An UP Express train passes the intersection of Union and Townsley Streets
At the lonely corner of Union and Townsley Streets sits the site of St. Clair-Old Weston Road Station, one of five proposed new GO stations in the City of Toronto as part of the remnants of the SmartTrack brand. The station’s name (which will likely be revised closer to opening day) refers to the intersection of St. Clair Avenue West and Old Weston Road, one block to the east. After years of benign neglect, the northwest corner of the old City of Toronto is seeing new development.
The old Heydon House Hotel stands at the corner of St. Clair Avenue and Old Weston Road
The former Ontario Stockyards and associated slaughterhouses is now a busy retail area. A large cluster of midrise and highrise development proposals are in the pipeline surrounding the station site, spurred on by a city-initiated transportation plan and the provincial major transportation transit area (MTSA) designation. More transit will be needed to serve the planned growth, and that’s where the new station comes in.
Right now, the corner of Union and Townsley is eerily quiet. At the corner of Old Weston and Townsley, a once-popular flea market was demolished, with no immediate plans for the site. The Consolidated Bottle Company plant on Union Street sits empty, awaiting future development. To the south, the Delta Bingo on St. Clair West is also the site of a planned highrise cluster. There are other proposals along Union Street to the north. But right now, it’s a great place to dump waste.
A no dumping sign and an abandoned rail spur crossing on Union StreetMissing sidewalks on Townsley Street, looking west from Old Weston RoadSt. Clair-Old Weston Station site plan
Despite the promise of new development, the station site plan leaves a lot to be desired. Connections to the nearby 512 St. Clair Streetcar will be awkward. A planned bus loop would require a diversion for nearby TTC bus routes, except the low-frequency 127 Davenport, which terminates by the old flea market site. An underpass that allows St. Clair Avenue to duck under the Metrolinx and CPKC railways will have to be rebuilt, with streetcar closures planned starting next year. Though likely not included (the street right-of-way will not be widened during the work, despite traffic congestion through this pinch point), extending walkways and even rail platforms to the south side of St. Clair would improve connections considerably and reduce walking times to several of the proposed developments. Under the current plan, train platforms would be located entirely north of St. Clair Avenue, with no direct station access from the busy arterial.
The narrow St. Clair Avenue underpass, a traffic pinch point, is due for replacement
In late July, online news outlet PressProgress reported on the provincial government’s plans to divest itself of 60 percent of the beach areas of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park, transferring the waterfront lands to the Town of Wasaga Beach. This report raised a number of concerns, including environmental issues (the beach is an important habitat for the piping plover, an endangered species of shorebird which breeds on sandy shorelines), as well as continued public access to the world’s longest freshwater beach. By amending legislation to transfer these lands from provincial to local control without future votes in the legislature, future provincial park lands could also be sold off to municipalities or to the private sector.
Wasaga Beach Provincial Park and proposed areas for removal and transfer to the municipality
Sign touting provincial funding for Wasaga Beach’s beachfront redevelopment
Amending the Act to permit the divestment of protected lands is a bad precedent, though arguably it was already set by the privatization of much of Ontario Place for the troubled Therme spa development. The closed Ontario Science Centre grounds remain in limbo as well.
As Shawn Micallef recently pointed out in the Toronto Star, much of Ontario’s prime lakefronts are privatized or purposely made inaccessible to outside residents — not just the popular Muskoka Lakes, but also much of the Great Lakes shores, such as in Tiny Township near Midland. The big, popular, beach areas are worth preserving and expanding, not only to meet current demand, but also provide sustainable and affordable getaways for a growing population in Southern Ontario.
The beautiful sand at Wasaga Beach Provincial Park on Thursday, August 14
That demand for summer lake access brings up another challenge — how to get people to and from beach destinations. In Toronto, the lineups for the Island ferries are notorious in the summer. The compound where ferry-goers are forced to wait only adds to the inhospitable atmosphere, though temporary shade structures were added for 2025. The beach at Ontario Place, one of the cleanest on Lake Ontario, has been closed off for the controversial Therme spa construction.
For those living in Toronto’s suburbs, or anyone looking to avoid the downtown congestion, to get to a good beach will probably mean a road trip to somewhere like Wasaga Beach, Sauble Beach, Grand Bend, Port Dover, Long Point, or Prince Edward County. Many of these places are completely inaccessible without a car, or at best, have limited bus options. Furthermore, even where there is a transit link, the best beach areas are nowhere near where the bus or train makes its stops. Even though Brampton is a straight shot up Airport Road to Georgian Bay, driving is the only reasonable way to get to Wasaga Beach (as I will get into in the second half of this post).
