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46-579: During the 1920s, as the new communities surrounding Toronto grew rapidly, several bridges were constructed to overcome the barrier of the Don Valley. Among these were the Vale of Avoca ( St. Clair Avenue east of Yonge Street ) and the East York – Leaside Viaduct. The town of Leaside, built by Canadian Northern Railway in the late teens and early 1920s, sought to attract investors and homebuyers. A connection over

92-589: A joke, Edwin and Albert made street signs using their names and posted them at Yonge and St. Clair. The St. Clair sign survived for a while and the name became adopted as the name for the 3rd Concession Road. The first known printed use of the St. Clair name was in an 1878 publication, Illustrated Historical Atlas of the County of York . In 1913, a Roman Catholic church was built in the Earlscourt District, and named after

138-419: A major commodity crop in the 19th and 20th centuries. A few forest and wetland areas have survived. Their area has declined significantly since European-American settlement, clearing, and development of cultivated fields for various agricultural crops. Much of the shoreline on both sides of the St. Clair River is urbanized and extensively industrialized . Intensive development has occurred in and near

184-591: A similar building style. Although the area has been historically referenced as predominantly Italian, it is no longer populated by any one majority. Many new homebuyers looking to purchase in the City are choosing St. Clair West for its relatively modest home prices, the pride of ownership apparent throughout its neighbourhoods, and the new St. Clair Ave. TTC streetcar right-of-way. St. Clair Avenue holds Toronto's biggest celebration of salsa Latino culture. The two-day street festival attracts an estimate of 250,000–500,000 people,

230-415: Is 40.5 miles (65.2 km) long and drops 5 feet (2 m) in elevation from Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair. The flow rate averages around 182,000 cubic feet per second (5,200 m /s), and the drainage area is 223,600 square miles (579,000 km ). This takes into account the combined drainage areas of Lakes Huron , Michigan , and Superior . Generations of indigenous cultures traveled by canoe on

276-586: Is a 40.5-mile-long (65.2 km) river in central North America which flows from Lake Huron into Lake St. Clair , forming part of the international boundary between Canada and the United States and between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Michigan . The river is a significant component in the Great Lakes Waterway , whose shipping channels permit cargo vessels to travel between

322-689: Is not included. Through the Great Lakes Agreement, a Remedial Action Plan (RAP) was created to initiate cleanup measures. Its background report noted the adverse effects of pollution in the river and lakes: According to the Stage 1 Remedial Action Plan (RAP), the reasons for the Loss of Fish and Wildlife Habitat beneficial use impairment (BUI) in the St. Clair River were general loss of the aquatic plant community due to industrial, agricultural, recreational, and urban developments. A large blob of perchloroethylene

368-451: Is the intersection with Yonge Street, which has experienced heavy nodal development since the opening of the St. Clair subway station there in 1954. The buildings there include the world headquarters of George Weston Foods Inc. St. Clair now intersects with two more subway stations, Warden Station in the east and St. Clair West Station near Bathurst Street, as well as Scarborough GO Station . The Toronto Transit Commission decided to upgrade

414-507: Is well known for the high population of Portuguese , Latin American and Italian people. St. Clair is usually where the Italian and Portuguese soccer fans celebrate after a game their nations won. Over the years, the Italian and Portuguese people throughout Toronto have established a rivalry in soccer against each other. One of the largest celebrations on St. Clair Avenue was when Italy won

460-487: The 1982 FIFA World Cup , which involved an estimated 300,000 fans, shutting the street down for nearly 20 blocks between Caledonia and Oakwood. Corso Italia, Toronto's other Italian enclave, is found on St. Clair Avenue West, between Westmount Avenue (just east of Dufferin Street ) and Lansdowne Avenue . St. Clair West is also used as an umbrella term to refer to all neighbourhoods from Old Weston Road to Bathurst as they share

506-486: The Mesabi Range , copper , and grain , all products of settlers' labor. Iron was taken to Ashtabula, Ohio and other industrial cities for processing and steel manufacture, and grain was often shipped through to major eastern markets such as Cleveland and New York City . From the late 19th century, lake steamers carried passengers and traveled among the small towns along the St. Clair and Detroit rivers, and around

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552-695: The beneficial use impairments (BUI) were impaired, which would lead to a $ 21 million investment from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative . After several habitat projects, only two impairments exists: the Restrictions on Fish and Wildlife Consumption and the Restrictions on Drinking Water Consumption or Taste and Odor Problems. A beneficial use impairment is a change within the physical, biological, and chemical consistency that causes significant environmental degradation . The St. Clair River has undergone several projects and clean up to remove

