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| Appx 2,800 words / 5 charts / 5 images / 65 K total |
More on Church & Wellesley
Addendum to Time and Place: Toronto, 1971
Rick Bébout, July 1997
The demographics I reported for the Church & Wellesley area in Time and Place: Toronto, 1971 are so distinctive that I've often wondered: How did they get that way?
On Lesbian and Gay Pride Day 1997, sitting on a friend's 9th-floor balcony on Alexander Street, looking out to the skyline, I wondered again. Most of the apartment towers I could see were there by the early '70s. Even some of the people filling the streets below had been there then -- if not the hundreds of thousands now here for Pride Day. How did all this come to be?
The information offered here doesn't really answer that question. "Community", however defined, is much more than a matter of demographics or buildings. The data below touch almost not at all on the economic, cultural, and political forces that were (and are) crucial in shaping the neighbourhood.
But this material does broaden the picture, putting 1971 in context by showing shifts in age and gender, in household arrangments, and in the built form of the area from 1951 through 1991. (Note that before 1971, the census tract for the area was numbered 72, not 63. But its boundaries stayed the same.)
The section on buildings, called "From houses to apartments", includes links to pages of related photographs. You can use the links offered here, but it's faster to view these images (and a map) from their index page, Church & Wellesley: Photos.
Distinct -- but how distinct?
Comparisons with the City of Toronto as a whole (not to mention the entire metropolitan region) make the area bounded by Yonge, Bloor, Jarvis, and Carlton appear more distinct that it actually is in its immediate urban context. Those streets are streets, not ghetto walls.
Mark Lehman, in his 1994 study The Church-Wellesley Area: Community, Unity and Neighbourhood, offered demographic details on other nearby tracts. Some showed similar patterns: relatively fewer children and more young adults; lots of people living alone. Most similar in 1971 (and even more so by 1991) were Tract 34, directly south of Carlton down to Queen Street, and Tracts 64 and 66, just east of Jarvis.
Areas further east -- Cabbagetown, and Riverdale on the other side of the Don Valley, both now known for significant gay populations -- show a substantial decline by 1991 in the percentage of children, but less dramatic rises in the number of young adults or single- person households.
Still, none of these neighbourhoods match (though adjoining ones approach) Tract 63's most characteristic demographic markers. Church & Wellesley does not stand alone in the area, but it does stand ahead as a residential, commercial, and cultural focus of gay (if less so lesbian) life.
A student quarter?
Might the demographics of Church & Wellesley in 1971 -- with lots of recently arrived, childless young adults living in apartments -- simply represent a student neighbourhood? The University of Toronto is, after all, only a few blocks west.
Mark Lehman noted 840 people listed as students in the 1971 census. But that must include nearly all of the area's 170 children age 5 to 14, and probably most of the 290 people age 15 to 19. So, perhaps 400 to 500 of those students were young adults attending college or university. That's about 5 or 6 percent of the total population -- hardly a major cohort.
Stronger evidence comes from employment data. Of the 7,500 people in Tract 63 in 1971 age 15 to 64, nearly 7,000 were in the workforce. More than 40 percent were in "commercial, business or personal service industries"; about 28 percent in "trade; finance, insurance or real estate; transportation and communication"; fewer than 8 percent in manufacturing.
Age
In 1971, the Church-Wellesley area had, proportionally, far fewer children and far more young adults than the city as a whole. This was true, for children, even in 1951 -- but less dramatically so. The influx of young adults came later. See the chart below. For comparison, in 1951 city- wide, about 25 percent of the population was under 20, about 33 percent age 20 to 39.
