Eringate-Centennial-West Deane


Eringate-Centennial-West Deane is a neighbourhood in the city of Toronto, Canada.

Location

Eringate-Centennial-West Deane is a neighbourhood located in the north western corner of the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in close proximity to Pearson Airport and Highway 427. It is bounded on the west by Centennial Park and golf course, to the north by Eglinton Avenue West, on the east by Martin Grove Road, and on the south by Rathburn Road. The neighbourhood itself is fairly large, and encompasses several communities including West Deane Park and Centennial Park.

History

West Deane Park

West Deane Park was farmland before the land was bought in the 1930s by construction magnate Percy Law. On this land, Law raised cattle and racehorses, built and maintained a storage depot for construction equipment and built a Colonial Revival style home. In the 1960s, the land was sold to prominent developer Edmund Peachey, whose company built much of the existing development. Peachey named the area West Deane Park after his wife Deane. Today the area is populated by people and families with varying income levels, ethnicities and household sizes.

Vallengrove Park

Vallengrove Park is a subdivision developed in 1961 between Wellesworth area and highway 27 by Vallen- Grove Developments. The three bedroom- one bath simple brick bungalows with garage on approx. fifty foot wide lots sold for approx. seventeen thousand dollars new. Their real estate value in 2011 sells from four hundred and seventy five thousand and up. It was marked in the early 1960s by a red brick entrance at the then- connecting Birgitta Crescent- to the long-gone off entrance from the southbound service road of then Highway 27, and leading into the suburb between that west of 27 towards Wellsworth Park, and halfway north along Odessa Ave. and as far as Renforth. That new area was built in 1961. The older area further north along Odessa and out branching roads was built a few years earlier: wherever one sees the old wood hydro poles instead of concrete. Vallengrove Park was once farmland. Cows bones were found by children digging around before all areas were paved and settled, and another farm was at the location of the Catholic church - Nativity of Our Lord and was torn down at same time. When Highway 27 was expanded into the 427, the east loop homes of Summerfield Crescent were expropriated around 1967, and moved to Bramalea. Part of their front lawns can be seen today at the sound barrier wall. Wellsworth Junior School was opened in 1960 when hundreds of tulips were given by the Netherlands for planting. Tulips are still grown there almost 50 years later. The area's high school was Vincent Massey Collegiate Institute. It closed in 1986 with a reunion there. The northern most part of The West Mall ended as a bumpy, dirt bicycle path a short distance south of its intersection at Rathburn. The south end of that unfinished part continued to the edge of Burnhamthorpe, where Percy Bishop built the new Etobicore Mall across from the Shaver/Bishop farm house - then directly at the corner of Burnhamthorpe and The West Mall. Mr. Bishop gave land to Etobicoke in order for the road to be opened up, and had it built, around 1964.

Schools