Malvern, Toronto
Encyclopedia
Malvern is a neighbourhood in Toronto
, Ontario
, Canada, with a population of 44,315. It is located in the northeast corner of the city, in the district of Scarborough
. Scarborough was merged with five other municipalities and a regional government to form the new City of Toronto in 1998. There are over 60 different cultures represented in Malvern, with the most dominant ethnic groups being Black Canadians (mostly Jamaica
n) and South Asian Canadians
(mostly Sri Lankan Tamil and Pakistan
i). There are also a sizeable number of Filipinos
, many of whom speak Tagalog
. The neighbourhood has the highest concentration of young people in Canada.
Although Malvern has had a negative reputation as a community plagued with violence, conditions in the community have been improving following Project Impact. Hundreds of officers from the Greater Toronto Area
cracked down on known associates of the "Malvern Crew" street gang in early morning raids across the city on May 12, 2004. During the raids, 71 warrants were executed resulting in the arrest of 65 people. Later raids, and the implementation of Project Pathfinder would result in arrests of the Malvern Crew's rival gang, the "Galloway Boys", in West Hill
.
Other important factors that have contributed to the improvement of living conditions in the community include the major renovation of the Malvern Branch of the Toronto Public Library
, the construction of new housing developments in the neighbourhood, the opening of a new park in 2004, and the opening of the Nike Malvern Sports Complex in 2006. The Toronto Zoo
, the Rouge River, and the Rouge Valley Park
are also located in Malvern, as was Mammoth Hall, a wooden structure that was once a municipal office, meeting hall and curling
rink. Also, the Malvern Community Coalition
serves as an active incorporated, non-profit, grassroots community organization which exists to promote and enhance the Malvern Community by engaging, empowering, and connecting community, organizations and institutions.
The history of Malvern began in 1856, when the Malvern Post Office was opened in David Brown's general store, which stood at the south-east corner of Finch Avenue
and Markham Road. This post office was named after a resort town in England. A year after the post office was opened, Senator David Reesor — formerly of Markham Village — began selling "Village Lots" in Malvern. Reesor trumpeted Malvern as the future "Capital of Scarborough," anticipating that the Grand Trunk Railway
would extend a branch line through here. Unfortunately, when the Grand Trunk Railway began service to this area in 1871, it bypassed Malvern in favour of the neighbouring village of Agincourt
. The village centre and post office had by that time moved south to the corner of today's Sheppard Avenue
and Markham Road. The Malvern Primitive Methodist Church on the east side of Markham Road north of Sheppard disappeared in the 1970s, but the graves remain today in the care of the Toronto United Church Council.
While Malvern never did become a prosperous railway centre, it flourished as a farming community for over one hundred years. In the late 1950s, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation expropriated Malvern's farms to build a "model community" of affordable homes. The first residents of this modern day Malvern community moved into their homes in 1972.
The former S.S. #3 Schoolhouse, serving the Malvern area, built in 1872 stood on 1 acres (4,046.9 m²) of land purchased from George Pearson, is still standing today at 5810 Finch Avenue East, and is now a private school named Whitefield Christian Academy. Modern community hubs include: the Malvern Town Centre shopping mall, built in the late 1980s, the local public high school - Lester B. Pearson C.I.
, the local Catholic high school - Blessed Mother Teresa C.S.S.
, and the Malvern Recreation Centre. Confusingly, the Toronto high school known as Malvern Collegiate Institute
has no connection to the Malvern neighbourhood, being located many miles to the southwest in the Beaches
neighbourhood.
(TTC) bus routes (131 Nugget, 132 Milner, 133 Neilson, 134 Progress, 39 Finch East, 116 Morningside, 85 Sheppard East, and 102 Markham). In the 1980s, there was a plan to bring rapid transit to Malvern by extending the TTC's Scarborough Rapid Transit line, but lack of government funding prevented any extension of the line. In August 2006, city councillors representing Scarborough rallied for the expansion of the Scarborough RT, or its possible light rail
replacement, to the Malvern community.
.
In 2006, a study was completed on the prospects of this line. It recommended upgrading the line to handle larger ART
Mark II vehicles, at a cost of $360 million (2006 dollars). Extending the Bloor–Danforth line (either along the current Scarborough RT route, or along a different alignment directly to Scarborough Centre
) was not considered cost-effective or justifiable.