| Percentage of population by age * | |||||
| Census year | 1951 | 1961 | 1971 | 1981 | 1991 |
| Total population | 8,741 | 7,404 | 8,490 | 9,520 | 10,650 |
| Age 19 and under | 17.8% | 10.6% | 7.2% | 4.2% | 5.7% |
| Age 20 - 39 | 34.0% | 40.6% | 56.0% | 60.6% | 57.0% |
| Age 40 - 59 | 29.3% | 30.0% | 24.0% | 23.4% | 25.4% |
| Age 60 and over | 16.6% | 18.7% | 12.9% | 11.8% | 11.8% |
| * For 1951 and 1961, beyond age 19, figures are estimates based on pro-rating of census data given in age brackets not the same as those above. Figures for 1971 and beyond are from Mark Lehman: The Church- Wellesley Area: Community, Unity and Neighbourhood, 1994. | |||||
Gender
Mark Lehman noted a significant shift in the gender balance of Tract 63 from 1971 to 1991, from about 52 percent female to about 57 percent male. As you can see below, this shift was even greater among young adults. This is a trend I didn't note in Time and Place: Toronto, 1971 -- but should have: it's obvious evidence of the growing dominance of gay men in the neighbourhood.
In 1971, the single biggest employment category for the tract was "female: clerical" -- nearly 19 percent of the entire workforce. It was clearly a neighbourhood of working women even in 1951, with 51.1 percent of the female population age 14 and over in the labour force. In the City of Toronto the figure was 38.3 percent; in the metropolitan region, 34.5 percent.
| Percentage by gender, age 20 - 39 only | |||||
| Census year | 1951 | 1961 | 1971 | 1981 | 1991 |
| Male | n/a * | 51.9% | 47.8% | 55.0% | 59.2% |
| Female | n/a * | 48.1% | 52.2% | 45.0% | 40.8% |
| * Combined gender / age data not given in 1951 census. Of the tract's total population, 50.9% were female. | |||||
Race
I said a lot in Time & Place about Toronto's ethnic diversity in 1971 -- and almost nothing at all about Tract 63's. In fact, it was hardly diverse at all, especially in terms of "race" as commonly perceived: the first language of almost 90 percent of the population was English; 98 percent were white.
The tract was less a magnet for immigrants than for migrants from within Canada -- a trend that Lehman shows was amplified over the next 20 years. The area's only substantial non- white communities, mostly South Asian, live just outside the tract itself, particularly in St. James Town.
This is not to say that race is a non-issue in the gay and lesbian life of the city. It did begin as one: the early movement was almost entirely Anglo. Separate Asian, Black, and Hispanic groups rose only by the early 1980s. But this is less a matter of demographics, per se, than of political awareness and self- organizing based on distinct identities -- of all kinds, not just racial ones.
That took some time and was not always easy. For more on evolving notions of who was (or was not) included in that nebulous formulation "the gay and lesbian community", see an essay here online: The Body Politic and Visions of Community.
Class
My only suggestion of Church & Wellesley's socio-economic make-up in 1971 came in some figures on income and education -- averaged, so not useful in uncovering possible class distinctions.
Mark Lehman took a much closer look. He found that, in 1991, the area's average SES (Social Economic Status) was -- apart from education levels -- comparable to norms in the surrounding city. But he identified the gay population's SES as "(high)low". The income gap separating unattached individuals from others had grown since 1971, as had the incidence of poverty -- factors Lehman attributed in part to the economic impact of AIDS.
I haven't done further work on this front. But having known gay (and to some extent lesbian) life in this city for 25 years, I know that the current pop- commercial picture of it is a very partial one. We are not and have never been a community made up entirely -- or even mostly -- of the comfortably well- off with lots of casually "disposable" income.
Households
The decline of the family as a domestic unit in the tract -- by percentage; less so by actual numbers -- and the dramatic rise of people living alone is obvious in the figures below. Both trends had begun by 1951: for comparison, the city- wide average then for family households was 88 percent; for singles, 6 percent.
But, early on, the domestic picture is more complex than these figures show. Across the city proper in 1951, nearly 33,400 households consisted of more than one family. In the tract, 239 dwellings housed two families; another 627, families with lodgers.
