33 Facts About Mimico

Mimico is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, being located in the south-west area of Toronto on Lake Ontario.

The Town of Mimico was established by a plan of sub-division in 1856, but was not sub-divided from the former Township of Etobicoke until 1911.

The land area of Mimico originated mainly from three family farms, namely: Stock Estate, Hendry Estate, Van Every Estate .

Mimico was an independent municipality until 1967, when it was amalgamated into the new Borough of Etobicoke, which was itself amalgamated in 1998 into the current city of Toronto.

Today, Mimico is primarily a residential area with two commercial strips; one along Royal York Road and the other along Lake Shore Boulevard West, parallel to the shoreline .

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Former Town of Mimico is bounded by Evans Avenue, Algoma Street and Manitoba Street to the north, Lake Ontario to the south, a line midway between Fleeceline Road and Louisa Street to the East, with the western boundary along a line through Dwight Avenue and St George Street .

Mimico "neighbourhood planning area" starts at the Humber River to the east, its northern boundary being the Gardiner Expressway as far west as the CPR north-south railway line west of Kipling Avenue.

East of historic Mimico between Mimico Creek on the west and the Humber River to the east, there is a large area of condominium high-rise tower development at the former "Motel Strip" area of Humber Bay along the lake shore.

In Tremaine's 1860 Map of York County, the Mimico subdivision is reprinted with all its side streets, however by 1861, the plan had already failed, the area largely returning to agricultural use.

Mimico's founding families were therefore mostly farmers: the Van Everys, the Hendrys and the Stocks.

Mimico became a police village in 1905 and the next year the Grand Trunk Railway's Mimico railway yards were opened.

Mimico became a village in 1911 electing its first Village Reeve, Robert Skelton.

Mimico became the smallest community to obtain a Carnegie Library in which the town council met at first.

In 1916, a referendum was held on the question of New Toronto joining Mimico, this was accepted by Mimico voters but rejected in New Toronto.

The Town of Mimico purchased the old Methodist Church which served as the Town Hall.

Doubts about Mimico's survival appeared during the Great Depression when the Town went deeply into debt and many businesses disappeared.

The depression bankrupted some of Toronto's wealthiest including Sir Henry Pellatt who had already built a house in Mimico which stood at the bend in Lake Shore near Fleeceline overlooking the commercial stretch on Lake Shore.

In 1953, Mimico became one of thirteen cities and towns which formed the new Metropolitan Toronto.

The next year Hurricane Hazel struck and while communities around Mimico were some of the worst affected, the storm left Mimico largely untouched.

The Town of Mimico saw its future in attracting many more small families and working people to the area and began to tear down older homes that stood on large lots and filled in these and the last remaining empty lots with apartment buildings.

In 1967, the Town of Mimico was merged with two other lake shore communities and the Township of Etobicoke to form the Borough of Etobicoke.

Mimico had torn down the Carnegie Library and two adjacent houses to build the larger Mimico Centennial Library, which was set back from the corner location of the previous library building.

Mimico began slowly to decline as the children of families who lived in the small houses of the 1940s moved to the growing outer suburbs and the apartments did not live up to the hopes they had generated as they quickly deteriorated.

In 1984, Etobicoke became a city and a plan was prepared to rejuvenate Mimico which called for limiting the amount of commercial space by rezoning Mimico Avenue as non-commercial.

The possibility of Mimico 'gentrifying' is sometimes mentioned in plans for Mimico but this has only taken place on a very small scale.

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Greater attempts at preserving Mimico's history are being made with the historical designation of Eden Court and the preservation and ongoing restoration of Mimico's old railway station.

For lack of funds, the original school building was a copy of the older St Patrick's Catholic Elementary School in what is Brampton; technically, St Patrick's was the 'mother' parish of St Leo's although early Catholics in Mimico preferred to attend church and school in Toronto or the local Etobicoke public school .

Mimico has had a long reputation for supporting both of Canada's national sports.

In hockey, Mimico has developed a number of NHL players; there was even a Wayne and Shuster sketch where Johnny and Frank played for the mythical Mimico Mice against the then-Stanley Cup champion Toronto Maple Leafs.

Mimico Lacrosse has been in existence since 1890 and have won a number of National Championships.

The Mimico Mountaineers brought recognition to the town more than any other sports team with Mann Cup wins in 1932 and 1942.

The Mimico GO Transit station provides regular east-west commuter rail travel to downtown Toronto and to as far west as Hamilton.

Original naming convention for Mimico side-streets was for English community names: Buckingham, Windsor, Newcastle, Portland, Burlington, Manchester, Oxford, Dorchester, Southampton, Salisbury Ave.