page_title: Yorkville, Toronto
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Yorkville, Toronto / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Row of shops on the west side of Yonge Street, south of Yorkville Avenue. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
context_page_description: Yorkville is a neighbourhood and former village in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is roughly bounded by Bloor Street to the south, Davenport Road to the north, Yonge Street to the east and Avenue Road to the west, and is considered part of "The Annex" neighbourhood officially. Established as a separate village in 1830, it was annexed into Toronto in 1883. Yorkville is diverse, comprising residential areas, office space, and an array of shopping options.
  Within the Yorkville district is one of Canada's most exclusive shopping districts, anchored by the Mink Mile along Bloor Street. In 2006, Mink Mile was the 22nd most expensive street in the world, with rents of $208 per square foot. Yorkville had rents of $300 per square foot in 2008, making it the third most expensive retail space in North America. In 2008, the Mink Mile was named the seventh most expensive shopping street in the world by Fortune Magazine, claiming tenants can pull in $1,500 to $4,500 per square foot in sales.
context_section_description: Founded in 1830 by entrepreneur Joseph Bloore (after whom Bloor Street, one of Toronto's main thoroughfares, is named) and William Botsford Jarvis of Rosedale, Toronto, the Village of Yorkville began as a residential suburb. Bloore operated a brewery north-east of today's Bloor and Church Street intersection. Jarvis was Sheriff of the Home District. The two purchased land in the Yorkville district, subdividing it into smaller lots on new side streets to those interested in living in the cleaner air outside of York.
  The political centre of Yorkville was the Red Lion Hotel, an inn that was regularly used as the polling place for elections. It is here that William Lyon Mackenzie was voted back into the Legislature for 1832 and a huge procession took him down Yonge Street.
  The village grew enough to be connected by an omnibus service in 1849 to Toronto. By 1853, the population of the village had reached 1,000, the figure needed to incorporate as a village and the Village of Yorkville was incorporated. Development increased and by the 1870s, Potter's Field, a cemetery stretching east of Yonge Street along the north side of Concession Road (today's Bloor Street) was closed, and the remains moved to the Necropolis and Mount Pleasant cemetery.
  By the 1880s, the cost of delivering services to the large population of Yorkville was beyond the Village's ability. It petitioned the Toronto government to be annexed. Annexation came on February 1, 1883, and Yorkville's name changed officially from "Village of Yorkville" to "St. Paul's Ward" and the former "Yorkville Town Hall" became "St. Paul's Hall".
  The character of the suburb did not change and its Victorian styled homes, residential streets, and gardens survived into the 20th century. In 1923, Toronto Hebrew Maternity and Convalescent Hospital was opened at 100 Yorkville Avenue and a year later the name was changed to Mount Sinai Hospital. The facade of this building still stands today and housed retailer Chanel.
  In the 1960s, Yorkville flourished as Toronto's bohemian cultural centre. It was the breeding ground for some of Canada's most noted musical talents, including Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Gordon Lightfoot, as well as then-underground literary figures such as Margaret Atwood, Gwendolyn MacEwen and Dennis Lee. Yorkville was also known as the Canadian center of the hippie movement. In 1968, nearby Rochdale College at the University of Toronto was opened on Bloor Street as an experiment in counterculture education. Those influenced by their time in 1960s-70s Yorkville include cyberpunk writer William Gibson. Its domination by hippies and young people led MPP Syl Apps to refer to it as "a festering sore in the middle of the city" and call for its "eradication." Joni Mitchell captured a colorful impression of the nightlife scene on Yorkville Avenue in her song "Night in the City".  The hippie scene was also depicted in the National Film Board of Canada documentary Christopher's Movie Matinée in 1968.
caption: Row of shops south of Yonge Street and Yorkville Avenue, 1975. During the 1960s and 1970s, the area became the city's Bohemian cultural centre.
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