In 1971, only 23 percent of family households in the tract included children. But even in 1951 the figure was low, at 40 percent, compared with nearly 60 percent for the region as a whole.
| Composition of households | |||||
| Census year | 1951 | 1961 | 1971 | 1981 | 1991 |
| Total households | 2,210 | 3,040 | 4,975 | 6,850 | 7,315 |
| Family households | 1,416 | 1,472 | 1,295 | 1,230 | 1,340 |
| % Family | 64.0% | 48.4% | 26.0% | 18.0% | 18.3% |
| 2+ persons non-family | 284 | 223 | 985 | 845 | 1,045 |
| % 2+ persons non-family | 12.9% | 7.3% | 19.8% | 12.3% | 14.3% |
| Single person | 510 | 1,345 | 2,695 | 4,775 | 4,930 |
| % Single person | 23.0% | 44.2% | 54.2% | 69.7% | 67.4% |
From houses to apartments
In 1900, excluding a few commercial buildings, churches and schools, Church & Wellesley was entirely a neighbourhood of houses. Some were semi- detached: the 3-storey, side- by- side duplex (and sometimes triplex) was a standard form in the city since at least the 1880s. Some stood in longer rows. And some were freestanding and very grand. Patricia McHugh, in Toronto Architecture: A City Guide, 1989, quoted another guide published a century earlier:
"Of all the avenues extending south from Bloor Street to the Bay, the noblest are Church, Jarvis and Sherbourne Streets [one block east of Jarvis]. Church Street is somewhat less aristocratic ... Jarvis and Sherbourne are lined on either side through most of their extent by the mansions of the upper ten."
Today, the "upper ten" survive only in place names: Massey, Mulock, Cawthra; even Isabella, daughter of the doctor who first opened the street. A few of their houses still stand, most notably on Jarvis north of Wellesley. But they are flats, offices, or restaurants now, not family homes.
Some row houses remain: the 18 on Monteith Street facing Cawthra Park; four at 589 to 595 Church Street, dating from 1867 to 1878, hard beside the 16-story Paxton Place of 1982 -- to which they lent their air rights.
There are concentrations of late 19th- and early 20th- century houses (some still homes) on Church Street; near the corner of Maitland and Mutual; along the south side of Gloucester; and on the north side of Dundonald. On the latter two streets there are even townhouses built in the late 1970s and early 1980s, modern but in keeping with the streetscape. Elsewhere there are a few new rows frankly fake Victorian.
Continental Tower
Straddling the subway line, at 15 Dundonald
But the neighbourhood now is one, overwhelmingly, of apartment buildings. Highrise construction followed (and was likely spurred by) development of the Yonge Street subway line, begun in the late '40s and opened in 1954, with three stations on the western edge of the tract. (See the map of the area.)
Proximity to the subway is probably what gave Church Street the edge in its development as "gay downtown", attracting people from all over the city. In the '60s and early '70s most of the (few) gay bars, like the St. Charles Tavern, were on Yonge. But Toronto's main drag wasn't fertile ground for the growth of any broader community infrastructure. By the late '70s some gay- (and, particularly, lesbian-) friendly businesses had appeared further east, on Parliament Street south of Wellesley. It's still the shopping area for gay- gentrified Cabbagetown.
But it's a long walk (or a rattling bus ride) -- more than a kilometre -- to Parliament and Wellesley from any subway station. Church Street was in the right place, a haven from the main drag but not hard to get to.
The apartment towers that have gone up since the early 1950s give the Church & Wellesley area its modern skyline; controls on further constuction after the mid- 1970s helped save its urban street life. The second chart below gives a sense of the boom, particularly in the '60s and early '70s.
Manulife Centre Apartments
Outside the tract, as seen from inside
That chart gives only a partial picture, limited to buildings inside the tract. Within a block of its boundaries -- in all directions but particularly to the east, between Jarvis and Sherbourne -- there are about two dozen other apartment towers dating from the '60s and '70s, offering among them about 4,000 rental units. There are also some large, and mostly later, condominium projects.
