Corktown, Toronto

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Corktown is a historic Old Town neighbourhood located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located just south of Regent Park and north of the Gardiner Expressway, between Berkeley Street to the west and the Don River to the east. The southern part of this area borders, but is not part of, the Distillery District and contains many vacated industrial buildings, some in use by production and movie studios. The proposed "West Donlands" urban re-development project, slated to be built over the next few years, will encompass the south-east corner of this area.

The neighbourhood's name derives from its origins in the early 1800's as an Irish ethnic enclave, particularly for Irish emigrants from County Cork, though some say the presence of a distilleries, breweries and cork-stopper manufacturers in the vicinity may have secured the nickname. In the early 19th century, most Corktown residents found employment at one of the local breweries or brickyards. These families could not afford the lofty pew rents at nearby St. James Cathedral. This led to the building of their own "Little Trinity Church" in 1843. Little Trinity Church is located at 417 King Street East.

The Trinity Schoolhouse on Trinity Street, just south of Little Trinity Church was built in 1848. This was Toronto's first 'free school'. Its benefactor was Enoch Turner, a prominent Corktown brewer, and one of Toronto's great philanthropists. Today children and adults are still educated in the Trinity Schoolhouse, which is now run as a museum designed to replicate a mid-nineteenth century classroom.

Some of the original workers’ cottages can still be seen in the area, as well as old Corktown’s pretty Italianate church, St. Paul’s.

In the early 1960s, a significant amount of Corktown was demolished to make way for several elevated roadways, including the Richmond Street off-ramp from the Don Valley Parkway and the re-routed Eastern Avenue overpass.

Currently in the early stages of the same sort of regentrification that revitalized present-day Cabbagetown, examples of late 19th century, intimate, quirky British-style row-housing can still be seen lining Corktown side streets such as Bright Street, Trinity Street, Wilkins Avenue, Ashby Place and Gilead Place. Little Trinity Church just east of King and Parliament is Toronto's oldest surviving church building, its cornerstone laid on July 20, 1843. Corktown was also the site of the first Roman Catholic church in Toronto: St. Paul's was originally built in 1822. The current St. Paul's (located at Queen St. East and Power Street) dates from 1887.

Corktown is also home to Inglenook Community Highschool, one of the Toronto District School Board's alternative schools.