Weston and Mount Dennis History: Humber Mills, Kodak, Rail

Weston grew around sawmills on the Humber River in the 1790s, became a village in 1881 and a town in 1914, and joined the Borough of York in 1967. Mount Dennis, just to the east, developed after Kodak built a large plant there around 1912 and 1913. Kodak closed the plant in 2005 or 2006, and the site is now a transit station opened in November 2025.

The Humber River and the first mills

Weston stands on the east bank of the Humber River, in territory long used by the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee and the Mississaugas of the Credit (see the Mississaugas of the Credit). The river’s fall of water drew the first European settlers. A provincial plaque in Weston says that in the 1790s settlers came for the timber and water power, and that a sawmill was running by 1792. Wikipedia places the first sawmill on the west bank, then in Etobicoke Township.

The hamlet was first known as The Humber. Around 1815 the mill owner James Farr gave it the name Weston, after his ancestral home in England, according to the plaque. Wikipedia names the place as Weston in Hertfordshire. A post office opened in 1842, according to the same encyclopedia. The history of the river system is covered in the article on Lake Ontario and Toronto’s rivers, and the larger municipality on the west bank in the article on Etobicoke.

Floods and the move across the river

The Humber was both the village’s power source and its hazard. The plaque records that heavy flooding in 1850 destroyed the settlement on the west bank, after which growth continued on the east side. That east bank lay in York Township. The plaque adds that improvements to Weston Road also helped the village develop.

A far larger flood came in 1954. Hurricane Hazel struck the Humber valley in October of that year, and an account of Weston says it washed away part of Raymore Drive and the Lawrence Avenue bridge. Low-lying land was later turned into parkland, and Ontario changed its floodplain rules. The full story of the storm is in the article on Hurricane Hazel.

Railways and industry

The Grand Trunk Railway reached Weston in 1856, and the plaque says it spurred further growth. The Weston station of that line stood south of John Street. A second railway, the Toronto, Grey and Bruce, began service in 1871. It later became part of the Canadian Pacific Railway, whose Weston station on John Street, built around 1900, last handled passengers in 1957 and was demolished in 1973, according to a history of the modern GO station. More about the early lines is in the article on Toronto’s nineteenth-century railways.

Weston became an industrial town. Wikipedia lists the Canada Cycle and Motor company’s bicycle factory on Lawrence Avenue among its main employers in the late nineteenth century. Weston was incorporated as a village in 1881, according to the plaque, and became a town in 1914, the year its Carnegie library opened, according to Wikipedia. In 1967 it joined the Borough of York, which in turn became part of the City of Toronto in 1998. See York as a former municipality and Metropolitan Toronto.

Mount Dennis before Kodak

Mount Dennis lies east of Weston Road, along Eglinton Avenue West. It takes its name from the Dennis family. A neighbourhood account says John Dennis, who lived from 1758 to 1832, was a Loyalist shipbuilder with a boatyard on the Humber, but that claim is marked as needing a source, so it should be treated as unconfirmed. Before 1900 the area stayed rural, with orchards, gravel and clay pits and market gardens. The first school opened in 1891, according to the Toronto District School Board as cited there.

Kodak Heights

The great change came with Kodak. The company had come to Canada in 1899. In 1912 it bought 48 acres in Mount Dennis, and the factory moved to the site at Eglinton Avenue and Weston Road in 1913, close to the railway. Sources differ on whether the purchase or the move defines the start year. Building 1, a coal-fired power plant, began running in 1914. Building 9 was built in 1939 and opened in 1940 as a recreation centre for Kodak employees, with a gym, cafeteria and darkrooms for photographers. The complex became known as Kodak Heights.

The jobs created an unplanned suburb. A historian quoted in the Wikipedia article on Mount Dennis, Richard Harris, used that phrase for the houses that workers from Kodak, the stockyards and other employers built for themselves before municipal services arrived. Kodak ceased operations on the campus in 2005 or 2006, depending on the source, and about 800 employees lost their jobs, according to the same article. Of the buildings on the 23-hectare site, only Building 9 survives.

The transit hub on the Kodak lands

Metrolinx bought the Kodak campus in 2013 for a transit station and bus terminal. Building 9 was moved about 60 metres in August 2016 during construction and returned to a new foundation in November 2017. It now serves as an entrance to Mount Dennis station. The station opened on November 16, 2025, for GO Transit trains on the Kitchener line, Union Pearson Express and TTC buses. Line 5 Eglinton, the Eglinton Crosstown light rail line, opened on February 8, 2026, with Mount Dennis as its western terminus, according to the Ontario government and an encyclopedia account of the station. The Ontario release describes the line as 19 kilometres long with 25 stations and stops. Construction began in 2010, and the line was originally due in 2020.

Weston has its own station on the same rail corridor, on the south side of Lawrence Avenue West. According to a history of the station, the original GO station opened in 1974, the new building opened in June 2015, and Weston has been served by the Union Pearson Express since that service started in June 2015. For the broader story of the city’s transit lines, see the history of the Toronto subway.

Visiting and reading the area

The Weston plaque stands in a park on the west side of Little Avenue, just west of Weston Road and one block north of Lawrence Avenue West. Service patterns, hours and fares change, so check the Toronto Transit Commission, GO Transit and Union Pearson Express before travelling. Sources used here sometimes disagree on small dates, and where they do the text says so.

Frequently asked questions

How did Weston get its name?

The mill owner James Farr renamed the hamlet of The Humber around 1815 after his ancestral home in England, according to a plaque in Weston. Wikipedia identifies it as Weston in Hertfordshire.

When did Weston become part of Toronto?

Weston joined the Borough of York in 1967, and York became part of the City of Toronto in 1998.

What happened to the Kodak plant in Mount Dennis?

Kodak ceased operations there in 2005 or 2006, depending on the source. Of the site’s buildings, only Building 9 remains, and it is now an entrance to Mount Dennis station.

When did Mount Dennis station open?

It opened on November 16, 2025, for GO Transit, Union Pearson Express and TTC buses. Line 5 Eglinton service began there on February 8, 2026.

Sources

Ontario Plaques database, transcription of the Weston plaque (record added March 27, 2004; accessed October 2026)
Wikipedia, “Weston, Toronto” (accessed October 2026)
Wikipedia, “Weston GO Station” (accessed October 2026)
Wikipedia, “Mount Dennis” (accessed October 2026)
Wikipedia, “Kodak Building 9” (accessed October 2026)
Wikipedia, “Mount Dennis station” (accessed October 2026)
Office of Doug Ford, MPP, “Ontario Marks Opening of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT” (February 19, 2026)
CP24, “Eglinton Crosstown LRT to open Feb. 8: source” (January 26, 2026)

Last verified: October 2026

Cite this page

APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 31). Weston and Mount Dennis: Mills, Rail, Kodak and the Crosstown. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/weston-mount-dennis-history

MLA: “Weston and Mount Dennis: Mills, Rail, Kodak and the Crosstown.” History of Toronto, 31 Oct 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/weston-mount-dennis-history. Accessed .

Chicago: History of Toronto. “Weston and Mount Dennis: Mills, Rail, Kodak and the Crosstown.” Last modified October 31, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/weston-mount-dennis-history.

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