Right now, Wasaga Beach and Collingwood – a four-season resort town – are connected to Toronto, Barrie, and elsewhere only by two-lane roads: Highway 26, Airport Road, and Sunnidale Road. These roads are often congested with both visitors and with regular traffic. Highway 400 up to Barrie is already being widened, but it too will face additional traffic from population growth in Simcoe County and additional leisure travel.
If Wasaga Beach goes ahead and develops transferred provincial parklands for more intensive economic development, it will have to contend with these transportation challenges. That will mean wider roads and new highways, improved transit links, or both.
Local and regional buses behind a Loblaws superstore parking lot in Wasaga Beach
The way to Wasaga
There are currently two ways of getting to Wasaga Beach without a personal vehicle or a taxi ride.
There is one daily Flixbus coach trip from Downtown Toronto and Pearson Airport to Wasaga Beach, continuing onwards to Collingwood, Owen Sound, and Port Elgin. Northbound, the bus leaves Union Station Bus Terminal at 7:30 in the morning and arrives in Wasaga Beach at 10:00. The return bus leaves Wasaga Beach at 4:20 PM and arrives at Union Station at 6:50 PM, though traffic conditions can certainly impact those times. This bus is often nearly or completely sold out.
Flixbus loads in front of an Esso gas station on Mosley Streetat 45th Street
A cheaper and more frequent option is Simcoe County Linx, a regional bus service provided by the County of Simcoe. Linx Route 2, which connects Wasaga Beach to Allandale Waterfront GO Station, connects with GO buses and trains as well as local Barrie Transit buses. Unfortunately, the Simcoe County Linx system has limited service hours, and routes do not necessarily connect with each other. The last buses on Route 2 leave Wasaga Beach and Barrie at 6:30 PM, and there is no weekend or holiday service. (The sole exception is Linx Route 4, which runs between Collingwood and Wasaga Beach seven days a week.)
Both Flixbus and Simcoe County Linx stop on the west side of town, seven kilometres from the main tourist area at Beach Area 1. There are two Wasaga Beach Transit routes connecting these two points, but service is every 60-90 minutes. The limited bus options, combined with a lengthy transfer to get to the main beach areas, makes for an unpleasant trip. The early shutdown of Simcoe County Linx limits the time one can spend in Wasaga Beach, especially if it means a local bus transfer back to the west end of the town.
Wasaga Beach Transit minibus, decorated with vinyl wrap and stand-up paddleboards affixed to the roof
From Brampton or Mississauga, travellers must get to either Union Station or Pearson Airport to get the direct Flixbus service or get to the Barrie GO Corridor in order to make the transfer to Simcoe Linx. If there was only a direct bus up Airport Road from Peel Region, Wasaga Beach would be more accessible to another 1.5 million residents.
Furthermore, the only connections to Wasaga Beach are via Airport Road from the south and via Highway 26, a mostly two-lane highway between Barrie and Owen Sound. Wasaga Beach has never had rail access, and the former Barrie-Collingwood Railway through Stayner has been torn up. Both roads are increasingly congested due to both tourist travel and regular commuter traffic; the towns of Collingwood, Wasaga Beach, and Stayner are all growing with new residential subdivisions. Costco is constructing a new retail warehouse at Mosley Street and Highway 26 on the Wasaga Beach’s west side.
This is not just a Wasaga Beach problem. Access to most of Ontario’s other great beaches and resort towns is even more limited. Prince Edward County has a weekday-only bus service between Belleville, Bloomfield, and Picton, but it does not serve Wellington (home of the Drake Devonshire Hotel) or Sandbanks Provincial Park. Port Dover only has a weekday-only on-demand transit service accessible from Simcoe; Sauble Beach is only served by the same Flixbus route that runs through Wasaga Beach. At least Huron Shores Area Transit provides daily service to Grand Bend from both Sarnia and London.
Port Stanley used to have regular electric train service from London — where the municipality owned the railway — until 1956. Even though bus services took over from the L&PS, the only way to get there these days is to drive.
Though several Ontario cities have good urban beaches, accessible by transit — Ottawa’s Britannia Beach and Petrie Island, Hamilton Beach, and Toronto’s many beaches certainly count — there really should be better access for all to the great summer destinations like Wasaga Beach. That not only means protecting the land for public use and environmental preservation, but it also means providing accessible, sustainable, and equitable access by bus and rail. As Wasaga Beach and Collingwood seek to grow their populations and their economy, more transit is needed to connect residents to those additional jobs.
