Earlscourt is a neighbourhood in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. It is centred on St. Clair Avenue West, with

Dufferin Street Dufferin Street is a major north–south street in Toronto, Vaughan and King, Ontario, Canada. It is a concession road, two concessions (4 km) west of Yonge Street. The street starts at Exhibition Place, continues north to Toronto's nor ...

, Davenport Road, and Old Weston Road forming its boundaries. It is contained within the larger city-recognized neighbourhood of Corso Italia-Davenport. Earlscourt Park is located on the south side of St. Clair between Caledonia Park Road and Lansdowne Avenue.

History

Earlscourt began as a

squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not Land ownership and tenure, own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estima ...

settlement in the early 20th century and annexed by the City of Toronto in 1910. It was initially settled by British and Scottish immigrants. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, the area had some of the highest enlistment rates in the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

. Several of the original settler shacks are still visible in the area. After the war the area became the centre of Toronto's Italian community, and it has remained a centre for Italian culture in Toronto. The stretch of St. Clair West that runs through the neighbourhood is known as Corso Italia.

Education

Two

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

school board A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional area, ...

s operate

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

s in Earlscourt, the

Toronto Catholic District School Board The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB, known as English-language Separate District School Board No. 40 prior to 1999) is an English-language public-separate school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada, headquartered in North York. ...

(TCDSB), and the

Toronto District School Board The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), formerly known as English-language Public District School Board No. 12 prior to 1999, is the English-language public-secular school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The minority public-secular franco ...

(TDSB). TDSB is

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin , or or ), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. The origins of secularity can be traced to the Bible itself. The concept was fleshed out through Christian hi ...

public school board, the latter schools being operated by the Toronto Board of Education. TCDSB is an English-based separate public school board. Elementary schools in the area include: * General Mercer Junior Public School (TDSB) * Earlscourt Junior Public School (TDSB) and Stella Maris Catholic School (TCDSB) * Richard W. Scott Catholic School (TCDSB) - closed in 2001, demolished TCDSB operates one anglophone

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

in the neighborhood, Loretto College School, founded in 1915 by the

Sisters of Loreto The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose members are commonly known as the Loreto Sisters, is a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women dedicated to education founded in Saint-Omer by an Englishwoman, Mary Ward (nun), Mary Ward, i ...

on Brunswick Avenue. The current building was built in 2005 on the former Richard W. Scott property, whose building was partly used by students of Bishop Francis Marrocco Catholic High School since its inception in 1986. One

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

serves this neighbourhood,

Hudson College Hudson College is a co-educational, non-denominational private school for students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12. It is situated on a 4.5-acre campus in the former Earlscourt Junior Public School in central Toronto, Ontario. History Hu ...

, which was opened in 2002 in the Earlscourt school building.

References

External links

Toronto Neighbourhoods; Earlscourt
History of Toronto Neighbourhoods in Toronto {{Toronto-geo-stub