A former horse racetrack became one of Canada's densest neighbourhoods
East York
Formed from the 1967 merger of a working-class township and the town of Leaside, East York packed one of the country's densest high-rise communities into its small footprint before merging into Toronto in 1998.
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East York was the smallest of the six municipalities absorbed into Toronto's 1998 amalgamation, but it packs in one of the most demographically striking neighbourhoods anywhere in the country.
A working-class township, then a merger with Leaside
East York Township was incorporated in 1924, originally settled largely by working-class English immigrants from Lancashire and Yorkshire. In 1967 it merged with the separate town of Leaside — founded by James Lea in 1819 and incorporated in 1913 — to form the Borough of East York, split by the Don River Valley into the working-class township lands on one side and the more affluent Leaside on the other.
Thorncliffe Park: from racetrack to one of Canada's densest neighbourhoods
Thorncliffe Park was, until 1952, home to a horse racetrack. When it closed, the land was sold to developers and became one of Toronto's first purpose-built high-rise apartment neighbourhoods — and it remains today one of the largest and most densely populated high-rise communities in Canada, as well as one of its most multicultural, a striking contrast with the low-density suburban character of the borough surrounding it.
Amalgamation
The Borough of East York was dissolved on January 1, 1998, merging with Scarborough, Etobicoke, York, North York and old Toronto — see our full amalgamation history and our guides to the other former municipalities for the wider context.
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