Lost Neighbourhood: Blondin Avenue

[Lone Primate]

I remember the school buses to Pineway had to divert to Finch or (New) Cummer when access through Old Cummer was closed.

Wow, I wish I'd been there for that. I didn't find the bridge till sometime around 2006 or something, and even then, I had to look on a map to realize it hadn't been built for trail, but had once been part of the road system.

Anyone remember the houses down there? Must have been interesting at flood time. When did the houses pull out?

 

[Marmaly]

Wow, I wish I'd been there for that. I didn't find the bridge till sometime around 2006 or something, and even then, I had to look on a map to realize it hadn't been built for trail, but had once been part of the road system.

Anyone remember the houses down there? Must have been interesting at flood time. When did the houses pull out?

I lived just around the corner from 1968 through til 1990. In all that time I do not recall the river ever flooding much beyond its banks. The arch of the bridge is pretty much the limit of the size of the river at any time.

The houses were set back quite far and would not have been in any danger, They were only on the west side of Old Cummer and backed onto Snowcrest Avenue to the west.

There were only about 4 or 5 houses - all bungalows. The lots were about 60 feet wide and were all different in design. The lots were irregularly shaped and became deeper as Old Cummer moved east - further into the valley. I don't think that they predated the subdivision to the east, but it is possible. The area was not cleared before the houses were built. Large trees remained and the houses were built in behind them.

When they began to disappear it did not happen all at once. One or two were cleared in the mid-70's, then it took about 10 years before the last house was removed. I would say it was around 1984 or so when the last one was cleared.

The driveways were not removed - just the houses - so they should still be there under the brush and soil.

 

[genovesea]

History of Blondin Avenue

Sorry about the delay in responding. My mother would not appreciate my procrastination on this topic, considering how hard she worked for that neighbourhood.

Mom had detailed notes on this subject, but they weren't readily available when I searched for them, so I will attempt to recap the history from memory.....

Here we go.......

My parents moved us to the neighbourhood when I was about 2 years old. I guess that would make it around 1968 (.... I'm getting old).

At the time, Blondin Avenue was a busy road joining Weston Road & Wilson Avenue.
The road was often used as a shortcut by motorists making their way to & from the 400/401 Hwys.

The TTC had streetcar loop on the west end of Blondin Avenue, but I must admit I don't specifically remember these days. At some point, the TTC made a decision to change their service route, and the bus loop was vacated.

The community (my mother included) got very active in lobbying the municipality to have the road closed to traffic. They were successful, and from that point forward Blondin Avenue was a dead-end (or a "cul-de-sac", as my mother preferred to call it).

The vacant TTC land become a great spot to ride the bike and play games, unobstructed by the vehicles that once dominated that area.

I'm not sure of the timing of the next events, but the plaza on the west end began to grow. It hosted businesses including Toronto Dominion Bank, Angelina's Pizzeria, and of course, Mel Lastman's 'Bad Boy' store.

I'm sure everyone remembers that Mel Lastman went on to become the Mayor of Toronto (1997-2003) after the almagamation of the MegaCity. But in the early years he was building his furniture business, and was elected to the North York board of Control in 1969.

By 1972, Mel Lastman was elected as Mayor of the city of North York (1972-1997).
In his role as Mayor of North York, Mel would find himself caught in a fight against the community of Blondin Avenue. This community was not going to allow the plan for corporate development.

My mother was the Vice President of the North York Ratepayers Association.
In this role, she would rally the neighbours to speak as a unified voice against any development that would negatively impact the 30+ residents of Blondin Avenue.

The biggest challenge was the multi-story parking garage and office building that was proposed for that neighbourhood.

It was not uncommon to have meetings in our basement where the neighbours would organize their defense against the plans for re-zoning and corporate development.

Month after month, year after year, and with each council meeting, the residents would hold strong. Sometimes these events would even get televised by Rogers Cable 10 news

It must have been around 1988 when the 30+ properties were expropriated. The city had finally succeeded in removing these united neighbours, who relentlessly stood in the path of progress

One hold-out property remained in place because he was visually impaired, and was not willing to relocate.

I believe it was the Sobara Development group that purchased the land for re-development. But the housing bubble burst around that time, so that might have caused the delays for redevelopment.

In the end, I believe the homeowners did ok. I can't say the same about the developer

 

[can332]

CNE ramp - The unused small off ramp from the Gardiner into the CNE was used up to about the mid 80s - I'm relying on memory here. There were a series of booths where they would take your parking and admission money (they counted up the number of folks in the car - how quaint - and you and your car and passengers would be admitted.