On June 15, 2007, the Ontario government had released MoveOntario 2020
, a plan that would fund 52 different transit projects throughout Toronto
and Hamilton
for the cost of $17.5 billion, including the Scarborough RT extension to Sheppard Avenue
, which would meet the proposed Sheppard East LRT
line, also to be funded by MoveOntario 2020. Unfortunately, in a 2010 budget release, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty
had chosen to postpone necessary funding for the project.
plan, would run for 15 km, estimated to account for 14 million trips in 2021. The southern terminus of the line would be built at Kennedy Station
at Kennedy Road and Eglinton Avenue
, with a connection to the Bloor-Danforth subway, the Scarborough RT, and the Eglinton Crosstown LRT line. The whole line would be built within Scarborough. The line would run along Eglinton Avenue East until it reaches Kingston Road
, then continues northeast until Morningside Avenue is reached, then continues north until Sheppard Avenue East, where it turns west, sharing the same tracks and stops as in the Sheppard East LRT line. Finally, the line turns north at Neilson Road, terminating at Malvern Town Centre.
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada, with a population of 44,315. It is located in the northeast corner of the city, in the district of Scarborough
Scarborough, Ontario
Scarborough is a dissolved municipality within the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Geographically, it comprises the eastern part of Toronto. It is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the west by Victoria Park Avenue, on the north by Steeles Avenue East, and on the east by the Rouge River...
. Scarborough was merged with five other municipalities and a regional government to form the new City of Toronto in 1998. There are over 60 different cultures represented in Malvern, with the most dominant ethnic groups being Black Canadians (mostly Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
n) and South Asian Canadians
Indo-Canadians
Indo-Canadians are Canadians whose origins trace back to India. The terms East Indian and South Asian are used to distinguish people of ancestral origin from India, from the First Nations peoples of Canada who are often referred to as Indian, and from the people of the Caribbean, who are sometimes...
(mostly Sri Lankan Tamil and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i). There are also a sizeable number of Filipinos
Filipino Canadian
Filipino Canadians are Canadians of Filipino ancestry. Filipino-Canadians are the fourth-largest subgroup of the Overseas Filipinos.Canada only had a small population of Filipinos until the late 20th century. To date, there are currently around 400,000 Filipino Canadians in Canada, most of them...
, many of whom speak Tagalog
Tagalog language
Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila...
. The neighbourhood has the highest concentration of young people in Canada.
Although Malvern has had a negative reputation as a community plagued with violence, conditions in the community have been improving following Project Impact. Hundreds of officers from the Greater Toronto Area
Greater Toronto Area
The Greater Toronto Area is the largest metropolitan area in Canada, with a 2006 census population of 5.5 million. The Greater Toronto Area is usually defined as the central city of Toronto, along with four regional municipalities surrounding it: Durham, Halton, Peel, and York...
cracked down on known associates of the "Malvern Crew" street gang in early morning raids across the city on May 12, 2004. During the raids, 71 warrants were executed resulting in the arrest of 65 people. Later raids, and the implementation of Project Pathfinder would result in arrests of the Malvern Crew's rival gang, the "Galloway Boys", in West Hill
West Hill, Toronto
-Location and principal features:It is located in the eastern end of the city, in the former city of Scarborough. Scarborough was merged with five other municipalities and a regional government to form the new "City of Toronto" in 1998...
.
Other important factors that have contributed to the improvement of living conditions in the community include the major renovation of the Malvern Branch of the Toronto Public Library
Toronto Public Library
Toronto Public Library is a public library system based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest public library system in Canada and in 2008, had averaged a higher...
, the construction of new housing developments in the neighbourhood, the opening of a new park in 2004, and the opening of the Nike Malvern Sports Complex in 2006. The Toronto Zoo
Toronto Zoo
The Toronto Zoo is a zoo located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It opened August 15, 1974 as the Metropolitan Toronto Zoo and is owned by the City of Toronto; the word "Metropolitan" was dropped from its name when the cities of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto were amalgamated to form the...