To start, Simcoe County Linx should operate Route 2 evenings and weekends. In the longer term, Simcoe County, its constituent towns, and the cities of Barrie and Orillia should merge their transit systems, focusing on fare integration and facilitating easier transfers between its routes and with GO Transit. There is also room for more intercity bus services between the Greater Toronto Area — particularly Mississauga and Brampton — with Wasaga Beach and Collingwood, offering more capacity and faster, more direct options. On my way home on Thursday, August 14, it took me over four hours to get back to Toronto Union Station via Simcoe County Linx and GO Transit buses; driving takes less than half that time, even with traffic.
Wasaga Beach is a treasure of provincial significance. It deserves to remain owned by the public and fully open to all, with better access to those who can’t or don’t want to drive.
Timmins Transit bus headed west from downtown to Wal-Mart
Last month, I found myself intrigued by American transit consultant Jarrett Walker’s observations about the difficulties of getting to Walmart stores by public transit in US cities. On Bluesky, Walker examined the long walks through hostile environments between Walmart stores and the nearest bus stops, and it is an interesting thread.
In many US cities, Walmarts are often some of the busiest transit destinations.Here is the typical relationship between a Walmart (far right) and its nearest bus stop (far left).Note the details of the pedestrian experience between one and the other. 1/🧵
Jarrett Walker’s BlueSky thread on US Walmart locations
In response, I noted the more typical experience in midsized Ontario cities. Though American and Canadian land use policies are similar in many ways, complete with the post-1990s proliferation of “big box” retail developments, there are some significant differences. For example, local transit systems will often make an effort to serve big box retail clusters, particularly Walmart stores.
This is something we do a bit better here in Canada. Below are Google Map screenshots of four Walmarts in small Ontario cities.
BlueSky post that shows Walmart stores and bus stops in four small Ontario cities: Orillia, St. Thomas, Belleville, and Brockville
Walmart stores are important to transit riders, especially in smaller urban centres that have few or no other major shopping centres. Most Walmart stores now have an in-store pharmacy, carry a full selection of groceries, and have ancillary services, such as medical clinics, haircutters, and opticians. Walmart itself will typically anchor a larger commercial development with other big-box retailers such as Home Depot or Canadian Tire. These commercial developments and surrounding areas will have up to have several hundred employees, some of which may also rely on transit.
From the 1960s to the early 2000s, regional shopping malls were often major transit hubs in mid-sized cities and suburban municipalities in Canada, typically located in space set aside in the mall parking lot. For the most part, Canadian commercial landlords were willing to provide the space; in some cases, the terminal was even right outside one of the main entrances.
In my hometown of Brampton, for example, two of the three major transit terminals were Bramalea City Centre and Shoppers World. Mississauga’s main transit hub is at Square One mall; Hamilton has large bus loops at Limeridge and Eastgate malls, and London has transit hubs at Masonville Place and White Oaks Mall. Smaller cities and towns such as Belleville, Orillia, and Peterborough would also be sure to serve the local shopping mall with at least one route stopping on the mall property, typically in a space set aside on a mall driveway.
Sometimes, these mall terminals become too small or too difficult for buses to get in and out of. Brampton Transit grew, the Shoppers World and Bramalea City Centre terminals were moved to larger facilities off-site with better road access, but still close to the malls. In smaller cities, where the importance of enclosed shopping malls (anchored by traditional retailers such as Sears Canada, Zellers, and Hudson Bay) declined in favour of big-box retail, often located on the urban outskirts, the buses followed where their passengers needed to go.
St. Thomas (Railway City Transit) and Middlesex County Connect minibuses wait for passengers in front of Walmart and Real Canadian Superstore
In St. Thomas, a small city of about 45,000 people, the main transfer point is in front of the Walmart store parking lot, meaning that every bus rider gets a one-seat ride to the SmartCentres-managed property, which also includes a Loblaws grocery store, Canadian Tire, and over a dozen smaller stores, restaurants, and banks. The recent relocation of the transit hub from a struggling downtown to the big box centre to the west — which is actually closer to the city’s geographic centre — makes sense. It now also serves as the transfer point to the regional bus service to London.
