
An ad announcing the opening of Agincourt Mall, 23 November 1968.
Introduction
Agincourt Mall appears to be a small, dated neighbourhood shopping centre that no one will particularly miss once it is demolished. Constructed in 1966, Agincourt (located at 3850 Sheppard Avenue East at Kennedy Road) was the first indoor shopping mall in the Borough of Scarborough. Until then, strip malls like the Knob Hill Plaza on Eglinton Avenue East dominated the local retail landscape.

Agincourt Plaza, 1960s.
The commercial landscape of Scarborough was dominated by neighbourhood shopping centres like this one until the opening of Agincourt Mall in 1966.
However, the design of the mall (conceptualized by architect Donald A. McCuaig), merits a closer examination. It is a representative example of an older neighbourhood mall with many original architectural details surviving to the present day. The design also symbolizes the culture of mass consumption that characterized the everyday life in the postwar suburbs.
Originally anchored by a Loblaws and Woolco, Agincourt is part of the suburban expansion and residential intensification in Scarborough during the sixties. It was a decade dominated by the construction of high-rise apartment buildings and larger commerical centres, such as the Cedarbrae Plaza, anchored by Simpsons and opened in 1962.
History of Agincourt Village

Agincourt Post Office, circa 1920. Toronto Star Archives.
The mall was constructed on the land owned by the Tam O’Shanter Country Club, which remained its neighbour to the west. Previously, the site was the location of a farm cultivated by the pioneering Kennedy family, who settled in the area during the nineteenth century. The village of Agincourt was one of the most prosperous settlements in the Township of Scarborough.
The presence of two railway stations in the area, Canadian National and Pacific, brought both prestige and employment to the village. The early settlers in the areas were the Paterson, Davidson, Elliott, and Kennedy families. The farmers and their families were considerably involved in its daily affairs and sought to bring improvements to the community. A post office, a library, a bank, and a local telephone exchange were located at the crossroads of Church and Main Streets (presently Midland Avenue and Sheppard Avenue East). Three churches served the local community: Knox Presbyterian, Knox United, and St. Timothy’s Anglican.
Agincourt was also the site of the first residential subdivision in Scarborough, constructed on First Avenue (Agincourt Drive) in 1913, on the land belonging to the Paterson family (whose handsome 1891 farmhouse is still visible at 4185 Sheppard).
The village remained a sleepy rural enclave until the early fifties, when the first wave of postwar residential development occurred. Veterans constructed a subdivision under the Veterans’ Land Act. The neighbourhood, named Homelands, was built close to Kennedy, north of Sheppard.
In the early 1950s, a real-estate developer named Donald Horton acquired the farming lots situated at the northeast corner of Church and Main, behind the Knox United Church and Agincourt High School. Horton named the streets after his relatives and neighbours: Glen Watford Drive, Lauralynn Crescent, Todd Road, and other streets dominated by fine middle-class ranch and bungalow houses. His company also built a number of residences on both sides of Church, north of Main.
As depicted by a photograph of the mall shortly after it opened, by the late 1960s, most of the rural vestiges had been levelled and replaced by sprawl and the area in the vicinity of the mall was fully developed (although it was considerably less dense than in the present day).
“Parking for Thousands of Cars”
The aging pastelle interior of the mall with many vacant storefronts has the appearance of a discount shopping centre (or perhaps even a dead mall), but in the sixties it attracted a middle-class clientele. The mall was constructed at a cost of $12 million (approximately $99,325,000 today, adjusted for inflation). An ad announcing the opening of the mall at 10:00 am, November 23rd, 1966 proclaimed:
“Opens tomorrow… East Metro’s newest most exciting shopping [c]omplex. Completely enclosed mall. Canada’s finest stores situated alon[g] a beautiful park like mall.
Relax… enjoy weather-controlled shopping… appropriate music… fast friendly service, and a Plaza full of sparkling new merchandise for Christmas.”

