same arrival as three men, Panko Ostapovich, Vasyl’ Netrebko, and Adam Strykhalsky, citing Theodore Humeniuk. The two articles spell the lead name differently and the second gives the names of all three, so they agree on the event and the year but not on the spelling.
The settlers were mostly laborers. They lived in St. John’s Ward, the downtown immigrant district, and in West Toronto Junction, which was annexed to the city in 1907. By 1906 about 20 Ukrainian couples were estimated to be in the city and a benefit society, Tovarystvo Sviatoho Mykhaila, had been formed. In 1908 the Baptist missionary John A. Kolesnikoff reported more than 400 people, then called Ruthenians, living in the Ward, and in 1908 and 1909 he began a religious magazine that became the first Ukrainian publication in eastern Canada.
In 1910 Wasyl Cwior opened the Prosvita bookstore on York Street, which also housed Toronto’s first Ukrainian printing shop. On November 27, 1911, the benefit society was chartered as the Ruthenian National Benefit Society. Sokolsky’s article estimates Toronto had roughly 2,500 Ukrainians in early 1911. The 1921 census count given in the other article is 1,149 people. The articles do not explain the gap, and it probably reflects different definitions and counting of who was Ukrainian, which is a recurring problem in early census data. Both numbers are shown as the sources give them.
Churches and societies
The first Ukrainian church was built in the Junction. Sokolsky’s article says it stood at 143 Franklin Avenue and was consecrated on Palm Sunday 1914. The other MHSO article calls it St. Josaphat’s Ukrainian Catholic Church on Franklin Street, built in 1913 and 1914 and opened on April 14, 1914, the first Ukrainian building in Toronto and now a cathedral. The two accounts differ on “Avenue” versus “Street” and on the exact description of the date, and both fall in the same month of spring 1914.
The Orthodox community held its first Ukrainian-language mass in 1926. St. Vladimir’s Cathedral at 404 Bathurst Street opened in 1948. Catholic parishes followed: St. Mary’s Dormition at 276 Bathurst in 1928 and Holy Eucharist at 436 King Street East in 1937. In 1971, 38.8 percent of Toronto’s Ukrainians were Ukrainian Catholic and 19.3 percent Ukrainian Orthodox.
Secular societies were just as important. Prosvita, a cultural and educational society, was founded in 1917 and gained a hall at 191 Lippincott Street that opened in 1927. The Ukrainian Labour Temple at 300 Bathurst opened in 1927 as a center for communist-leaning Ukrainians. The Ukrainian National Federation formed a Toronto branch in 1933 and opened a hall at 297 College Street in 1950. The Ukrainian Canadian Committee, a central body that excluded communists, was founded in 1941. St. Vladimir Institute, a student residence and cultural center on Spadina Avenue, opened in 1944, and the Ukrainian (Toronto) Credit Union dates from the same year. The community also took part in the Canadian National Exhibition, with Ukrainian exhibits from 1921 and dance classes from 1925.
On August 2, 1914, the War Aliens’ Act required many Ukrainian immigrants to register with the police. Sokolsky writes that this contributed to the community’s stability, an interpretation the article offers without further evidence.
Moving west and out of the Ward
After the First World War the community shifted west along Queen Street toward Bathurst Street, which the MHSO account calls its main hub from 1920 into the 1960s. Interwar settlement also spread to King Street East, to Mimico, New Toronto, and Long Branch, and, from 1932, to Scarborough and Agincourt.
Postwar arrivals and Bloor West Village
According to the same article, about 12,570 displaced persons settled in Metropolitan Toronto between 1946 and 1960. They founded new groups, among them the League for the Liberation of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Youth Association (SUM), and Plast. St. Demetrius in Long Branch opened in 1958 and St. Andrew at Dupont and Edwin in 1950. From the 1960s, Bloor West Village became a new focal point of Ukrainian life. The wider story of these arrivals is in the article on postwar immigration.
| Year | Ukrainians in Toronto | Source note |
|---|---|---|
| Early 1911 | About 2,500 (estimate) | Sokolsky, Polyphony |
| 1921 | 1,149 (0.2 percent of the city) | Census count cited in Polyphony |
| 1961 | 26,097 (3.9 percent of the city) | Census count cited in Polyphony |
| 1971 | 22,620 in the city (3.2 percent); about 60,750 in Metro (2.3 percent), sixth-largest group | Census count cited in Polyphony |
| 1984 | Roughly 80,000 in the Metro area | Estimate in Polyphony |
In 1973 Toronto hosted the Second World Congress of Free Ukrainians. The decline in the city count between 1961 and 1971, set against the Metro total, reflects movement to suburbs such as Etobicoke and Mississauga.
Frequently asked questions
When did Ukrainians first settle in Toronto?
The MHSO articles date the first documented arrival to April 15, 1903, when a small group came from Pennsylvania coal mines. A few more families followed in the next years.
Where did Toronto’s Ukrainians live?
First in St. John’s Ward and West Toronto Junction, then along Queen and Bathurst Streets, then in Mimico, New Toronto, Long Branch, and Scarborough. After 1960 Bloor West Village became a new center.
How many Ukrainians lived in Toronto at the peak?
The 1961 census count cited by MHSO is 26,097 in the city, 3.9 percent of its population. The 1971 Metro figure is about 60,750.
Why do the sources give different early numbers?
An estimate of about 2,500 for early 1911 and a census count of 1,149 for 1921 are both in the MHSO material. No explanation is given for the difference.
Related reading
- Postwar immigration to Toronto
- Immigration history of Toronto
- The Canadian National Exhibition
- Etobicoke, one of the suburbs the community moved to
- An overview of Toronto’s history
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- Multicultural History Society of Ontario, Polyphony, Zoriana Sokolsky, Beginnings of the Ukrainian community in Toronto, Summer 1984
- Multicultural History Society of Ontario, Polyphony, The Ukrainian Community (Toronto’s People series), 1984, with census counts for 1921, 1961 and 1971
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 25). Ukrainian Toronto: From St. John’s Ward to Bloor West Village. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/ukrainian-toronto-history
MLA: “Ukrainian Toronto: From St. John’s Ward to Bloor West Village.” History of Toronto, 25 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/ukrainian-toronto-history. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Ukrainian Toronto: From St. John’s Ward to Bloor West Village.” Last modified October 25, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/ukrainian-toronto-history.
The pages have no named author, so the site is given as the author. Add the date you read the page if your style asks for it.