OnYongEStreet.com
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OnYongeStreet.com | Start your shopping here - Discounts, coupons, rebates, and more...
Description
It’s hard to imagine Toronto’s Yonge Street as anything other than a flourishing entertainment and business area, with flashing neon and electronic lights and an endless parade of people. This major street has been the main street of Toronto since the late 18th century, witnessing the evolution of our city. Enduring through wars and the Great Depression, it holds many untold stories of settlement and resettlement, lost silver mines and even gold rush fortunes.
The street was surveyed in 1793 by Lt. Col. John Graves Simcoe, who established a small detachment of the Queen’s Rangers at Holland Landing. He named the street after Sir George Yonge, Secretary at War. The problem of clearing the road, a major undertaking, was solved by making each settler of the land agree to clear six acres of land within 12 months, including a section of Yonge Street. Simcoe also forced convicted drunks, as part of their sentence, to remove tree stumps. The road was finally passable by 1816.
The face of the world’s longest street, almost 1,900 km long, has certainly changed many times over the last two centuries. In 1860, part of Yonge Street was known as "the ward". Immigrants crammed into this area and tried to make a living in the overpopulated streets. A tailor named Dunkleman came from the ward, and his small business developed into Tiptop Tailors. During the American Civil War Toronto’s economy started to grow, and stores such as Eaton’s and Simpson’s began to emerge. By 1939, the street had an awful reputation. Some unsavoury crowds were attracted by the taverns that lined the street.
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