Crescent Town is a neighbourhood in
Toronto,
Ontario, Canada, in the former
borough of
East York. It is located near
Victoria Park Avenue and
Danforth Avenue. It mainly consists of high-rise apartment complexes, built originally to take advantage of the opening of the adjacent
Victoria Park subway station, which connects to the central quadrangle via a partially covered walkway.
History
In the late 19th century, Walter Massey (1864–1901), a younger son of
Hart Massey, Canada's first major industrialist, and uncle to actor
Raymond Massey
Raymond Hart Massey (August 30, 1896 – July 29, 1983) was a Canadian actor, known for his commanding, stage-trained voice. For his lead role in '' Abe Lincoln in Illinois'' (1940), Massey was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Amo ...
, purchased a country property centered on
Dawes Road and Victoria Park Avenue. He established a model farm and named it "Dentonia Park" after his wife, Susan, whose maiden name was Denton.
The Massey farm sold fresh eggs and poultry as well as fresh trout, which was caught in the many streams and rivulets that criss-crossed the farm. The Massey farm was also the home of the
City Dairy Company Limited
City Dairy Company Limited was a dairy company founded by Walter Edward Massey, president of Massey-Harris, to deliver milk in the city of Toronto. The company was the first Canadian dairy to supply pasteurized milk.
The dairy was founded after ...
, which produced the first pasteurized milk in Canada.
In 1933, Susan Massey donated her mansion and of the Dentonia farm land to
Crescent School, where her grandsons were educated. Crescent School operated at the Dentonia site until 1969, when this property was sold to the developers who built the present-day Crescent Town neighbourhood.
Hollywood actor
Kiefer Sutherland
Kiefer William Sutherland (born 21 December 1966) is a British-Canadian actor and musician. He is best known for his starring role as Jack Bauer in the Fox drama series '' 24'' (2001–2010, 2014), for which he won an Emmy Award, a Golden Glo ...
of the television series ''
24'' was a Crescent Town resident. He spent part of his childhood in Crescent Town and attended the Crescent Town Elementary School, where he first met the former
Mayor of Toronto,
David Miller.
Current status
Crescent Town is considered by some as an interesting experiment in community planning in that all of its pedestrian walkways are located above the street level. It is a multicultural neighbourhood, whose population includes extensive numbers of
Bangladeshi
Bangladeshis ( bn, বাংলাদেশী ) are the citizens of Bangladesh, a South Asian country centered on the transnational historical region of Bengal along the eponymous bay.
Bangladeshi citizenship was formed in 1971, when the ...
,
Indian,
Jamaican,
Pakistani and
Tamil Canadians. There are many Bangladeshi-owned businesses near the neighbourhood (Victoria Park-Danforth).
Some of the buildings are condominiums (Massey Square), while others are rental apartments (Crescent Place). Toronto council classified Oakridge under Taylor-Massey as a neighborhood improvement area in 2014.
References
External links
Dentonia Park FarmDentonia Park– Toronto Public Library
{{authority control
Neighbourhoods in Toronto
Ethnic enclaves in Ontario
South Asian Canadian culture
Residential skyscrapers in Toronto