In Brockville, another small city in Eastern Ontario, the two transfer points are in the downtown and at “Box Stores Transfer” in the northeastern corner of the municipality. The latter is also the transfer point to the inter-municipal River Route to Prescott and Cardinal. In other smaller Ontario cities, including Belleville, Chatham, Orillia, Sarnia, and Timmins, there is at least one bus route extending to the end of the urbanized area to serve the Walmart and/or other large big box retailers. Often the stop will simply be called “Walmart” or “SmartCentres.”
Sometimes, larger cities will have transit terminals in the middle of big box parking lots. On the south end of Sudbury, GOVA’s Route 1 Mainline terminates in front of a Walmart parking lot, with connections to three local feeder routes. A similar set up can be found in the north end of Guelph. In Waterloo, a large big box complex on the edge of the region’s urban boundary, Boardwalk, was designed with a central transit hub.
Though the examples here are all Ontario examples, the pattern generally holds across Canada, from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Nanaimo, British Columbia, though there are many exceptions. It also helps that many Canadian Walmart stores are located in shopping malls as they are in renovated and/or expanded former Woolco or Zellers stores.
Despite these attempts to provide transit services to retailers like Walmart, these are not ideal set ups. Shopping malls were designed as pedestrian environments within large parking lots. As long as there is a convenient, safe, and short walkway to the mall entrance, transit riders could be well-served. This is much harder with contemporary big box retail, as they are designed completely different. With malls, parking lots surround a cluster of stores. Most big box developments have the stores surround gigantic parking lots. Even if walkways and bus facilities were included in the site plan, there are still long, unsheltered walks between the bus stops and store entrances.
Trinity Common Shopping Centre at Highway 410 and Bovaird in Brampton. The red lines mark where the buses stop.
An early attempt to create a more transit and pedestrian site plan in a big box centre was Trinity Common in Brampton, which opened in stages in the early 2000s. There were distinct roadways, complete with sidewalks and street lighting; in the centre, surrounded by restaurant pads, were several bus bays and a transit terminal office. Several busy Brampton Transit bus routes converge here rather than simply stop on the adjoining multi-use roadways. Even so, the distances between retailers — which include Canadian Tire, a Metro supermarket, Home Depot and Brampton’s only multiplex cinema — make walking unpleasant.
But at least, unlike the American examples Jarrett Walker highlighted, there’s an attempt at doing better. Hopefully, the next generation of retail centres — mixed use developments with residential uses on upper levels — do better with incorporating the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users.
Garden Square, at Main and Queen Streets, will be one of the two public spaces downtown to be rejuvenated
After nearly two decades of little change, Downtown Brampton may finally be turning the corner from being a sleepy town centre to becoming the proper hub for a city of nearly 800,000.
The Riverwalk, an ambitious plan to enhance flood protection from nearby Etobicoke Creek and create new public space, will break ground later this year. The extension of the Hurontario LRT into Downtown Brampton, by way of a deep-mined tunnel, was approved and funded by the provincial and federal governments. There will also be a new transportation hub to accommodate additional tracks at Brampton GO Station and support Brampton Transit ridership growth. City of Brampton is also hoping to get started on a new Centre for Innovation at the corner of Nelson and George Streets; it will contain a new central library as well as space for Toronto Metropolitan University and Rogers.
Private sector development is also waking up. The first of a new wave of mixed-use high-rise developments, Rose Garden Residences, has started construction.
Demolition is complete and shoring is starting at Rose Garden Residences
These are exciting times for Brampton. The city, looking to attract more people to the downtown core, is planning to improve both Ken Willians Square, in front of City Hall, and Garden Square, in front of the Rose Theatre. The municipal government is looking for feedback on four proposed designs for the two square.
There’s a touch of irony that in the same year Canadian sovereignty is increasingly threatened by an American president, the Hudson’s Bay Company — one of the world’s oldest corporations — has filed for bankruptcy protection. It will likely close at least half of its 80 stores, but with no guarantee it will emerge in a healthy state, able to rebound.
On May 2, 1670, The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson’s Bay, was given a royal charter to trade in all lands that drained into Hudson’s Bay, 3.9 million km2 of land in the heart of the North American continent, in order to compete with the lucrative French fur trade in the St. Lawrence basin. The new company had monopolistic commercial control of what was then called Rupert’s Land: the entirety of present-day Manitoba, most of Saskatchewan and Northern Ontario, a significant part of present-day Quebec, Alberta, and Nunavut, and even parts of what eventually became Minnesota and North Dakota.
