Bathurst Manor

Bathurst Manor is a neighbourhood located in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It sits on a plateau bounded on the north by Finch Avenue West, on the west by Dufferin Street, on the east by the Don River (west branch), and on the south by Sheppard Avenue West. The area is also regarded as part of the Downsview postal area as designated by Canada Post. It is part of the former City of North York, which merged with five other municipalities and a regional government to form the new "City of Toronto" in 1998. It is part of federal and provincial electoral district York Centre, and Toronto electoral ward 10: York Centre (East). In 2006, it had a population of 14,615.[1]

Bathurst Manor
Neighbourhood
View of Bathurst Manor from Sheppard West station
Bathurst Manor
Location in Toronto
Coordinates: 43°45′46″N 79°27′25″W
Country Canada
Province Ontario
City Toronto
CommunityNorth York
Government
 • Toronto City CouncilJames Pasternak (Ward 6 York Centre)
 • MPsMichael Levitt
 • MPPsRoman Baber
Population
 (2006)
 • Total14,945
Time zoneUTC−5 (EST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−4 (EDT)
Postal code
M3H
Area code(s)416, 647

History

Bathurst Manor is one of several heavily Jewish-populated neighbourhoods on Bathurst Street. It is a suburban community of Ranch-style house, bungalows, side-split single-family homes and multi-family triplexes built between 1954 and the early 1960s. While most of the population was originally Jewish, and several synagogue congregations are located in the neighbourhood, there are also significant Italian, Russian and Filipino populations.

In 1996, the Toronto Transit Commission extended subway service to the area with the opening of the Sheppard West station, at Allen Road and Sheppard Avenue, allowing a thirty-minute train ride to Union Station at the southern cusp of downtown Toronto.

Demographics

The community is home to the Canadian headquarters of B'nai Brith at 15 Hove St, the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre (BJCC), the Lipa Green Building at 4588 Bathurst St is for Jewish Community Services. Bathurst Manor's Top ten ethnic and cultural groups (by ancestry) in 2006 :[1]

The percentage of population below the poverty line dropped from 22% (in 1996) to 18% (in 2001).[1]

Education
William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute is a public secondary school located in Bathurst Manor.

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is an English first language public secular school board that operates several schools in the neighbourhood. They include two primary institutions, Charles H. Best Middle School, and Wilmington Elementary School, and one secondary school, William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute.

Three other public school boards also provide schooling to applicable students in Bathurst Manor, the Conseil scolaire Viamonde (CSV), Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir (CSCM), and the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB). CSV is a French first language secular school board, whereas CSCM and TCDSB are public separate school boards, the former being a French first language school board, the latter being an English first language school board. Neither CSCM, CSV, and TCDSB operates a school in Bathurst Manor, with their students attending schools situated in other neighbourhoods in Toronto.

The public post-secondary institution, the University of Toronto, also operates the Institute for Aerospace Studies in the northern portions of the neighbourhood.

In addition to public institutions, the neighbourhood is also home to private secondary school, Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto, a private Jewish high school, on the former site of the Wilmington Public School.

Governance

Also the constituency offices of former M.P. Ken Dryden at 1030 Sheppard Ave. W, Unit 3A and M.P.P. Roman Baber at 539 Wilson Heights Blvd. The former being a member of the Liberal Party of Canada and the latter being a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.

Bathurst Manor is located within 32 Division of the Toronto Police Service and is most often serviced by Station 143 of the Toronto Fire Services.

Recreation
West Don Parkland is one of several municipal parks located around Bathurst Manor.

Several municipal parks are located in the Bathurst Manor including Garthdale Park, G. Ross Lord Park, Irving W. Chapley Park, and Maxwell Park, and the West Don Parklands. Municipal parks in Toronto are managed by the Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division. Several municipal parks in the neighbourhood are situated near the Don Valley, which forms a part of the Toronto ravine system.

The Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division also manages the Irving W. Chapley Community Centre (named after a local alderman) is located in Irving W. Chapley Park. This community centre features a tot's play area, meeting rooms and an outdoor pool and water play area. In addition to Irving W. Chaley Community Centre, the neighbourhood is also home to the Bathurst Jewish Community Centre (BJCC). BJCC is a multi purpose facility with cardiovascular conditioning equipment, indoor and outdoor pools, indoor and outdoor track, and tennis and basketball courts. This centre is also the home of the Leah Posluns Theatre and the Koffler Gallery.

Skiing was popular during the 1950s at a ski hill located adjacent to what is now Blue Forest Drive. In the summer of 1956, the valley below the ski hill was the site of Bathurst Manor Day Camp, later Forest Valley Day Camp, and now a part of the Forest Valley Outdoor Education Centre. At its peak, it was the largest privately owned summer day camp in Canada, with over 900 campers, and operated through 1993. In 1973 the grade ten students from Downsview Secondary School built a suspension bridge across the ravine as part of their workshop experience. The bridge was dismantled some years later when it was considered an insurance liability. Beginning in 1998, Camp NAORCA summer camp operated by Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division moved here from its previous location at Seneca College, King Campus, and the Toronto District School Board uses this space during the school year to educate 21,000 students per year.

Arts

Several works from the collection of the Koffler Centre of the Arts is housed at the BJCC's Koffler Gallery. The centre also provides visual arts studios, music and dance schools, and the Leah Posluns Theatre which is a 444-seat facility offering opera, theatre, dance, music and other cultural events. The Jewish Book Fair is held at the Centre annually.

Much of David Bezmozgis's 2004 short story collection Natasha and Other Stories takes place in the general vicinity of the Bathurst Manor in the late 1980s. In one story, "Roman Berman - Massage Therapist", the title character takes an office in the medical building at Bathurst Manor Plaza, which is still standing and in use. Bezmozgis's narrator refers to the plaza as "Sunnybrook Plaza", after its anchor store at the time. Author Stuart Ross, who grew up in Bathurst Manor, set most of his 2011 novel, Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew (ECW Press), in Bathurst Manor. The book centres on the fictional assassination of a neo-Nazi in Bathurst Manor Plaza. References are made to many streets in Bathurst Manor, as well as stores in the plaza.

Retail

The major strip mall, Sheppard Plaza, is located at the intersection of Sheppard Avenue and Bathurst Street, and includes a Shoppers Drug Mart, TD Canada Trust, Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank, Metro supermarket. The store was formerly a Dominion, and before that a Miracle Food Mart, and originally a Steinberg's. Before that, it was a Grand Union.

There was also a smaller Bathurst Manor Plaza shopping centre at the intersection of Wilmington and Overbrook. It had been in decline since the early 1990s since the closure of its anchor Sunnybrook produce store. It also featured a King David kosher pizzeria and The Bagel Nook coffee shop. These two stores shared a building that previously housed a Pioneer gas station, originally a Shell station, which closed in the late 1990s. The plaza formally closed on July 31, 2016, and is slated for eventual redevelopment, with no given timeframe.

Notable people
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References
  1. City of Toronto Demographics for Bathurst Manor
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