Their names might be familiar, but — for the most part — we’re oblivious to their origins. From De Grassi to Yonge, we look at how some of our most important streets got their names…

Yonge Street

Our most important street was also our first. Commissioned in 1793 by John Graves Simcoe (the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada), the road was meant to connect Lake Ontario with Lake Simcoe to allow British troops easy access to York (present-day Toronto) from the Upper Great Lakes in the event of an American invasion — a real threat at the time. Simcoe named the road after a friend, British Secretary of War Sir George Yonge. Yonge never visited Canada, and despite popular belief, the 86 km-long road is not the world’s longest.

Bloor Street

Meet Joseph Bloore. Born in 1789, this wild-eyed Englishman operated both an inn near the St. Lawrence Market and a brewery near Bloor and Sherbourne Sts. after arriving in Canada around 1819. Bloore also played a key role in the founding of the village — yes, village — of Yorkville. The road leading from Bloore’s brewery to Yorkville was named after him in 1855. Bloore himself died in 1862. It is not known when the ‘e’ was dropped from the street’s name.

Spadina Avenue

Born in Ireland in 1775, Dr. William Warren Baldwin was a prominent doctor, lawyer, judge and politician in the early days of Toronto. In 1818, Baldwin constructed a hilltop home with sweeping views of the growing city and Lake Ontario. The house was named “Spadina” (then pronounced “spa-dee-na”) — a name derived from a First Nations word for “hill.” In 1836, Baldwin built a street nearby and named it after the house. That house, which would be remodeled by future owners, is the present-day Spadina Museum. Toronto’s Baldwin St. is also named after him. Baldwin died in 1844.

Parliament Street

Looking around Parliament St., it’s easy to be confused about how this road got its name. Upper Canada’s first parliament buildings, however, stood near the present-day intersection of Front and Parliament Sts. Completed in 1797, the buildings then stood near the city’s eastern end. When the Americans invaded Toronto in 1813, the simple structures were burnt to the ground. (The Brits would retaliate by burning the White House down the following year). Two successive parliament buildings stood near the original site until the legislature moved to Queen’s Park after its completion in 1892.

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Christie Street

“Mr. Christie, you make good cookies.” That would be Mr. William Mellis Christie, to be exact — a Scottish-born baker who moved to Canada in 1848 at the age of 19. In 1858, Christie co-founded a bakery that would become Christie, Brown and Company, and that company would go on to become one of the largest biscuit manufacturers in Canada. Christie died in 1900. In 1928, his company was acquired by American biscuit giant Nabisco. Now owned by Kraft, the “Christie” brand is still used in Canada for the company’s cookies and crackers.

Roncesvalles Avenue

Colonel Walter O’Hara (1789-1874) was a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars and one of the first landowners in the present-day neighbourhood of Parkdale (then Toronto’s western edge). Before immigrating to Canada in 1826, O’Hara fought against the French at the Battle of Roncesvalles at Roncevaux Pass in Spain. When he later parceled off his land, O’Hara named several of the area’s streets, including Roncesvalles Ave. (after the battle), Sorauren Ave. (after another Spanish battlefield) and Marion St. (after his wife). O’Hara Ave. was named after him posthumously.

St. Clair Avenue

In the second half of the 19th century, the Grainger family ran a farm near the present-day intersection of Avenue Rd. and St. Clair Ave. Albert, one of their children, hadn’t been given a middle name, so he decided to choose his own from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 classic, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. He picked “St. Clair” after the novel’s hero, Augustine St. Clare. Grainger painted the name on a sign and nailed it to a tree at the family farm. When surveyors arrived to map out the road some time after Grainger’s death at the age of 20 in 1872, the sign remained and the street was named.

De Grassi Street

Nowadays, “Degrassi” is synonymous with the fictional trials and tribulations of Toronto teens, but in 19th century Toronto, it brought the De Grassi family to mind. Captain Phillipe De Grassi (1793-1877) was an Italian-born soldier of fortune who fought for both the French and British armies. After living in England for a time, in 1831 De Grassi moved his family to Canada, where he farmed near the Don River and supported the colonial government in the Rebellions of 1837. De Grassi Street is either named after him or his son, a prominent merchant named Alfio De Grassi.