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Spadina Avenue (, less commonly ) is one of the most prominent streets in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Running through the western section of downtown, the road has a very different character in different neighbourhoods.
Spadina Avenue runs south from Bloor Street to the Gardiner Expressway, just north of Lake Ontario. Lower Spadina Avenue continues the last block to the lake after the Gardiner. North of Bloor Street, the physical street continues as Spadina Road and this has new street address numbering starting over at zero. For much of its extent, Spadina Road is a less busy residential road (especially north of Dupont Street and the railway track underpass) than Spadina Avenue.
The name originates from the Ojibwe language word ishpadinaa, meaning "high place/ridge" or "sudden rise in the land." The Ishpatina Ridge, in Northern Ontario, which is the highest point of land in the province of Ontario, and the city of Ishpeming, in the state of Michigan's Upper Peninsula in Marquette County both derive their name from the same preverb.
For a number of decades, Spadina Avenue and nearby Kensington Market were the centre of Judaism life in Toronto with the area around Spadina being the home of the garment district—where many Jews worked—as well as numerous Jewish Delicatessen, tailors, bookstores, cinemas, Yiddish theatres, synagogues and other political, social and cultural institutions. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Jewish community moved north along Bathurst Street, but signs of Spadina's Jewish history can still be found in many locations. The city's Chinatown moved west along Dundas onto Spadina when much of the original Chinatown was expropriated to build Toronto's new City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square.
The 77 Spadina bus route inspired a song, "Spadina Bus", which became a surprise Top 40 hit in Canada for the jazz fusion band The Shuffle Demons in 1986. In the 1990s, however, the TTC rebuilt and reinstated the 510 Spadina streetcar line, which runs largely in a dedicated right-of-way along the median strip of the street since its opening in 1997. Prior to the construction of the Spadina LRT, streetcars ran down the street until it was replaced by the 77 Spadina bus. Bricked road bed was used along the streetcar route. Small sections of the brick road bed remained until the LRT was constructed.
In the 1960s, city hall was planning to tear up Spadina and most of the buildings on either side to construct the Spadina Expressway, a proposed highway that would have run straight into downtown. After a long public battle, with the opposition to the project led by Toronto urban writer Jane Jacobs and former Toronto mayor John Sewell, the plans were halted in 1971.
In 2006, the Forest Hill Jewish Centre announced plans to rebuild the façade of the Great Synagogue of Jasło, Poland, which was destroyed by the German Army in World War II, as the façade of its new building on Spadina Road, a project that was completed by 2015.
More recently, a number of tower buildings are being built or have been planned. Concord Canada House at 23 Spadina will have 74 stories, The Well at Front Street will have 46 stories and The Taylor at 57 Spadina will have 36 stories. In 2021, new residential tower buildings were proposed for the corners at Adelaide and Richmond.
From Front Street, Spadina runs through the Fashion District and along the western edge of the Entertainment District, which also contains a number of office buildings.
The intersection of Dundas Street West and Spadina is the centre of Toronto's second-oldest Chinatown (the oldest was located at Dundas and Elizabeth Streets), with many restaurants and shops catering to the Chinese community. The Chinese Spadina began in the 1970s after the departure of Jewish Toronto (1920s to 1960s) from the area. It supplanted an older Chinatown centred on Dundas Street West and Elizabeth Street, which was disrupted when New City Hall was constructed in the early 1960s.
Just west of the avenue in this area is the famed Kensington Market. The famous Shopsy's Deli was on Spadina north of Dundas Street, but it moved and burned down in the 1980s.
The intersection of Spadina Avenue and College Street is known as an inexpensive place to buy electronics, with a number of independent stores in the area. It is also the location of the El Mocambo, where the Rolling Stones performed one night to a small audience that included the Margaret Trudeau of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
Spadina Road is interrupted just north of Dupont Street by an escarpment, Davenport Hill. The two sections require traffic to divert via Davenport Road, Walmer Road and Austin Terrace. There is a flight of stairs called "Baldwin Steps" and walkway in Spadina Park between the two sections of Spadina Road. Spadina Road continues atop this escarpment in front of Spadina House, one of Toronto's largest mansions. Casa Loma is also nearby. The house and the street are named after the escarpment, the word ishpadinaa meaning "it hill" or "rise" in the Ojibwe language. Spadina Road continues north through the wealthy neighbourhood of Forest Hill. Starting north of St. Clair Avenue and continuing a few blocks further north is lower Forest Hill Village, which forms the main street of a small commercial area, the historical downtown of Forest Hill before Toronto grew around the town. Forest Hill continues to just north of Eglinton Avenue. The street continues north through this green, rolling residential neighbourhood. This stretch is served by the 33 Forest Hill bus route.
North of Eglinton Avenue, Spadina Road is again interrupted, here by the trenched right-of-way for the defunct Belt Line Railway, now a popular walking trail. It briefly resumes north of Eglinton, and ends at New Haven Drive (1100 Spadina Road – Northern Preparatory Junior Public School – Toronto District School Board). To access the section north of Eglinton traffic diverts via Eglinton Avenue and Chaplin Crescent. The road ends at New Haven Drive next to Northern Preparatory Jr Public School.
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