Big mixed-use developments, incorporating major office and retail space, lie just beyond three of the tract's four corners: College Park, the 1977 redevelopment of Eaton's 1928 College Street store; Greenwin Square, with more than 500 apartments in its 77 Huntley Street tower; and the Manulife Centre, its residences at 44 Charles Street West -- more than 750 units and 51 storeys high -- the tallest apartment building in downtown Toronto. And just east of Sherbourne there's St. James Town -- described by Patricia McHugh as "15 somber towers ... cheerlessly extruding a population of 15,000 souls 16 to 33 storeys into the sky."
The chart also indicates the slowdown following height restrictions and rent control. Very little rental accommodation has been built in the area in the past 15 years. Almost all recent projects are co-operatives or condominiums -- the latter evident below, from 1981, in a modest decline in the percentage of dwelling units rented.
However, as 1951 figures in the first chart below show, there were lots of apartments before those towers. The area saw some of the city's first apartment houses built as such: the Manhattan at Church & Charles (12 units, including a house it consumed) dates from 1909; The Maitlands, paired 4-storey walk- ups at 36 and 42 Maitland, pointed their grand Corinthian porticos to the street in 1911.
The Maitlands were the first of a standard form: deep, narrow boxes of 3, 4, or occasionally 5 storeys set perpendicular to the street, often in pairs (sometimes joined at the back to form a U); most of their windows on the sides and almost anything of architectural interest -- from classical to '30s Art Deco Moderne -- tacked onto the front. Including, usually, a name: The Merlan; Star Mansions; St. Charles Court; The Brownley; and (marvellously) The Maxwell and Sheila. Most had about 30 apartments per building. One of the largest, Redfern Court, a single big block still at 64 Wellesley East, has 60 units on five floors.
The Depression and then the war checked the area's development pretty much until 1954, when the three identical International Style towers of the City Park Apartments heralded the new highrise era. But more than two dozen of those smaller, early 20th- century apartment buildings still survive in the tract, offering among them nearly 850 places to live -- still more than in all of City Park.
| Dwelling units by type | |||||
| Census year | 1951 | 1961 | 1971 | 1981 | 1991 |
| Total units | 2,210 | 3,040 | 4,975 | 6,850 | 7,315 |
| Apartments | 1,650 | 2,602 | 4,740 | 6,700 | 7,150 |
| % Apartments | 74.7% | 85.6% | 95.3% | 97.8% | 97.7% |
| 10-yr increase / Apts | n/a | 952 | 2,138 | 1,960 | 450 |
| % Rented (all units) | 82.0% | 91.1% | 97.9% | 97.3% | 93.4% |
| Apartment construction (selected), early 1950s to 1990 * | |||
| Years / Name & address | Details | Storeys | Units * |
| 1954 - 1957 | |||
| City Park Apartments 484 Church St., 31 & 51 Alexander St. | 3 parallel slab
towers; now a co-op | 14 (each) | 816 |
| Andorre Apartment Hotel 9 - 15 Charles St. E. |
Later just a hotel: Andorre; Brownstone; now Comfort Hotel | 11 | 57 |
| The Waldorf 80 Charles St. E. |
See The Astoria, below | 8 | 57 |
| 1958 - 1962 | |||
| The Astoria 88 Charles St. E. |
Later apartment hotel, with Waldorf at 80; both now condos | 9 | 77 |
| The Cawthra Apartments 100 Gloucester St. | Joint complex with Mulock Apts; separate buildings | 11 | 205 |
| The Mulock Apartments 105 Isabella St. | See Cawthra Apts above | 11 | 226 |
| Bloorview Apartments 108 Isabella St. | Now Massey House, entrance at 550 Jarvis St. | 11 | 275 |
