Trefann Court | |
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Neighbourhood | |
 View of Trefann Court along Queen Street East, west of Sumach Street | |
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| City | Toronto |
| Province |  Ontario |
| Country |  Canada |
Trefann Court is a small neighbourhood in the eastern part of downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north side of Queen Street between Parliament Street and River Street. It extends north only a short distance to Shuter St.
In the nineteenth century Trefann Court was considered a part of the Cabbagetown neighbourhood. It was a mix of industry, linked to the nearby harbour, and working class housing of mainly Irish immigrants. In the post-war years the government began an extensive program of demolishing what were then considered "slums." To the north much of Cabbagetown was leveled to create Regent Park and St. James Town, and to the west a large portion of Corktown was cleared for the Moss Park housing project.
A similar program was proposed for Trefann Court: demolition followed by the erection of a series of high-rise public housing projects. This plan was proposed in the 1950s, but delayed as the other nearby projects took priority. In 1966 the city finally moved to expropriate the homes. The 1,500 residents that then lived in the area were at first concerned about compensation. The city promised to pay market value for the properties, but would not guarantee new housing for the evicted residents. This was a grave concern for residents, as Toronto was then experiencing an acute housing shortage. The land value of the area had also been depressed by the almost decade long period of pending expropriation that had seen few interested in moving to the area.
A young law student named John Sewell was recruited to help the residents challenge city hall. Sewell quickly became the leader of the movement to halt the project, launching the political career that would see him become mayor of Toronto. Opposed to him was alderwoman June Rowlands, also a future mayor, who defended the need for rebuilding the neighbourhood.
Soon the campaign shifted from one for better compensation to one of preventing demolition entirely. The Don Mount project across the river and Dundas and Broadview has seen protests as residents refused to leave their homes and had to be evicted by police. Faced with widespread opposition in 1969 the city abandoned its plan to demolish Trefann Court.
Trefann Court was, along with the battle over the Spadina Expressway, one of the founding causes of the reform movement that would rise to prominence in Toronto in the 1970s. In 1969 Sewell was elected to city council for the area covering Trefann along with fellow reform advocate Karl Jaffary. Also elected in that election was David Crombie who would be elected mayor in 1972, an election that saw the reform faction gain control over city council.
Trefann Court thus marked the end of Toronto's urban renewal projects that saw neighbourhoods replaced with housing towers. It also changed how city planning operated in Toronto. In future, local residents would play a central role in all planning processes rather than having decisions dictated by the city government. Trefann Court was rebuilt as a mixed-use community with a mix of subsidized and market-geared properties. Most of the original buildings were retained and new structures were built to be in keeping with the neighbourhood. These lessons were later applied to the St. Lawrence neighbourhood to the south, one of the most successful examples of modern urban renewal.
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighted areas in inner cities to clear out slums and create opportunities for higher class housing, businesses, and other developments. In the United States the term technically refers only to a federal program in the middle-to-late 20th Century, but colloquially is sometimes used to refer to any large-scale change in urban development.
Cabbagetown is a neighbourhood in central Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Administratively, it is defined as part of the Cabbagetown-South St. Jamestown neighbourhood. It largely features semi-detached Victorian houses and is recognized as "the largest continuous area of preserved Victorian housing in all of North America", according to the Cabbagetown Preservation Association.
Regent Park is a neighbourhood located in downtown Toronto, Ontario built in the late 1940s as a public housing project managed by Toronto Community Housing. It sits on what used to be a significant part of the Cabbagetown neighbourhood and is bounded by Gerrard Street East to the north, River Street to the east, Shuter Street to the south and Parliament Street to the west. Regent Park's residential dwellings, prior to the ongoing redevelopment, were entirely social housing and covered all of the 69 acres (280,000 m²) which comprise the community. The original neighbourhood was razed in the process of creating Regent Park. The nickname Cabbagetown is now applied to the remaining historical, area north and west of the housing project, which has experienced considerable gentrification since the 1960s and 1970s.
John Sewell is a Canadian politician and lawyer who served as the 58th mayor of Toronto from 1978 to 1980.
St. Lawrence is a neighbourhood located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The area, a former industrial area, is bounded by Yonge, Front, and Parliament Streets, and the Canadian National railway embankment. The Esplanade off Yonge St., lined with restaurants, cafés and hotels runs through the middle of the area. In previous times, the area was sometimes referred to as 'St. Lawrence Ward' or more often today as 'St. Lawrence Market', synonymous with the large retail vendor market which is the neighbourhood's focal point. The area is the site of a large city-sponsored housing project of the 1970s, which revitalized an old brownfields area. The boundaries of the St Lawrence Neighbourhood Association and the St Lawrence Market BIA are somewhat larger than those noted above. Both groups have boundaries that extend from Yonge to Parliament Streets and Queen Street East to the rail corridor.
David Edward Crombie is a Canadian former academic and politician who served as the 56th mayor of Toronto from 1972 to 1978. Crombie was elected to Parliament following his tenure as mayor. A member of the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party, he served as minister of national health and welfare from 1979 to 1980, minister of Indian affairs and northern development from 1984 to 1986, and secretary of state for Canada from 1986 to 1988.
Toronto City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario. Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto. The current term began on November 15, 2022.
Spadina Avenue is one of the most prominent streets in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Running through the western section of downtown, the road has a very different character in different neighbourhoods.
William R. Allen Road, also known as Allen Road, the Allen Expressway and colloquially as the Allen, is a short expressway and arterial road in Toronto. It starts as a controlled-access expressway at Eglinton Avenue West, heading north to just south of Transit Road, then continues as an arterial road north to Kennard Avenue, where it continues as Dufferin Street. Allen Road is named after Metro Toronto chairman William R. Allen and is maintained by the City of Toronto. Landmarks along the road include the Lawrence Heights housing project, Yorkdale Shopping Centre and Downsview Park, and Downsview Airport. A section of the Line 1 Yonge–University subway is located within the median of the expressway from Eglinton Avenue to north of Wilson Avenue.
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The Ward was a neighbourhood in central Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Many new immigrants first settled in the neighbourhood; it was at the time widely considered a slum.
Municipal elections were held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on December 1, 1969. Across Metro Toronto there were few surprising results, and city of Toronto incumbent mayor William Dennison was easily re-elected. The one dramatic exception to this was on Toronto city council, where a number of long-standing members lost to young new arrivals who shared a common vision of opposition to the megaprojects that had transformed Toronto throughout the post-war period. While the reform movement candidate for mayor lost, it gained a strong presence on city council. The 1970s reform faction dominated Toronto politics for the next decade.
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