, the Rouge River, and the Rouge Valley Park
Rouge Park
Rouge Park will become an urban national park located along the border of Toronto and Pickering, Ontario, Canada. It will be Canada's first national park within a municipality....
are also located in Malvern, as was Mammoth Hall, a wooden structure that was once a municipal office, meeting hall and curling
Curling
Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a...
rink. Also, the Malvern Community Coalition
Malvern Community Coalition
The Malvern Community Coalition was started in May 2003 following concern about incidents of youth violence in Malvern, Toronto.The purpose of this Malvern Initiative was to establish a partnership of community members, organizations, companies and leaders to address the issues of youth violence...
serves as an active incorporated, non-profit, grassroots community organization which exists to promote and enhance the Malvern Community by engaging, empowering, and connecting community, organizations and institutions.
History
Finch Avenue
Finch Avenue is an arterial thoroughfare and concession road which travels east–west through the city of Toronto. The road also has short extensions into Peel and Durham Regions as Peel Regional Road 2 and Durham Regional Road 37.-History:...
and Markham Road. This post office was named after a resort town in England. A year after the post office was opened, Senator David Reesor — formerly of Markham Village — began selling "Village Lots" in Malvern. Reesor trumpeted Malvern as the future "Capital of Scarborough," anticipating that the Grand Trunk Railway
Grand Trunk Railway
The Grand Trunk Railway was a railway system which operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, as well as the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The railway was operated from headquarters in Montreal, Quebec; however, corporate...
would extend a branch line through here. Unfortunately, when the Grand Trunk Railway began service to this area in 1871, it bypassed Malvern in favour of the neighbouring village of Agincourt
Agincourt, Toronto
Agincourt is a very diverse neighbourhood in the Scarborough district of the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is centred along Sheppard Avenue between Kennedy and Markham Roads...
. The village centre and post office had by that time moved south to the corner of today's Sheppard Avenue
Sheppard Avenue
Sheppard Avenue is an east-west principal arterial road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A small portion of a continuation of the road in Pickering, Ontario is also called Sheppard Avenue.-History:...
and Markham Road. The Malvern Primitive Methodist Church on the east side of Markham Road north of Sheppard disappeared in the 1970s, but the graves remain today in the care of the Toronto United Church Council.
While Malvern never did become a prosperous railway centre, it flourished as a farming community for over one hundred years. In the late 1950s, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation expropriated Malvern's farms to build a "model community" of affordable homes. The first residents of this modern day Malvern community moved into their homes in 1972.
The former S.S. #3 Schoolhouse, serving the Malvern area, built in 1872 stood on 1 acres (4,046.9 m²) of land purchased from George Pearson, is still standing today at 5810 Finch Avenue East, and is now a private school named Whitefield Christian Academy. Modern community hubs include: the Malvern Town Centre shopping mall, built in the late 1980s, the local public high school - Lester B. Pearson C.I.
Lester B. Pearson Collegiate Institute
Lester B. Pearson C.I is a public high school in Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; which teaches grades 9 through 12. LBP is located at 150 Tapscott Road. It is located across from Malvern Town Centre and can be easily accessed by various TTC bus routes...
, the local Catholic high school - Blessed Mother Teresa C.S.S.
Blessed Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School
Blessed Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School is a Catholic secondary school in Scarborough, a municipality of Toronto, Ontario. It is part of the Toronto Catholic District School Board.-History and tradition:...
, and the Malvern Recreation Centre. Confusingly, the Toronto high school known as Malvern Collegiate Institute
Malvern Collegiate Institute
Malvern Collegiate Institute is a Toronto high school that was founded in 1903 as "East Toronto High School", in what was then the village of East Toronto...
has no connection to the Malvern neighbourhood, being located many miles to the southwest in the Beaches
The Beaches
The Beaches is a neighbourhood and popular tourist destination located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the east side of the "Old" City of Toronto. The original boundaries of the neighbourhood are from Fallingbrook Avenue on the east to Kingston Road on the north, to Woodbine Avenue...
neighbourhood.
Public transit
Malvern is served by several Toronto Transit CommissionToronto Transit Commission
-Island Ferry:The ferry service to the Toronto Islands was operated by the TTC from 1927 until 1962, when it was transferred to the Metro Parks and Culture department. Since 1998, the ferry service is run by Toronto Parks and Recreation.-Gray Coach:...
(TTC) bus routes (131 Nugget, 132 Milner, 133 Neilson, 134 Progress, 39 Finch East, 116 Morningside, 85 Sheppard East, and 102 Markham). In the 1980s, there was a plan to bring rapid transit to Malvern by extending the TTC's Scarborough Rapid Transit line, but lack of government funding prevented any extension of the line. In August 2006, city councillors representing Scarborough rallied for the expansion of the Scarborough RT, or its possible light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
replacement, to the Malvern community.
