Industrial heritage site.
Details of Site Location: Around the Keele Street / St. Clair Avenue intersection, with stockyards at the core and satellite industries surrounding them.
Boundary History: Began as 30 acres, expanded to nearly 200 acres; most of the area was west of Keele Street with both sides of St. Clair Avenue involved.
Current Use of Property: Area is currently being redeveloped with a collection of big box stores, mainly west of Keele.
Historical Description: When the Western Cattle Market downtown became inadequate, a group of cattle dealers and businessmen from the Junction area agreed in 1902 to form the Union Stockyard Company. Very important to developments was the Rountree family, who were in real estate and cattle dealing with others in the Junction area; most were members of the West York Agricultural Association. By 1903, the alliance had acquired acreage at the southwest corner of the intersection, moved the existing houses across Keele Street to the east side, and opened the yards with frame and timber structures. A fire in 1908 destroyed most of these, but they were quickly replaced by others with concrete foundations and platforms. The CPR put in a spur line and gained a monopoly. The dealers wanted competition and invited the Grand Trunk Railway to install a spur north of St. Clair, leaving the CPR south of St. Clair. After much controversy, the railway board gave full clearance to the GTR to proceed. Packing houses – Gunn’s, the Harris Abattoir, and others – built along the north side of St. Clair. Maple Leaf arrived in 1927. Swift’s Canadian Company of Chicago had moved in by 1911, created a plant, and occupied most of a block. The stockyards expanded in 1908, 1913–14, and 1917–18 and took over property at Symes Road and St. Clair. During World War I, the stockyards had been taken over for military use as a corral for thousands of horses. The army controlled the site for five years until 1919. From almost the outset, the site had contained an important horse exchange, which remained throughout the war years and resumed normal operations after the war. In 1944, the Ontario government nationalized the stockyards as the Ontario Public Stockyards, then later as the Ontario Stockyards, expropriating the properties and compensating the former owners. In the mid 1980s, the railways began to get out of transporting livestock, leaving the field to trucks. In January 1994, the Ontario government closed the yards; demolitions were mostly complete by March. The horse exchange was demolished in December 1994. An administrative building, erected in 1904/05, was demolished in 1995. The last manager of the stockyards moved to the CNE in 1995. The CN (formerly Grand Trunk) closed their siding in September 1994, and the Iron Highway moved out in 1999, leaving CP Rail, which still moves tank cars to the site.
Relative Importance: The importance of this large site is without doubt, as it was the largest of Toronto’s stockyards and a major employer of people in the region. With the railroads it was the leading influence on the development of the region. Its years of operation are the stuff of legend.
Planning Implications: With industries fleeing from Toronto, it is more important than ever to commemorate those that were instrumental in the growth of the city. A relief sculpture showing stockyard history and the development of the entire area is recommended for installation on one of the new buildings on stockyard land.
Reference Sources: Toronto Reference Library; City of Toronto Archives; Toronto Star and Globe and Mail archives; Archives of Ontario.
Acknowledgements: Society for Industrial Archaeology; Maps Project.