Dovercourt Village

 

Location: Shanly Street at Salem Avenue

Date photo taken: 3 October 2013

Dovercourt Village is a small neighbourhood in the city, focused along Dovercourt Road and Hallam Street. It's part of the larger Dovercourt Park, which stretches north from Bloor to the railway tracks, between Ossington and Dufferin. Initially a suburb of the city, Dovercourt was annexed on January 2, 1888 although at this time, still relatively little had been built here. The train tracks, which were part of the Ontario & Quebec Railway line connecting Toronto and Perth, had been completed in 1884 but the city atlas from the same year shows precious little other development. By 1890 there were a few more buildings scattered about but not much had changed with the notable exception of the street names. Durham had become Shanly. Brighton Place, Hallam. Dover Court would lose its space and Lancaster would become Ossington. The turn of the century was a boom period for the city however and it didn't take long for development to come to Dovercourt. By 1910, the atlas shows almost every lot developed.

The 1985 on the sign likely refers to the establishment of the Dovercourt Village BIA.