page_title: Sunnyside, Toronto
section_title: Infilling builds a waterfront
hierarchical_section_title: Sunnyside, Toronto / History / Infilling builds a waterfront
caption_attribution_description: English: A possible plan for Sunnyside in 1914. The waterfront promenade was not built and a natural beach built. The railway station was different
context_page_description: Sunnyside is a lakefront district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It includes a beach and park area along Lake Ontario's Humber Bay, from west of Exhibition Place to the mouth of the Humber River. The area has several recreation uses, including rowing clubs, sports clubs, picnic areas, playgrounds, a nightclub, a bathing pavilion and public pool. The area is a 3 kilometres long strip along the lakeshore, bounded by the Gardiner Expressway and rail lines, which separate it from the Parkdale, Roncesvalles and Swansea neighbourhoods to the north. The name originates in a local farm owned by John Howard, which was situated just to the north, on the location of the current St. Joseph's Health Centre hospital.
  The area is first noted in Toronto history as the location of the landing of an 1813 attack in the War of 1812. As Toronto grew, High Park preserved the open space to the north, while the Sunnyside area along the lake was taken over by new rail lines and a hydro-electric line serving Toronto, although the area remained popular for boating and swimming.
context_section_description: By this time very little lands were left along the waterfront, and the lands were used for buildings on piers, rail lines, road ways, hydro towers and temporary changing booths for bathers. The general sentiment was that the lakeshore was in a dismal state. Thomas Joseph Stewart, a federal MP in 1913, remarked that Sunnyside was a "dirty, filthy hole." In 1914, the Toronto Harbour Commission started a CA$25 million ($363 million in 2018 dollars) project to improve the waterfront from Ashbridge's Bay in the east, to the Humber in the west. Following this plan, most of the 1910s and early 1920s was spent on construction and most of the waterfront lands were little used. All of the buildings on the water west of Roncesvalles were demolished. The Commission extended the shoreline about 100 yards (91 m) to the south, from Wilson Park Road to the Humber River (the western boundary of Toronto at the time), using landfill brought from Pickering, Ontario and sand dredged from the lake bottom. The hydro-electric lines and the Canoe Club building, previously located on the water, were now inland.
  The new lands were divided between roadway expansions and park land. The shoreline itself was converted to beach along most of the length. A 'breakwater' would serve to create a protected waterway along the shore from the Humber to Bathurst Street. Lakeshore Road, now connected to King and Queen by bridge, was widened to four lanes from  the Humber to the Jameson Avenue area.
  The Harbour Commission made waterfront land available for lease and several of the waterfront businesses returned. Dean's Boat House would be rebuilt in the eventual Palais Royale building. The location of Meyer's Hotel became the site of the Sunnyside Pavilion Restaurant. The new Beach and its Bathing Pavilion would open in 1922.
caption: A 1914 plan for the area.
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