Of course, this new monopoly, which quickly became known as simply the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), was created without consent or consultation with the many First Nations and Inuit communities. In the early days of trade, however, HBC relied on trading with First Nations for the valuable fur trades. It established forts and factories (trading posts) throughout the northwest, establishing places such as Moose Factory and Fort Albany that remain to this day.
In later years, HBC claimed a trading monopoly on lands draining into the Pacific Ocean; it also brought in missionaries to convert Indigenous peoples. (Its monopoly was challenged by new entrants such as the North West Company, which eventually merged with HBC after violent skirmishes over trading territorial rights.)
HBC’s vast networks of forts and trading posts, particularly Fort Garry (now Winnipeg) led towards the full colonization of western and northern Canada. In 1870, with the decline of the fur trade HBC relinquished control of Rupert’s Land to the new Dominion of Canada, which led immediately to the creation of the Northwest Territories, followed quickly by the Red River Rebellion and the creation of the Province of Manitoba.
HBC continued as a fur and goods trading company and it was still the only retailer in remote western and northern communities. In larger cities like Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Calgary, it established new department stores. In smaller communities, especially in the north, it took full advantage of its dominant position, and Northern Stores became notorious for high prices (in 1987, HBC sold off its Northern Stores division). HBC continued to exploit Canada’s natural resources — it even had an oil and gas subsidiary between 1926 and 1982.
In 1960, HBC focused almost entirely on its department store empire, acquiring the Montreal-based Morgan’s chain, competing head-on with Eaton’s and Simpsons-Sears. In the 1970s and 1980s, it also scooped up discount chain Zellers, Simpson’s stores (after its split from Sears Canada), Ottawa-based Freimans, and Hamilton-based Robinson’s, eventually rebranding those stores as “The Bay.” Finally in 1993, it acquired Vancouver-based Woodward’s. During this time, it sold off the Northern stores and the oil company. In the late 1990s, it launched the Home Outfitters big-box chain. The Zellers chain expanded under HBC ownership, first acquiring the competing Towers discount chain in 1991 and K-Mart’s Canadian stores in 1998.
Though the flagship stores still proudly proclaimed the May 2, 1670 incorporation date, few thought about the long and checkered history of the company. My first memories of The Bay’s retail empire were of the Simpson’s store close to where we lived in Brampton. Simpson’s was the flagship anchor of Shoppers World, a once-vibrant mall. I also knew Simpson’s from the flagship Queen Street store in Downtown Toronto, famous for its toy section, Christmas window displays, and of course, the TVO children’s program Today’s Special. (The most memorable episodes for me, a young, budding urbanist, dealt with a fictionalized closure and demolition of the store, before a heritage plaque uncovered during the move out saved the day.)
Opening sequence of “Today’s Special,” set in the downtown Simpson’s Queen Street store
The Shoppers World Simpson’s store, like the rest of the banner, was converted to “The Bay” in 1991. In 2007 the store closed, not long after I moved to my own apartment in Toronto. (I still have some of the chinaware I purchased at that Bay store before I moved to my own place.) But as I worked, and later lived, in Downtown Toronto, I found the Queen Street store very useful for casual clothes shopping and the occasional big-ticket item.
Demolition of the Shoppers World Simpson’s/The Bay department store in 2010
Though HBC was sold to a private equity firm in 2008, under CEO Bonnie Brooks’ leadership, there was still life in the department store, with leading stores like the Queen Street flagship upgraded. The fifth floor was a great place to browse for men’s clothes; the seventh floor had an excellent kitchenware department. HBC persisted through the bankruptcy of Eaton’s in 1997-1999 as well the wind-down of Sears Canada that began in 2012 (when it began selling the leases of its urban flagships, including former Eaton’s stores) and concluded in 2018.
But private equity did what private equity does best: it began selling off the assets and closing down stores, just as Sears did in its last decade. The Zellers discount department store chain was discontinued, with the majority of store leases sold to the ill-fated Target Canada operation in 2011. The Home Outfitters stores were closed in 2019. Real estate was sold off, with HBC leasing back the properties. For example, the Queen Street store was sold to real estate developer Cadillac Fairview — who owns the adjacent Eaton Centre mall — for $650 million in 2014.
In the last few years, it became clear that the department store chain was in decline. Though pandemic restrictions in 2020 and 2021 had a major effect, the downtown stores also lost office worker patronage. Suppliers were having trouble getting paid and were seizing merchandise at several stores; escalators and elevators were put out of service, and store hours were reduced at most locations.