Woolco Department Store, Agincourt Mall, 1970s.
Woolco was a discount department store that sold merchandise at lower prices than Eatons or Simpsons and was the mall’s largest tenant. It offered a variety of products: women’s and men’s shoes and apparel, cosmetics, jewellery, toys, furniture, office, sewing, gardening and pet supplies, hardware, sporting goods, and appliances. Like other locations, it also included a lunch counter named Red Grille. An auto service centre was operated by the B.F. Goodrich Company.
Woolco was famous for the company’s “$1.44 days,” which occurred on Mondays. It was a promotional, store-wide sale, when selected merchandise from the store’s various departments were priced $1.44 (about $10.69 in today’s figures, adjusted for inflation). Full-page ads in the Toronto Daily Star announced the all-day event, “[t]he sale that beats all one-priced sale days!”
Consumerism, Mall Store Galore

A travelling midway in the parking lot of the Agincourt Mall, June 1968. Scarborough Archives.
While the mall was never upscale, it primarily catered to a clientele that was comfortably middle-class. Chartwell, a developer of a new subdivision in the vicinity of Kennedy Road and Huntingwood Drive) touted the proximity of the mall as one of the features of the neighbourhood: “[c]omplete with supermarket, boutiques, beauty salons and gift shops.” In 1968, its marketing slogan was “Where Shopping is Always a Pleasure” and it featured over fifty stores. A tall neon sign beckoned drivers to visit the mall and a gas station operated by Bob Boyce under the Shell banner occupied the northwest corner of the intersection.
The interior was tastefully appointed: skylights provided plenty of natural light and there was a fountain in the centre of the mall as its focal point. It also had terrazzo floors and the ceiling consisted of brass-resembling panels. The eastern wing of the mall, leading to the back entrance, still retains the original look.
Woolco’s exterior was adorned with a decorative stonewall (still presently visible near the main entrance of Walmart, which replaced Woolco in 1994). Brown bricks and white concrete arches illuminated by spotlights are around the back entrances. These architectural designs were incorporated into the advertising of the mall (two arches form a capital letter “m” as visible in the ad above).
These are the only original details that survive (however, the spotlights are no longer used) in addition to the eastern wing.
To preserve the uniform, sleek interior of the mall dominated by storefonts designed in white frosted glass and aluminium, shop owners were only allowed to post a sign above the main entrance and not make any other modifications. Agincourt Shoe Repairs, one of the mall’s tenants since its opening, still has the storefront from 1966. Agincourt Optical also retains most of its original look. If you look closely toward the corner of the photograph, it is possible to spot the small, square “Am” neon sign used in the original advertising for the mall’s opening (and also potentially throughout the exterior).

Loblaws grocery store and the main entrance to the Agincourt Mall, 1970s.
During the sixties, the mall had both chain and independently owned shops, according to a city directory and ads published in the Star. However, like today, it is the latter type of stores that dominate the retail space in the mall.
Stores specializing in apparel and home decor predominated: Cover Girl, Lisa Fashions (women’s clothing), Morse Jewellers, Caron Shoes, Young Canada (children’s wear), Aikenhead’s (a hardware store), Designers World (a fabric and sewing supply store), Kramer Interior (draperies), Living Lighting (home lighting).
Venerable Canadian chains were also present, including Jack Fraser (men’s apparel), Laura Secord, Reitmans, United Cigar, and Woman’s Bakery. Services offered at the mall were provided by a florist (Angelique Flowers, one of the two original tenants), a barber (Carousel), and a pet store, Agincourt Aquaria. Kennedy Snack Bar and Agincourt Mall Restaurant served hungry shoppers. National Trust and Toronto Dominion Bank both had branches here.
Danforth Radio, a small chain specializing in the sale of furniture and electronics, was also located at the mall, while Leisure Sports carried an assortment of sport equipment and specialized in the selling of snowmobiles, with “[d]emonstrations at the Mall. Film Presentations on Family Fun, Racing & Jumping, Weekend Safaris and Skidoo Rallies.”
A bookstore, Book Fair, and an art gallery, Golden Horn, were also at the mall. In addition, there was a non-descript assortment of gift and lingerie boutique, as well as hobby stores, and a record shop, The Disk Shop.
Candlelight Banquet Room occupied the second floor of the mall, which was devoted to medical offices, mall’s administrative offices, and the local merchants’ association.

