Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Kingdom of Stark (Union St.)

[caption id="attachment_3112" align="alignright" width="500" caption="An example of the daily view at the various Stark enterprises on Union ST."]An example of the daily view at the various Stark enterprizes on Union ST.[/caption]


Stark Auto Parts   a automobile wrecking (wholesale) of  motor vehicle parts, used parts, and insurance cars sales firm operates a very busy operation on Union St.  Daily it's  a sight to see with cars being carried around on forklifts and a constant flow of tow trucks bringing and taking cars.

Operating primarily in the dead end space of Union St north from Turnberry Ave, the street is  full of vehciles during the day and in the evening in it is barren.

This operation is quite a show to watch - encompassing the street and creating a great energy in the area during it's operating hours.

Where thick soled shoes when expolring the area :-)

9 comments:

  1. Union Street and Stark Auto Parts are actually located in Ward 17. That's a "No-Name" area according to the Toronto Star's Neighbourhood map. Are you claiming it as part of the Junction?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Claiming it as part of the Junction? No I was not attempting to do that, but one of the goals of the blog is to cover West Toronto Industry

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was going to criticize the Star's map of neighbourhoods, but they've recently made changes to the map, and now my part of the Junction in the north has been acknowledged. I think this could also be claimed as part of the Junction as it was in the distant past. But I don't think that anyone north of St. Clair actually associates it with the Junction.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think The West Toronto Historical Society thinks this is pat of the Junction, I always have thought it was. Hey and it houses the glass bottle plant (although I don't know if they make glass bottles anymore) that used to be on Vine Ave.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You would think that one of these neighbourhoods would want to claim the area, if only to claim Heydon House (1834), one of the oldest buildings on St Clair West. Does anyone know how the name Harwood came about for the former Stockyards area? Junction, Carlton Village, Earlscourt and Silverthorn are pretty self-explanatory for the Star neighbourhood names.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The blog is getting a lot of emails that this area IS part of the Junction, i do know for a fact the WTJHS thinks the Heydon House (1834) is in the Junction.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Regarding Harwood:
    -This is a neighbourhood that didn't extend to St. Clair, but must have recently been extended to include the compact subdivision built on the former Canada Packers lands. This was also land that was within West Toronto.
    -the former stockyards area is south of St. Clair, and is not called Harwood. This was a major industrial area for West Toronto, and is included in the Junction. There's even a "West Toronto Street" in the former stockyards area.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The WTJHS generally considers the Junction to be the boundaries of the City of West Toronto in 1909: http://wtjhs.ca/jmap2.gif These boundaries include neighbourhoods which have emerged more recently, such as Bloor West Village, which despite being a fairly new creation, definitely counts as a genuine neighbourhood.

    The industrial area north of the tracks includes (or has included) many businesses which have been run by or which employed Junction citizens who lived further south, near Dundas or Annette, or over by the western part of Davenport.

    Of course, this is just one way of defining the Junction. The JRA map considers the area's boundary to stop at the tracks, but actually continues it NW of Runnymede & Annette, into an area which was historically a different neighbourhood altogether: http://junctionra.wik.is/Our_coverage_area

    I don't think there is really a definitively "correct" way of defining a Toronto neighbourhood, especially as people's perceptions change as businesses come and go and new urban developments arrive.

    ReplyDelete
  9. A residents group can set whatever boundaries they want, but that map cannot represent the Junction as it doesn't even include anything east of Keele.

    ReplyDelete