Toronto's Urban History

Term Paper # 101018

Canadian Studies > History, Culture

This paper explores the history of urban development in the Spadina district of Toronto.

1,816 words () | 3 sources | MLA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper shows how, from its southern commercial areas to its northern residential neighborhoods, the Spadina District has been marked by an extraordinary level of social change and urban development in the past century and a half. The paper portrays how the urban development in this region has been primarily defined by a mixture of entrepreneurial activity interrelated with successive waves of immigrant residential settlement.

From the Paper:

"The drafting of a report on the history of urban development is the Spadina district (as covered by the Spadina Trail guides) is complicated by the diverse range of land uses, immigrant settlement, and intra-city migration that have defined development in the area over the past century and a half of time. The region of the Toronto between Front Street to the south and Bloor Street to the north, centering upon Spadina Avenue, is comprised of several distinct neighbourhoods which have experienced different development patterns over time. As this essay will argue, the history of urban development in this region has been primarily defined by a mixture of entrepreneurial activity interrelated with successive waves of immigrant residential settlement."

Sample of Sources Used:

Careless, J.M.S. Toronto To 1918: An Illustrated History.Toronto: James Lorimer and Company, 1984.
Gad, Gunter. Spadina Urban History Trail Parts I, II and II. Toronto: University of Toronto, 2006.
Lemon, James. Toronto Since 1918: An Illustrated History.Toronto: James Lorimer, 1985.