Another interesting note regarding the ramp from the eastbound Gardiner into the CNE grounds was that it required the closure of the normal ramp from westbound Lakeshore to eastbound Gardiner. Traffic would travel in the uphill direction, "the wrong way", to the CNE parking lot at the top of the hill.

 

[Lone Primate]

One hold-out property remained in place because he was visually impaired, and was not willing to relocate.

Seems to me I was by there a month or two ago and that house seems to have finally been removed. It was sad to see, but on the other hand, kind of exciting because it suggests they may be finally ready to move ahead with plans to develop the block... along with the fact that the showroom down where the mall used to be also looks to have disappeared (I think?). Anyone heard anything?

 

[Lone Primate]

This is the only house still remaining on the south side of Walsh, #35... August 2007.

And March 2012.

The whole place is fenced in, even Blondin Avenue. The showplace down at Weston and Walsh is gone as well. At a guess, I'd say someone's serious about developing the block at last.

 

[Luciana]

First of all thank you so much for posting these pictures. My parents bought their first home on Wilson Ave., 3rd house from the corner of Wilson and Blondin, at 2024. There were 2 sets of semi-detached homes, 2022-2024, 2026-2028 Wilson. It was after 2028 that Blondin began and ended at Weston Rd.

My teen years were spent in this neighbourhood until I was 18 and then got married. My parents bought their home in 1962 when I had just turned 12. Great times, great memories!!!

To see the pics you've posted here makes me very sad. It feels like our existence never happened, it feels like it was only a dream. The photos show empty areas with no life. How sad.

Right across the street from our home was a small street named Nubana Ave. In fact one of my brothers rescued the sign before they tore everything down. It is perched in my parents back yard today. I went to our home before it was torn down and ripped the house number off and still have it today.

The story from my knowledge is that approximately one year after my parents sold our house {1975} a developer approached all the owners in that whole block - Wilson, right up to Weston, Blondin, Nubana, and Walsh and made them all offers they couldn't refuse {not to steal the phrase from the Godfather} at least that's what it seemed. My parents sold their house for $55,000 which was a reasonable amount for that time and that area, while the developer offered $300,000 to each homeowner. I can say my parents really missed out on that deal. There was only one person who stood firm and refused to sell that was living on Walsh Ave. I see from the photos posted that the house still stands.

The developers intentions, so it is said, was they were going to build condos and townhouses on the block. Rumor has it that they were never given the right to develop what they wanted because the building height was not accepted because that area is right in line for planes flying in and out of Pearson Airport. How true this is, I don't know but that's what has been told to me.

I miss the old neighbourhood, the people. I used to go down and hang out on the little hill on the 401. Of course that was before the 401 was widened and fences were put up. I also hung out at the railroad track on Wilson just before turning into Walsh so I could see the trains go by. There was always a rush in my body listening to the sound of the train and the power behind all that metal. Often the engineers would blow the whistle and wave. I always asked myself "where are the people going to or where are they coming from?" I always wondered if I could get on one and ride until there was no more rail at the end of the road. It was a fantasy that left me in love with trains.

Another thing I did often was go to the small plaza on Weston Rd at the end of Blondin and sit for long hours at a time in the small restaurant that was there. I had coffee like a real adult and then continuously put my money in the jukebox and played the same song over and over again, Bob Dylan - "Like a Rolling Stone". I think the owner was praying every day that i wouldn't come in any more, he had asked me several times if there wasn't another song that I would rather play. Always my answer was "no". My memories are many. My friend and her brothers and my brothers and I would go down to the Humber River and build forts and play down there for hours during the summer months. One year there were some trouble makers that tried to break our fort down. They went after my younger brother but we managed to get away unscathed. However, not 20 minutes after leaving the area to our safe homes, we saw smoke and heard the sound of fire engines. We all went back to Weston only to see the wooded area were we had been was on fire. Our conclusion was that those who chased us away set our fort on fire. Couldn't have been any other reason. We never spoke of it since that day...until now as I write this post.

My older brother had a band. They practiced in our home for the gigs they got, most were at high school dances. They also practiced outside in our back yard with their speakers on. The neighbours loved it. No one complained. The neighbourhood was truly neighbours living together enjoying themselves and being close-knit. Everyone watched out for everyone else's kids. The kids in our neighbourhood had more than one set of parents. Every adult in the radius of those streets, which are now deserted and overgrown with weeds and shrubs, were parents to all the kids. We all, yes, even the kids, watched out for each other.

My little recollection of stories may not be of any interest to anyone else but for me to recount them here was very important. It is important that those who see these pictures and read some stories that people may recount understand that once there was life at Wilson, Blondin, Walsh, and Weston Road.

