A Neighbourhood Walking Tour

The southwestern part of Scarborough contains several notable mid-century modern and expressionist examples of vernacular architecture, centred around Brimley Avenue and Eglinton Avenue East: restaurants, shopping plazas, a liquor outlet, and even a local hotel. On the whole, the streetscape of the neighbourhood appears to be an unremarkable stretch of aging suburbia, punctured by cracked concrete. Many of these structures have not been preserved well and others have been demolished.

The objective of this article is to create awareness about their existence (or disappearance) and to highlight the importance of architectual design in the everyday life of the 1950s and ’60s. The content will be continually updated with new buildings and information.

Knob Hill Plaza

2607 Eglinton Avenue East–2705 Eglinton Avenue East

This shopping centre was constructed in several stages in the late 1950s to serve the needs of the residents of Knob Hill, a housing subdivision developed in 1953. The plaza is an example of the type of retail services that were first available to suburban residents in Scarborough (the first indoor mall in Agincourt wasn’t constructed until 1966).

Originally, it consisted of grocery, hardware, furniture, clothing, and convenience stores. Other types of businesses were a pharmarcy, bakery, restaurants and an Italian delicatessen, Gas and Maria’s. Each storefront is individually owned and has its own address (in place of a unit number). Offices and/or apartments occupy the second storey of each building.

In 1968, Scarborough’s municipal government introduced a bylaw aimed to reduce the cluttered appearance of the large and abundant neon signs that graced the façades of many commercial structures in the borough. George Fleming, a buidling commissioner, described the signage at the plaza as one of the “worst examples” in Scarborough.

The exteriors have mostly been remodelled over the years, but there are several façades that still retain their original features:

• the decorative stonework at number 2629 (dating from the 1960s, originally housing a chiropractic office)
• the vitrolite tiles, hanging lamps, and doors at number 2683 (a hair salon most likely constructed in the late 1950s)
• the yellow-brick exterior of the bank (number 2705).

Several storefronts are currently empty. In 2018, Toronto Star extensively chronicled the ongoing saga of plaza’s maintenance issues.

Liquor Control Board of Ontario

510 Brimley Road

The most striking (yet unforunately overlooked) building in the area is a LCBO outlet that opened in December, 1959. It has an asymmetrical, butterfly-shaped roof and a brown exterior.

“Quick Service” & Casual Dining Joints

In the golden age of the automobile, chain fast-food restaurants proliferated on both sides of Eglinton between Midland Avenue and Brimley Road: A&W, Mister Donut, Red Barn, and Fuller’s. Most of these locations have housed different businesses over the years and their exteriors have been altered.

But because they were a product of the fifties and sixties, their design wasn’t ordinary. With Eglinton serving as a major thoroughfare through southern Scarborough, these buildings were representative of roadside architecture. Their exterior were adorned with neon lights and carefully executed details to entice drivers with a roadside stop:

• Mr. Donut, a coffee shop, had a circular awning over the front entrance (the building still stands at number 2510 and was most recently used as a car dealership)
• Red Barn, a Canadian burger joint, was designed to resemble a red and a white metal barn. It was located at the northeast corner of Brimley and Eglinton
• Fuller’s, a diner, had a sloped, angular roof, and decorative stonework. The building is located at number 2829.

Ferndale Baptist Church

614 Brimley Road

The parish celebrated the opening of the sanctuary on Sunday, September 23rd, 1962 with a series of dedication services. The church has a sloped, angular roof, front cathedral window, and stained glass.

References

Dexter, Brian. “Scarborough Starts Canada’s War on Garish Signs.” Toronto Daily Star, 31 Aug. 1968, p. 32.

“Ferndale Baptist Church.” The Globe and Mail, 22 Sept. 1962, p. 42.

LeBlanc, Dave. “Saving Suburbia, One Freaky Building at a Time.” The Globe and Mail, 20 Mar. 2009, p. G2.

Might Directories Limited. 1958 Toronto City Directory, vol. 58. Might Directories Limited, 1958. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/torontocitydirectory1958. Accessed 4 Apr. 2020.