Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Street Stories: Neville Park Boulevard


For many Torontonians, Neville Park means "Yes, I'm going all the way — unless I short-turn at Connaught or Kingston Road."

Thanks to its long-standing status as the eastern terminus of the 501 streetcar (and, by extension, its place on the rollsign of streetcars heading for the Beach end of the city's longest route), Neville Park Boulevard is a name that's likely familiar to ten times more Torontonians than have actually walked the street itself.

Frances Jane Neville was the daughter of former Toronto mayor George Monro. After Monro died, his heirs leased some of the substantial family estate in the city's east end to the Toronto Railway Company, for the purposes of opening an amusement park. Munro Park (the misspelling stuck — it's now a street name in the area) operated along the waterfront near the foot of what's now Neville Park Boulevard for a decade around the turn of the 20th century. It closed in 1906, the same year as nearby Victoria Park — which was located where the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant sits today.

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