598-528: The BUIs that affected the area. There are currently only 2 BUIs left on the St. Clair River, and once those 2 are removed, the river might go through the delisting process. The St. Clair River AOC includes the entire river, from the Blue Water Bridge at the north end, to the southern tip of Seaway Island, west to St. Johns Marsh and east to include the north shore of Mitchells Bay on Lake St. Clair. Anchor Bay

644-452: The City of Toronto. To stimulate development along what was then largely a rural road, the city's Toronto Civic Railways built a streetcar line from Yonge Street to Caledonia Road by 1912. This included the construction of a bridge across Nordheimer Ravine (after an earth berm collapsed) as well as what was termed the Lauder Fill : the burying of the western branch of Garrison Creek ,

690-535: The Don Valley to the town of Todmorden Mills and on to Toronto would provide this. Sod was turned in mid-December and active construction began in January 1927 under the direction of bridge designer Frank Barber. The bridge was rapidly assembled throughout the spring and summer, and inaugurated on October 29 as the Confederation Bridge, in honour of the sixtieth anniversary of that event. The tiled mosaic handrail

736-728: The Great Lakes. At one time 31 lines operated, but with the rise of automobile use in the 20th century, they gradually declined. The St. Clair River and its Lambton County tributaries in Ontario contribute 103,210 acres (41,770 ha) to the watershed . This figure does not include the Sydenham River watershed. In Michigan, the Black , Pine , and Belle rivers drain 780,600 acres (315,900 ha) in Lapeer , Macomb , Sanilac , and St. Clair counties;

782-477: The Line 1 Yonge-University subway. The eastern section of St. Clair Avenue East is serviced by the 8 Broadview and 102 Markham Road bus routes. St. Clair Avenue takes its name from Augustine St. Clare , a character from the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin . The Grainger family, who rented a farm near the present-day intersection of Avenue Road and St. Clair, had viewed a stage production of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Two members of

828-493: The St. Clair River shoreline and flats consist of two biological zones: upland and transitional, both of which are normally above the water table , but which may be flooded periodically. The upland forests consist of deciduous species, many of which are near their northern climatic limit. Most pre-European settlement trees have been cleared for agriculture, industry, or urbanization. Remaining forest stands, such as oak savannas as well as lakeplain prairies, are found along

874-764: The St. Clair River ranges from deep and fast near the Blue Water Bridge to shallow and slow in the lower river near its discharge point into Lake St. Clair. Each area provides a unique habitat for aquatic life: The St. Clair River is a binational Area of Concern (AOC) that borders both the United States and Canada. An AOC is an area within the Great Lakes, that has suffered from environmental destruction. The St. Clair River has been considered an AOC because conventional pollutants such as bacteria , heavy metals , toxic organics , contaminated sediment , fish consumption advisories, impacted animal and plant life, and beach closings. The United States found that 10 out of 14 of

920-401: The St. Clair dropped the long-term average of Great Lakes Huron and Michigan by about 16 inches. A bi-national Great Lakes water-level study concluded in 2013 that unexpected erosion since the last major St. Clair dredging project in the early 1960s has dropped the lakes' long-term average by an additional 3 to 5 inches. Today, these lakes are nearly 2 feet lower than before human modifications to

966-488: The St. Clair streetcar to a dedicated right-of-way to increase service reliability when the streetcar tracks were approaching the end of their lifespan in the early 2000s. In October 2006, construction started on the right-of-way in the centre of St. Clair. St. Clair Avenue was one of the few streets in Toronto wide enough to accommodate a dedicated right-of-way without significantly reducing the width of traffic lanes. The project

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1012-461: The actual Saint Clare . St. Clare's Church is at 1118 St. Clair Avenue West, on the north side of the street, east of Dufferin. The parish opened the St. Clare's Catholic School, an elementary school, next door in 1910. The first settlement on St. Clair was at Yonge Street, where the Heath family bought land in 1837. A thriving neighbourhood, Deer Park , was established by the 1850s. The next settlement

1058-428: The adjacent cities of Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia , Ontario , at the northern end of the river. The most dense concentration of industry, including a large petrochemical complex, lies along the Ontario shore south of Sarnia . Historically Sarnia was founded as a fur trading post. Several communities along the St. Clair rely on the river as their primary source of drinking water . About one-third to one-half of

