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A Growing Community
Early foundations
One of the first prominent buildings to appear in the Junction Triangle was the Perth Avenue Methodist Church, built in 1889. This church, once located at the corner of Perth and Ernest Avenue, supported a growing population and became a valued institution in the new Junction Triangle community. New families established roots in the area, making up the varied congregation of the church. The same year that Perth Avenue Methodist church was built, the Junction Triangle established its first neighbourhood blocks and homes, with the hopes that more people would choose to settle in the neighbourhood. According to city records, seven people moved into these newly built houses in 1889. In the years that followed, linesmen of the Bell Telephone company, railway workers, and factory workers increasingly took up residence in the area, forming the nucleus of the working-class Junction Triangle community.
In 1913, the Perth Avenue Methodist Church moved to the north-east corner of Wallace and Perth Avenue to accommodate its swelling congregation. Architecture firm G. M. Miller and Company designed the newer and larger church that now sits at 243 Perth Avenue, the same firm responsible for designing Toronto’s famed music venue, Massey Hall. Miller and Co.’s church is still standing today, but was redeveloped into condominiums in the 2010s. The Neo-Gothic facade of the building was carefully preserved during the conversion of the building and can still be admired from the street today.
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Ukrainian immigration
As the community in the Junction Triangle began to grow, immigration to the neighbourhood became more prevalent. Newcomers from the Ukraine became one of the most prominent communities to settle in the Junction Triangle. Ukrainians began to arrive in Canada in the 1890s and, by the 1910s, the Ukrainian population in Canada was substantial. This period, from the 1890s to 1914, is considered the first wave of Ukrainian immigration to Canada and it is estimated that 150,000 Ukrainian immigrants arrived during this time.
The Junction Triangle proved to be a great place for immigrants to settle; many factories opened in the area at the end of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. With these factories came jobs. By 1971, the Ukrainian population in Toronto had reached 60,750. The Ukrainian presence in the Junction Triangle was perhaps best solidified with the building of the St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral.
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St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral
As a result of the growing Ukrainian population, the Junction Triangle became home to Toronto’s first Ukrainian religious institution: the St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral. Before the church was built, congregation members lacked a space to gather and held divine liturgies at the homes of their neighbours. In 1912, the Ukrainian community in the Junction Triangle banded together and secured a priest and the deed to the land where a Catholic cathedral could be built. Construction began immediately. By 1913, the main modernist-style structure of St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral was complete. The interior work took an additional 27 years and was funded mainly through donations from parishioners. Despite an incomplete interior, services took place at the new church site throughout construction.
The cathedral also eventually became home to a choir, a school, and other community groups. Unfortunately, the original cathedral burnt down in 1964, but was quickly rebuilt and reopened in 1965. The building of a Ukrainian Catholic cathedral in the Junction Triangle fostered the creation of other Ukrainian organizations, such as the Toronto West Branch of the Ukrainian National Federation, founded nearby on Dupont Street. This building featured a library, space for performance groups, and even a hunting-fishing club.
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Sports in the Triangle
Along with churches, many community-led organizations were established throughout the twentieth century. With more people settling in the Junction Triangle, events such as sporting tournaments became popular spectacles. In the adjoining West Junction neighbourhood, lacrosse was a popular sport. The Junction Shamrocks Junior lacrosse team secured the winning title in the Junior Canadian Lacrosse tournament of 1903, one year after they were formed, and won another championship in the Ontario Lacrosse Association tournament of 1907.
Baseball was also very popular, and frequently ushered in many spectators to Perth Avenue Playground, now Perth Square Park, in the Junction Triangle. There is no shortage archival images showing large crowds gathered around the baseball diamond that was once located in the park just south of Dupont Street. Sports continue to be an important part of the community today. In addition to lacrosse and baseball, soccer has become a popular pastime in the Junction Triangle. Amidst the growth of the Portuguese population of the area in the 1970s and 80s, the Sporting Clube Portugues De Toronto was formed. Since 1981 the club has hosted soccer camps and sporting events throughout city, exemplifying the continued enthusiasm for sports in the neighbourhood.
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Sources
Andrew Gregorovich, “The Ukrainian Community in Toronto from World War One to 1971,” from Polyphony, Summer 1984, pp. 123-126.
K. Taylor, “Perth Avenue,” One Gal’s Toronto, October 14, 2017.
“Immigration History: Ethno-Cultural Groups – Ukrainian,” Library and Archives Canada, March 6, 2020.
Taras Shevenko Museum, “Community Stories: First Wave of Ukrainian Immigration to Canada 1891-1914,” Virtual Museum of Canada, Copyright 2021.
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