I thank you again for posting these photos and giving me a venue to blog a few of my memories of my life at 2024 Wilson Avenue.

 

[Luciana]

Wow!! I had forgotten about Mel Lastman and Bad Boy's

I remember the original Bad Boy store in that plaza on weston rd. I remember Mel himself dressing up in a black and white stripped costume and riding around the local streets in a mock jail cell on a trailer pulled by one of his delivery vans. I also recall a large white two story house on the west side of weston rd. directly accross from the plaza. Boy I'm feeling old!

I remember seeing him dressed in his black and white prisoner stripes being driven around in a cage like he was in a prison box. LOL that was funny but hey it worked for him!!

 

[Luciana]

Ineresting

I drive by there every day for work and never knew about those roads. It looks like nature is taking back what development once stole.[/QUOTE]

Interesting how true your comment is!!!

 

[Mustapha]

First of all thank you so much for posting these pictures. My parents bought their first home on Wilson Ave., 3rd house from the corner of Wilson and Blondin, at 2024. There were 2 sets of semi-detached homes, 2022-2024, 2026-2028 Wilson. It was after 2028 that Blondin began and ended at Weston Rd.

My teen years were spent in this neighbourhood until I was 18 and then got married. My parents bought their home in 1962 when I had just turned 12. Great times, great memories!!!

To see the pics you've posted here makes me very sad. It feels like our existence never happened, it feels like it was only a dream. The photos show empty areas with no life. How sad.

Right across the street from our home was a small street named Nubana Ave. In fact one of my brothers rescued the sign before they tore everything down. It is perched in my parents back yard today. I went to our home before it was torn down and ripped the house number off and still have it today.

The story from my knowledge is that approximately one year after my parents sold our house {1975} a developer approached all the owners in that whole block - Wilson, right up to Weston, Blondin, Nubana, and Walsh and made them all offers they couldn't refuse {not to steal the phrase from the Godfather} at least that's what it seemed. My parents sold their house for $55,000 which was a reasonable amount for that time and that area, while the developer offered $300,000 to each homeowner. I can say my parents really missed out on that deal. There was only one person who stood firm and refused to sell that was living on Walsh Ave. I see from the photos posted that the house still stands.

The developers intentions, so it is said, was they were going to build condos and townhouses on the block. Rumor has it that they were never given the right to develop what they wanted because the building height was not accepted because that area is right in line for planes flying in and out of Pearson Airport. How true this is, I don't know but that's what has been told to me.

I miss the old neighbourhood, the people. I used to go down and hang out on the little hill on the 401. Of course that was before the 401 was widened and fences were put up. I also hung out at the railroad track on Wilson just before turning into Walsh so I could see the trains go by. There was always a rush in my body listening to the sound of the train and the power behind all that metal. Often the engineers would blow the whistle and wave. I always asked myself "where are the people going to or where are they coming from?" I always wondered if I could get on one and ride until there was no more rail at the end of the road. It was a fantasy that left me in love with trains.

Another thing I did often was go to the small plaza on Weston Rd at the end of Blondin and sit for long hours at a time in the small restaurant that was there. I had coffee like a real adult and then continuously put my money in the jukebox and played the same song over and over again, Bob Dylan - "Like a Rolling Stone". I think the owner was praying every day that i wouldn't come in any more, he had asked me several times if there wasn't another song that I would rather play. Always my answer was "no". My memories are many. My friend and her brothers and my brothers and I would go down to the Humber River and build forts and play down there for hours during the summer months. One year there were some trouble makers that tried to break our fort down. They went after my younger brother but we managed to get away unscathed. However, not 20 minutes after leaving the area to our safe homes, we saw smoke and heard the sound of fire engines. We all went back to Weston only to see the wooded area were we had been was on fire. Our conclusion was that those who chased us away set our fort on fire. Couldn't have been any other reason. We never spoke of it since that day...until now as I write this post.

My older brother had a band. They practiced in our home for the gigs they got, most were at high school dances. They also practiced outside in our back yard with their speakers on. The neighbours loved it. No one complained. The neighbourhood was truly neighbours living together enjoying themselves and being close-knit. Everyone watched out for everyone else's kids. The kids in our neighbourhood had more than one set of parents. Every adult in the radius of those streets, which are now deserted and overgrown with weeds and shrubs, were parents to all the kids. We all, yes, even the kids, watched out for each other.

My little recollection of stories may not be of any interest to anyone else but for me to recount them here was very important. It is important that those who see these pictures and read some stories that people may recount understand that once there was life at Wilson, Blondin, Walsh, and Weston Road.