1104-428: The bridge to widen the deck to either side and the piers were reinforced on the corners to carry the additional weight. The expanded bridge had guardrail consisting of a concrete barrier topped with a double tubular railing, considerably plainer than the original decorative parapets. Between 2004 and 2006, the bridge was rehabilitated. The second of two contracts to rehabilitate the bridge was awarded in 2005 and included

1150-458: The congestion of Bloor Street . By 1952, St. Clair was developed enough that it no longer served a provincial role; a new Toronto Bypass road under construction between Weston and Highway 11 would instead serve to divert highway traffic off local surface streets. Much of the development from this era survives. St. Clair West is one of many streets in Toronto which has experienced little development since an initial building boom. The exception

1196-581: The east to Scarlett Road in the west, a distance of approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi). An eastern section picks up on the far side of the Don Valley at Taylor Creek Park, extending for 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) to Kingston Road . Like all streets in Toronto which cross Yonge Street , St. Clair is divided into separate East and West sections, each with its own street numbers beginning at Yonge Street. Unlike most other concession-road streets in Toronto, St. Clair does not extend west into Etobicoke , due to

1242-516: The family, Albert and Edwin, adopted names of two characters as their middle names as each boy had no given middle name. Edwin added Norton to his name, and Albert chose St. Clare, although he used the incorrect spelling of St. Clair, as it was used in the theatre program. ( Lake St. Clair and the St. Clair River use the same spelling, though they are named for the actual Saint Clare of Assisi , on whose feast day they were encountered by Sieur de La Salle .) As

1288-488: The final section to be routed into the city's stormwater system. The growth of the inner suburbs of Leaside, Rosedale and Moore Park prompted the city of Toronto to approach the operators of Mount Pleasant Cemetery in 1912 with the goal of extending the short Mount Pleasant Road south through the cemetery to connect with St. Clair. Though the operators initially refused, they later accepted the city's offer of $ 100,000 ($ 2,095,000, adjusted for inflation) in 1915. The muddy road

1334-572: The lakes and rivers in this area, carrying on trade across the region and continent. In the 18th century, French voyageurs and coureurs des bois traveled on the river to trade with the Ojibwa and other regional Native Americans and transport furs in canoes to major posts of French and British traders, including Fort Detroit , built in 1701 downriver from Lake St. Clair on the Detroit River. European demand for American furs, especially beaver ,

1380-713: The majority of them being from Latinos living in Toronto and all over Ontario come together to dance, eat, shop and celebrate the culture of Latin America. The festival is always held in July on the week, which it has been traditionally recognized as Latino Week in Toronto, in honour of the festival. "Jane St. Clair", in the Barenaked Ladies ' song " Jane ", is named for the intersection of Jane Street and St. Clair Avenue. [REDACTED] Media related to St. Clair Avenue at Wikimedia Commons St. Clair River The St. Clair River

1426-494: The new designer transit shelters. Trees were added, as well as ornamental pedestrian lighting along certain stretches, with the most extravagant in terms of design being in Corso Italia . The thorough redesign and reconstruction of the street was extended even to the streetcar loops. The streetcar right-of-way project upgraded the aesthetics of the public realm dramatically, though sidewalks had to be narrowed in places to accommodate

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1472-497: The northern arc of Dundas Street crossing the Humber River near its western terminus, forming a link to Burnhamthorpe Road , its approximate equivalent arterial. St. Clair Avenue West has heavy automotive and public transit traffic. Over half the commuters in rush hour traffic travel by the 512 St. Clair streetcar line which connects with St. Clair subway station on Line 1 Yonge–University and St. Clair West station also on

1518-564: The residents of Michigan receive their water from the St. Clair/Detroit River waterway. Industries including petroleum refineries , chemical manufacturers, paper mills , salt producers, and electric power plants also need high-quality water for their operations. Since the late 20th century and passage of environmental laws to protect air and water quality, there have been occasional incidents when some of these industries have illegally contaminated river waters after discharging pollutants . Major clean-up activities were required. Land areas of

1564-636: The restoration of the decorative handrail from the original 1927 design. St. Clair Avenue St. Clair Avenue is a major east-west street in Toronto , Ontario , Canada. It was laid out in the late 18th century by the British as a concession road (the Third Concession), 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) north of Bloor Street and 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) north of Queen Street . St. Clair Avenue has two sections. The western section extends from Moore Park in