Scarborough RT extension to Malvern
The TTC is currently carrying assessing extending the RT from McCowan to Malvern Town Centre. They have also made a motion that the current study should include the addition of a station where the existing line crosses Brimley RoadBrimley Road
Brimley Road is a north-south street in Scarborough and York Region, Ontario, Canada. The road carries 32000 vehicles daily as of May 2007 and is classified as a major arterial road by the city of Toronto....
.
In 2006, a study was completed on the prospects of this line. It recommended upgrading the line to handle larger ART
Bombardier Advanced Rapid Transit
Advanced Rapid Transit or ART is the current name given to a rapid transit system manufactured by Bombardier Transportation. The original versions look like small subway cars that typically run in two-, four- or six-car trains, but the latest versions are more streamlined two-car articulated...
Mark II vehicles, at a cost of $360 million (2006 dollars). Extending the Bloor–Danforth line (either along the current Scarborough RT route, or along a different alignment directly to Scarborough Centre
Scarborough Centre (TTC)
Scarborough Centre is a station on the Scarborough RT line of the Toronto subway and RT. It is located north of Ellesmere Road between Brimley and McCowan Roads, just south of Highway 401...
) was not considered cost-effective or justifiable.
On June 15, 2007, the Ontario government had released MoveOntario 2020
MoveOntario 2020
MoveOntario 2020 is a plan proposed by the Government of Ontario that would fund 52 rapid-transit projects throughout the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area in Ontario, Canada.-History:...
, a plan that would fund 52 different transit projects throughout Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
and Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
for the cost of $17.5 billion, including the Scarborough RT extension to Sheppard Avenue
Sheppard Avenue
Sheppard Avenue is an east-west principal arterial road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A small portion of a continuation of the road in Pickering, Ontario is also called Sheppard Avenue.-History:...
, which would meet the proposed Sheppard East LRT
Sheppard East LRT (TTC)
The Sheppard East LRT was a planned light rail line that was cancelled during construction in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as part of the scrapped Transit City proposal announced March 16, 2007. It was to be operated by the Toronto Transit Commission. Metrolinx had budgeted $944.5 million from 2009...
line, also to be funded by MoveOntario 2020. Unfortunately, in a 2010 budget release, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty
Dalton McGuinty
Dalton James Patrick McGuinty, Jr., MPP is a Canadian lawyer, politician and, since October 23, 2003, the 24th and current Premier of the Canadian province of Ontario....
had chosen to postpone necessary funding for the project.
Scarborough Malvern LRT
The Scarborough Malvern LRT line, part of the TTC's Transit CityTransit City
Transit City was a plan for developing public transport in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was first proposed and announced by then-Toronto Mayor David Miller and Chair of the Toronto Transit Commission Adam Giambrone on March 16, 2007...
plan, would run for 15 km, estimated to account for 14 million trips in 2021. The southern terminus of the line would be built at Kennedy Station
Kennedy (TTC)
Kennedy is the terminal subway station of the Bloor-Danforth and Scarborough RT lines of the Toronto subway and RT. It is located at 2455 Eglinton Avenue East, just east of Kennedy Road. The station opened in 1980 in what was then the Borough of Scarborough with the Bloor-Danforth platform, and the...
at Kennedy Road and Eglinton Avenue
Eglinton Avenue
Eglinton Avenue, originally known as the Richview Sideroad within Etobicoke, is an east-west arterial thoroughfare in Toronto and Mississauga, in the Canadian province of Ontario. Within Toronto, Eglinton Avenue is the only road which crosses through all six former boroughs...
, with a connection to the Bloor-Danforth subway, the Scarborough RT, and the Eglinton Crosstown LRT line. The whole line would be built within Scarborough. The line would run along Eglinton Avenue East until it reaches Kingston Road
Kingston Road (Toronto)
Kingston Road is the southernmost major road along the eastern portion of Toronto, specifically in the districts of East York and Scarborough. Until 1998, it formed a significant portion of Highway 2...
, then continues northeast until Morningside Avenue is reached, then continues north until Sheppard Avenue East, where it turns west, sharing the same tracks and stops as in the Sheppard East LRT line. Finally, the line turns north at Neilson Road, terminating at Malvern Town Centre.