I thank you again for posting these photos and giving me a venue to blog a few of my memories of my life at 2024 Wilson Avenue.

I really enjoyed reading this, thank you Luciana.

 

[Luciana]

I really enjoyed reading this, thank you Luciana.

You're welcome. I enjoyed reminiscing of good days and good times. There was real life in that area and I have promised myself the next time I am in the city I will go to visit the old neighbourhood. I just hope I won't begin to cry when I actually see the devestation in person.

 

[Lone Primate]

You're welcome. I enjoyed reminiscing of good days and good times. There was real life in that area and I have promised myself the next time I am in the city I will go to visit the old neighbourhood. I just hope I won't begin to cry when I actually see the devestation in person.

Oh, Luciana, thanks so much for sharing all that. It's magnificent. Thank you for making the place real for me, for us. I'm always fascinated by places that have been and gone. But for me, I'm just seeing the "gone". I'm missing the other end and I yearn to know what it was like when it was still a "place". You've just given us that. I've been there four or five times and it's just been wistful imaginings. You filled all that in with such living colour.

I envy you the ability to go back there and see it for what it was. I hope you do go back, and maybe share your impressions with us. Seeing our pictures can't be a strong as being there, measuring it with your eyes and sizing it all up again.

 

[Luciana]

Oh, Luciana, thanks so much for sharing all that. It's magnificent. Thank you for making the place real for me, for us. I'm always fascinated by places that have been and gone. But for me, I'm just seeing the "gone". I'm missing the other end and I yearn to know what it was like when it was still a "place". You've just given us that. I've been there four or five times and it's just been wistful imaginings. You filled all that in with such living colour.

I envy you the ability to go back there and see it for what it was. I hope you do go back, and maybe share your impressions with us. Seeing our pictures can't be a strong as being there, measuring it with your eyes and sizing it all up again.

Thank you Lone

It's very easy to put on paper {lol computer} what is so vivid in one's mind. If you remember the good times they can always be bright and "colour"-ful. It was sweet back then. So many memories from Blondin and that whole block to Weston and Finch, To Jane and Wilson, even to Keele and Weston and Lawrence. That was my stomping grounds as a teenager and loved every moment of those years. What a rush to go back there in my mind!!!! I have to thank you and those who have contributed to this blog and have awakened the juices of my memories.

I will be going to the city for sure by the 27th or 28 of July and definitely will be stopping by the area. Hopefully I can take some good pics too.

Will have to try to dig through some of my parents photos to see if they have some good shots of the old place.

Take care and thanks for your wonderful post to me. I am happy to have given you and others a picture with life rather than emptiness in the neighbourhood.

 

[smitty9999]

Thank you Lone

It's very easy to put on paper {lol computer} what is so vivid in one's mind. If you remember the good times they can always be bright and "colour"-ful. It was sweet back then. So many memories from Blondin and that whole block to Weston and Finch, To Jane and Wilson, even to Keele and Weston and Lawrence. That was my stomping grounds as a teenager and loved every moment of those years. What a rush to go back there in my mind!!!! I have to thank you and those who have contributed to this blog and have awakened the juices of my memories.

I will be going to the city for sure by the 27th or 28 of July and definitely will be stopping by the area. Hopefully I can take some good pics too.

Will have to try to dig through some of my parents photos to see if they have some good shots of the old place.

Take care and thanks for your wonderful post to me. I am happy to have given you and others a picture with life rather than emptiness in the neighbourhood.

Hello,

I live at Jane / Wilson and I have lived here since 1988 (I'm 29). I really enjoyed your story about growing up in the area as I can picture everything you mentioned. I barely remember the plaza at the corner of Weston / Walsh / Albion but I know it existed; the orange / black pizza sign sticks out to me.

 

[Luciana]

Hello,

I live at Jane / Wilson and I have lived here since 1988 (I'm 29). I really enjoyed your story about growing up in the area as I can picture everything you mentioned. I barely remember the plaza at the corner of Weston / Walsh / Albion but I know it existed; the orange / black pizza sign sticks out to me.

Thank you Smitty

Looking forward to going to the old neighbourhood to check the damage done by so called "developers". I bet if that place had been left alone, it would have still been the same and still had many families living in the area, enjoying life. Instead now it sits an empty lot with nothing but bushes and weeds growing on it. No children growing up on that block any more. I keep using the word "sad" to explain how I feel but it somehow doesn't really reflect what I'm feeling inside. Perhaps the words will come when I actually see the place with my own eyes. Thanks for your comment. Glad I was able to paint some memories for your experiences there.