The Hudson’s Bay store at Scarborough Town Centre closed at 7:00 on a weekday evening in March 2024, even though the rest of the mall remained open for another two hours
The loss of Canada’s last department store is unfortunate, but it comes as no surprise given the way private equity sucks once-proud businesses dry. The evidence was impossible to miss. How could customers be lured back when escalators were blocked off, marketing non-existent, and store opening hours scaled back? Not even Sears turned off the escalators in its last years.
I suspect, given the company’s 355-year history, a vestige of HBC will live on, especially in an era of renewed Canadian nationalist. Another business will certainly purchase the name and brand to continue selling the famous point blankets. Though the Queen Street store will certainly be redeveloped by Cadillac Fairview, strict heritage considerations will prevent its complete demolition. The Downtown Winnipeg store, closed in 2020, is already being repurposed into a new hub for Manitoba’s First Nations.
But it will remain a true shame, as I have always felt there was still a place for a full-service department store in Canada. It only needed to be well managed, relevant, and cared for.
In mid-November, I found myself in Washington DC, accompanying my spouse as she had multiple days of work-related meetings. While I spent part of my time visiting cities in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, I also visited several neighbourhoods in Washington itself. Among the things I wanted to see for the first time was the D.C. Streetcar, one of nearly a dozen systems built across the United States in the last two decades. I had already taken rides on modern streetcars in Atlanta, Detroit, Kansas City, Cincinnati, as well as Portland and Seattle, coming away mostly unimpressed — though Portland, Detroit, and Kansas City show some promise. Washington’s small implementation didn’t win me over either.
I grew up in Brampton, a suburb of a city that maintained a large legacy streetcar fleet. Growing up, I thought streetcars were the greatest thing: big, smooth, quiet, gliding through some of Toronto’s most interesting neighbourhoods. I watched as the city expanded its street railway network along the waterfront and up Spadina Avenue before I had the opportunity to move to the big city.
Living in Toronto, and reliant on the streetcars, I got to experience the highs and the lows of street railway operation: traffic congestion, bunching, diversions, bustitutions, but also the sweet late-night rides when the streetcar really felt like the king of the road. The new low-floor Flexity streetcars brought even larger vehicles, but they were subject to the same constraints as the smaller CLRVs.
The TTC’s indifference to line management and the insistence on slow operation in the name of safety (without actually addressing problems like obsolete switches) made streetcar travel less magical with every passing year. But in Toronto, streetcars are still a workhorse, and there is still no easy way for buses to permanently substitute for the demand on routes like King Street.
Visiting cities elsewhere in the world, like Viennaor Hiroshima, makes me realize that trams can and should work, something that Toronto has largely forgotten. Or something that American cities rediscovering the streetcar haven’t even figured out.
Former D.C. Transit streetcar in the distinctive 1956-1962 Trans Caribbean Airlines colour scheme, at Seashore Trolley Museum in Maine
Like all large American cities, Washington once had a robust streetcar network, with several private operators that consolidated into Capital Transit in 1933. Streetcars extended throughout the District and into Maryland suburbs, with separate companies providing service into Virginia’s sprawling suburbs until 1941.
Within central Washington, streetcars were required by law to draw electric power from an underground conduit for aesthetic reasons, though outlying areas did not have this this obligation. Therefore, many streetcars in DC, including the modern PCC streetcars acquired in the 1930s and 1940s, had both overhead trolley poles and underbody current collectors.
The last streetcar line in DC was abandoned in January 1962. Fourteen years later, the first section of the Washington Metro opened for service. Unlike the streetcars, the new Metro system was more of a regional service, reaching far out into the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. (Famously, the affluent and congested Georgetown area of Washington is not served by Metro, which was designed mainly as a commuter service.) Though bus service was consolidated throughout the region, there were parts of Washington left underserved by Metro and local bus. The District government began operating its own bus service, DC Connector, and began planning new streetcar services to serve traditionally underserved and rejuvenating neighbourhoods.
Map of the proposed Phase I streetcar network. Only the thick red line was completed.
The first planned route would have connected Anacostia, a historic neighbourhood with a majority Black population, with the Metro and with the gentrifying Navy Yards district on the north side of the Anacostia River. At first, the new light rail would have followed a disused CSX freight spur line, but disagreements with the railroad and land title issues changed the route to a shorter, on-street alignment. After several false starts, work started in 2009 on a “demonstration line” between Anacostia Metro Station and Joint Base Anacostia–Bolling, a major military installation, with an extension to Minnesota Metro Station to follow.