Agincourt Branch, Scarborough Public Library, December 1970.
Toronto Public Library Archives.
In March 1967, the Agincourt Neighbourhood Branch Library, operated by the Scarborough Public Library, relocated to the mall. Its owner welcomed to presence of the library in the mall, as it helped to generate business: women were able to leave their children in the library while they shopped, uninterrupted.
Agincourt Mall’s ascendency as Scarborough’s prime regional shopping centre was signalled by the opening of the Scarborough Town Centre in 1973. In a car-oriented suburban landscape, the new mall was only few additional miles away from Kennedy and Sheppard, with the 401 Highway providing easy access to the new commercial centre.
Explore
BlogTO profiled Agincourt Mall in their regular series on “malls in need of makeover” in 2011. The archived version of the article has a number of comments that describes the many changes that the mall has experienced since its opening.
The mall’s website has a brief description of the history of the shopping centre, illustrated by a sepia aerial photograph taken when it was new.
Carrianne Leung, author of That Time I Loved You, was interviewed about her experiences growing up in Scarborough and working at Woolco in the 1980s as a teenager. Her novel takes place in a neighbourhood close to the mall and is highly recommended.
History of the village of Agincourt, along with archival photographs, are available from the Scarborough Historical Society. Writer Sean Marshall conducted a walking tour of the neighbourhood for Spacing Toronto in 2009, describing in detail various historical landmarks that survive to the present day.
References
“Agincourt Mall, Fancy Fruits” Toronto Daily Star, 25 Sept. 1967, p. 38.
“Aikenhead’s Annual 0.88 Sale: 9 Great Days” Toronto Daily Star, 16 Oct. 1968, p. 38.
Bonis, Robert R. A History of Scarborough. Scarborough Public Library, 1968.
Bonis, Robert R. A History of the Village of Agincourt. 1965.
“Buying a Snowmobile?” Toronto Daily Star, 15 Dec. 1966, p. 15.
“Class ‘A’ Mechanics, Woolco Auto Service Centre.” Toronto Daily Star, 14 Oct. 1966, p. 47.
“For $26,950 You Can Call It a Home.” Toronto Daily Star, 9 Nov. 1968, p. 19.
“Hand-Made, Who Wouldn’t?” Toronto Daily Star, 29 Nov. 1966, p. A2.
“Library’s Puppet Show Bonanza for Stores.” Toronto Daily Star, 18 Feb. 1969, p. 25.
Might Directories Limited. 1969 Toronto City Directory, vol. 94. Might Directories Limited, 1958. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/torontocitydirectory1969. Accessed 16 Apr. 2020.
“Never Has $84 Bought So Much Suit!” Toronto Daily Star, 14 Aug. 1968, p. 5.
“Northeast Expansion In Scarboro Planned.” The Globe and Mail, 5 Oct. 1965, p. 5.
Robinson, Jim. “From Milk to Home Lighting, Franchising’s Catching On.” Toronto Daily Star, 24 Oct. 1968, p. 22.
“Self-Help Tree Plan Decorates Subdivision.” The Globe and Mail, 7 May 1951, p. 4.
“Surfastone… A Light Weight, Low Cost Aggregate Finish.” The Canadian Architect, 1969, vol. 14, no. 12, p. 66.
Toronto Public Library. Agincourt. https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Nr=p_cat_branch_name:Agincourt. Accessed 14 Apr. 2020.
“Woolco Cosmetic Department.” Toronto Daily Star, 12 Dec. 1968, p. 82.
“Woolco Department Store, Opening Soon.” Toronto Daily Star, 9 Sept. 1966, p. 61.
“Woolco Department Store, Opening Soon.” Toronto Daily Star, 9 Sept. 1966, p. 44.
“Woolco: Monday is 1.44 Day.” Toronto Daily Star, 8 June 1968, p. 68.
“Woolco: Monday is 1.44 Day.” Toronto Daily Star, 6 July 1968, p. 13.
“Young Canada.” Toronto Daily Star, 8 Feb. 1967, p. 64.
“You Have Just Seen ‘George Boot’ from Caron Shoes.” Toronto Daily Star, 28 Nov. 1968, p. 18.