| Avena Towers 48 Isabella St. |
Name no longer in use | 10 | 84 |
| The Charlesview 55 Charles St. E. |
9 | 75 | |
| The Lincoln 85 Wellesley St. E. |
9 | 88 | |
| The Caribbean 91 Wellesley St. E. |
Next door to The Lincoln | 7 | 54 |
| The Wessex 88 Wellesley St. E. |
Current, not original, name; got bad '80s facelift | 8 | 71 |
| 1963 - 1966 | |||
| Blooryonge Tower Apartments 60 Gloucester St. | Name no longer in use | 11 | 76 |
| Fifty Five Isabella 55 Isabella St. |
Once called French Riviera Apts; later Cromwell Apts (furnished) | 12 | 76 |
| 100 Maitland 100 Maitland St. |
18 | 106 | |
| The Village Green 55 Maitland St., 40 & 50 Alexander St. | 2 parallel slabs; 1 round
tower; park & pool between | 18, 18, 28 | 685 |
| 1967 - 1972 | |||
| 100 Alexander 100 Alexander St. |
11 | 92 | |
| The Alexandra
41 Dundonald St. |
18 | 99 | |
| Continental Tower 15 Dundonald St. | Built over Yonge subway line, behind Wellesley station | 21 | 156 |
| Gramercy House 59 Isabella St. |
14 | 104 | |
| The Villager Apartments 88 Isabella St. | Now Villager Suite Hotel | 14 | 84 |
| Casabella Apartments 89 Isabella St. | Name no longer in use | 13 | 76 |
| The Castellana
80 Wellesley St. E. |
North side overlooks Cawthra Park | 12 | 72 |
| Plaza 100
100 Wellesley St. E. |
Retail & offices, 1st floor; also overlooks Cawthra Park | 27 | 416 |
| 1973 - 1977 | |||
| Gloucester Gate 30 Gloucester St. |
Name rarely used; "GG" monogram beside door | 22 | 232 |
| Isabella Court 33 Isabella St. |
Massive slab; concrete balconies | 27 | 416 |
| Town Square Apartments 66 Isabella St. | Paired with (nearly) identical hotel, the Town Inn | 25 | 197 |
| Carlton Court 33 Wood St. |
Retail on ground floor; beside Maple Leaf Gardens | 30 | 250 |
| 1978 - 1982 | |||
| The Maples 20 Carlton St., 25 Wood St. | 2 towers over Carlton Cinemas, offices 2nd floor | 16, 26 | 500 |
| Skypro Apartments
620 Jarvis St. |
1st fl retail, no balconies (rare); possibly built as a hotel | 26 | 454 |
| Paxton Place 71 Charles St. E. |
First floor retail | 16 | 67 |
| 86 Gloucester 86 Gloucester St. |
Condos | 14 | 113 |
| 1983 - 1990 | |||
| 55 Wellesley East 55 Wellesley St. E. | Condos; built with Churwell Centre office-retail complex | 9 | 40 |
| New York Apartments 25 Wellesley St. E. | First two floors retail; many set-backs & terraces | 9 | 38 |
| The Cosmopolitan
25 Maitland St. |
Condos | 17 | 156 |
| * Based on perusal of selected annual city directories -- and of the buildings themselves. Figures for number of units are best estimates from available data of the time (not always consistent) and may have changed since structures were built. | |||
Related sources
There are many works on the interrelation of physical (and even virtual) space and the development of distinct communities. A good bibliography appears in Queers in Space: Communities / Public Places / Sites of Resistance, an anthology edited by Gordon Brent Ingram, Anne- Marie Bouthillette and Yolanda Retter (Bay Press, Seattle, 1997).
This excellent collection, international in scope, also includes some pieces of particular relevance to this one on Church & Wellesley:
This book should not be confused (it's easy to do) with Aaron Betsky's Queer Space: Architecture and Same- Sex Desire (William Morrow and Company, New York, 1997). It focuses less on community development than on architectural style and interior design (where, it seems, anything "designed" at all might qualify as "queer"). And -- as is so often the case with American gay commentary -- it mistakes the United States for the entire modern world. But it does have another good bibliography.