Looking east on Firth Sterling Ave SE with the tracks suddenly ending before Suitland Parkway. The abandoned CSX spur line right-of-way is on the right.
Work was suspended indefinitely in 2010. Today, less than a mile of track remains abandoned in place.
Looking west on Firth Sterling Ave SE toward Joint Base Anacostia–Bolling, where curb-side streetcar tracks installed in 2009-2010 are left abandoned
An abbreviated 2.4 mile (3.9 km) H Street-Benning Road Line did open, however, in 2016, several years late. The route, which begins on the H Street overpass north of Union Station, extends east to Oklahoma Avenue, at a public park and sports complex north of the abandoned RFK Stadium. Service, which is currently fare-free, operates every 12 minutes during daytime hours. A parallel bus route, the X2 Benning Road–H Street Line, operates as frequently, but has a much longer route and is considerably faster.
H Street, in the city’s east side, has long been a lower-income, majority Black neighbourhood, hit hard by disinvestment, civil unrest (especially after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968), crime, and depressed property values. But its proximity to the governmental, cultural, and commercial centres of the city made it an attractive corridor for redevelopment.
A westbound streetcar shifts into the median on H Street on the way to Union Station
Though Union Station is the western terminus of the short streetcar line, the connection to the Metro Red Line, Amtrak, MARC, and VRE trains is awkward. H Street is to the north of Union Station, crossing over the multitude of tracks leading into the station platforms on a long overpass. The streetcar stops halfway across, in the median. Passengers getting off the streetcar must walk further west on the median, then cross the eastbound lanes of H Street at a traffic signal controlling a driveway exit from the Union Station parking garage. A poorly marked sidewalk provides the connection into the parking garage (which also houses the Union Station intercity bus terminal) and down towards the main station building.
The path from DC Streetcar, through a parking garage, towards Union Station
Like most modern streetcar lines in the United States, the DC Streetcar runs in mixed traffic, in the outer driving lane. This allows for platform level boarding from the sidewalk at each stop, but it also leaves the streetcar susceptible to traffic delays due to congestion and from stopped cars and trucks. Though there are parking and layby spaces to the right of the streetcar track, a wide or improperly stopped vehicle can easily disrupt service. Streetcars regularly squeeze past properly parked delivery vans, as in the photo below.
A streetcar squeezes past a stopped Amazon delivery van on H Street
But new streetcar lines in North America are typically less about moving people than it is about sparking new urban development. On H Street, this has definitely happened. New mid-rise rental and condominium residential buildings line the western end, towards Union Station. A Whole Foods grocery store is at the base of one of those buildings, where previously, there was a parking lot and local grocery store.
Streetcar passes a Whole Foods grocery store at the base of a mew seven-storey rental apartment building, northeast corner of H Street and 6th Street NEThe same corner in 2008, with a neighbourhood grocery store on the northeast corner of H Street and 6th Street NE(Google Streetview)
Still, I wonder how much the streetcar itself contributed to the gentrification of H Street. The streetscape is greatly improved, but streetcar ridership is low, despite the free fare. The close proximity to Union Station, government offices, and commercial areas, along with rezoning of vacant lots would have made a bigger impact. However, government investment on the corridor made it attractive for speculators and developers to assemble land and build.
In the meantime, as rents skyrocket, crime remains a concern. New stores such as Whole Foods do not serve long-term residents and local businesses have been displaced. Like Whole Foods, the streetcar was designed to support the new community, while others continue to take the bus and shop at the Safeway on Benning Road.
Looking east at H Street and 3rd Street, 2008 (Google Streetview)Looking east towards 3rd Street, November 2024
If the H Street-Benning Road Streetcar was extended in both directions based on the original plans, it could prove to be a useful, albeit slow, transit service filling in one of the gaps left by the Washington Metro system. But as Washington struggles with its city budget, this is very unlikely. By the end of the year, the DC Circulator bus system will disappear for good, further orphaning the single short streetcar line operated by the District.
Woodbine Centre & Fantasy Fair is up for sale, again
Growing up in Brampton in the 1980s and early 1990s, there were two favourite day trips I fondly remember.
There were the drives to nearby Georgetown, which had one of the largest indoor playgrounds at any McDonald’s restaurant. It featured a multistorey indoor crawl maze, a spiral slide that led to a giant ball pit, a tire swing, as well as a standard McDonaldland-themed merry-go-round. A CN caboose could be rented for children’s parties. At least we’d burn off some of the calories from the burgers and fries. (There’s a video on Reddit from 1992 that shows what it looked like.)