1610-707: The right-of-way and two lanes of traffic in each direction. The traffic lanes themselves were narrowed slightly. From east to west, the main section of St. Clair passes through several prominent neighbourhoods starting with Moore Park and Deer Park . West of Avenue Road are Forest Hill , the South Hill , Hillcrest , Wychwood , Oakwood , Earlscourt (including Corso Italia ), and The Junction . The eastern section of St. Clair passes eastward starting in Parkview Hills , through Woodbine Gardens, Clairlea , Birchmount Park, and Kennedy Park to Cliffcrest . St. Clair Avenue

1656-512: The riverbed of the St. Clair River. This record low has raised concerns about the long-term health of the lakes. Activists urge remediation to slow the flow of waters through the St. Clair River and out of the lake system, to restore former water levels. However, as of October 2020, the Lake Huron water is averaging 581.5 feet above sea level, which is considerably above the Datum of 577.5 feet, and above

1702-609: The southern reaches of the river, particularly on the islands of the St. Clair River Delta and on the Michigan shore in Algonac State Park . Transitional species are abundant in the low-lying regions, categorized as shrub ecotones , wet meadows , sedge marshes , and island shorelines and beaches . This habitat is home to water and land mammals , including humans, as well as songbirds , waterfowl , insects , pollinators , reptiles , and amphibians . The aquatic habitat of

1748-550: The upper Great Lakes on their way to new homes in the American West. Their farms later shipped out grain to eastern markets as part of the developing area. Beginning in the late 19th century, iron ore mined in the Mesabi Range, copper and grain were carried east through the lakes by lake freighters , increasingly made of steel in the 20th century, traveled throughout the Great Lakes, transporting commodities such as iron ore from

1794-449: The upper and lower Great Lakes . The river, which some consider a strait , flows in a southerly direction, connecting the southern end of Lake Huron to the northern end of Lake St. Clair . It branches into several channels near its mouth at Lake St. Clair, creating a broad delta region known as the St. Clair Flats . Like a strait, the river serves as a narrow strip of water which connects two larger bodies of water. The river

1840-485: The watersheds around Bunce Creek and Marine City are relatively small. Most of the watershed away from the river in Ontario and Michigan is used for agriculture . There were numerous sugar beet farms in the flatlands, and an annual beet market was held in Marine City, Michigan , for years at harvest time. Many of the 19th-century English immigrants to this area came from Lincolnshire , England, where sugar beets were

1886-446: Was about 5.5 km (3.4 mi) west, at Old Weston Road (then Weston Road), where settlement of Carlton Village began in the late 1840s. The western end of St. Clair experienced substantial development, with the municipalities of West Toronto, Earlscourt, Dovercourt, and Oakwood established there. These municipalities were annexed by Toronto between 1908 and 1911, and the western section of St. Clair Avenue became entirely managed by

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1932-408: Was designed by New York architect Calude Bragdon with tiles supplied by Italian Mosaic and Tile Company. In the late 1960s, as the first of numerous plans appeared to extend Leslie Street south of Eglinton , plans were initiated to widen the bridge to support six lanes of traffic. The bridge was closed beginning September 16, 1968, and reopened February 8, 1969. Girders were attached to the sides of

1978-649: Was found at the bottom of the St Clair River due to runoff from Dow Chemical Corp in 1985. It remains there, slowly mixing with the water. The RAP for the St. Clair River AOC was initiated in 1985. A bi-national group called the RAP Team, which included representatives from federal, state, and provincial governments of both Canada and the United States was established in 1987 to develop the plan and to ensure adequate and appropriate public involvement. Federal officials have long acknowledged that dredging and riverbed mining in

2024-424: Was high until the 1830s. During the mid-19th century and later, Port Huron and Marine City, Michigan , became major shipbuilding centers, especially the latter. Lumber harvested on The Thumb of Michigan was shipped downriver as log rafts to Detroit for processing and export both domestically and internationally. The wooden ships built along the river carried migrants and immigrants up the river and west through

2070-421: Was important for St. Clair West not only for the transit upgrades, but because it involved a near-total reconstruction of the street. Water mains were replaced. Overhead wires along the side of street and large wooden poles holding them up were phased out in favour of buried utilities, leaving only the single electric wires for streetcars. Unique poles and white streetlights were installed, coordinated in design with

2116-409: Was opened to traffic in 1918. The construction of the Vale of Avoca through the first half of the 1920s prompted the new Toronto Transit Commission to extend the St. Clair streetcar line east to Mount Pleasant Road and then north to Eglinton Avenue. From 1937 to 1952, St. Clair West formed part of provincial Highway 5A , providing an alternate route between Islington and Yonge Street that avoided

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