Then there were the trips to Fantasy Fair. When Woodbine Centre opened in 1985, it featured a unique attraction: a large indoor amusement park, complete with a historic Looff carousel (though with replica fiberglass horses), a Ferris wheel, and a train ride that wound through the attraction. The highlight for me, however, was a huge indoor playground that spanned two floors that was many times the size of the Georgetown McDonald’s playground. It had multiple slides, a mirror maze, swings, and two ball pits. There was also a McDonald’s restaurant facing Fantasy Fair, in one of the faux-Victorian storefronts that surrounded the attraction.
Fantasy Fair Carousel, November 2024
The mall itself was anchored by The Bay and Simpson’s, along with a Cineplex multiplex cinema, and a complete assortment of mid-market retailers. In 1991, when the Hudson’s Bay Company retired the Simpson’s brand (converting most of those stores into The Bay), it sold the redundant store to Sears Canada. A Zellers discount department store was added in the 1990s. But the mall slowly lost its pizzazz.
Cadillac Fairview sold Woodbine Centre in 2005 to a numbered company, with real estate management firm Avison Young operating the mall. By then, many of the national retailers had left once their leases were up. The mall’s relatively isolated site, without good transit access became a liability. Changing demographics in northern Etobicoke, competition from surrounding larger malls (Bramalea City Centre, Sherway Gardens, Square One, Vaughan Mills, and Yorkdale) and new big box retail developments also took their toll.
The Zellers store was not one of the leases picked up by ill-fated Target Canada, and it closed in 2012. Sears closed in March 2017, a few months before the entire chain was liquidated. Sport Chek closed its store in 2018.
Woodbine Centre’s Zellers store was not picked up by Target, and the parking lot-facing doors still have the defunct retailer’s logo intact
There was an attempt to renovate the mall, as part of a grand plan to revitalize the property with a new supermarket, refreshed food court, new entertainment options, and condominium towers surrounding the shopping centre. The Woodbine Village proposal competed with the better-financed Woodbine Live plans at the nearby racetrack, which included a casino, hotel, and event hall, all of which were built or are nearing completion. Condominium development is complicated as the property, particularly the southeast corner at Highway 27 and Rexdale Boulevard, is directly below the approach for Pearson Airport’s Runway 23.
Poster promoting “Woodbine Village” which boasts a new supermarket, condo development, hotel, and expanded Fantasy Fair including indoor waterpark NAV Canada map showing approach and noise contours for Runway 23, which passes directly above Woodbine CentreWoodbine Centre’s central atrium, including defunct fountain below glass elevator
After a disheartening American election result on Tuesday, November 5, I decided to turn off the newsfeeds, and out for a walk and explore Woodbine Centre again.
Though the basic architecture remains intact, the corridor floors were given cheap new brown, grey, and beige tiles that look out of place in the post-modern interior. Much of the original green paint on the roof, walls, railings, and signs is now red and mahogany.
Apart from the fast food offerings, there were few recognizable store names among the tenants in 2024. Apart from Hudson’s Bay, Foot Locker, Ardene, The Children’s Place, Dollarama, LensCrafters, TD Bank, and Urban Behavior, most stores were independent clothing, home décor, and furniture stores, or were cellphone vendors such as Wow Mobile, Best Buy Express, or Rogers and Bell kiosks. About 20 percent of the store fronts were vacant.
Looking towards the old Sears store, which is now All Home Furnishings, which was having a clearance sale in November. Note the Payless Shoe Shack, a knock-off of the defunct Payless Shoe Source chain, on the left. Vacant faux-Victorian storefronts at Fantasy Fair
Professional property managers are quick to update signage and keep up appearances; the management at Woodbine has clearly given up. Vacant storefronts are left exposed, rather than blocked off. Signage advertises stores that are long gone. Pot lights flicker on and off.
Overhead sign pointing the way to Sears, which closed over seven years ago. The Subway restaurant is also gone. Behind the sign, a shuttered Yogen Fruz/Prestotea store front acts as storage. A closed KFC/Taco Bell stall in the food court, with the signage still up and illuminated, despite the equipment taken out
Surprisingly, Fantasy Fair was still operating, even on a Wednesday afternoon where there were few visitors. Ride attendants, dressed in red vests, looked bored, even when running the train for the lone parent and child. The Ferris wheel is now permanently closed, however, and some of the attractions look sadly decrepit.
The railway crossing lights, bells, and gates still work at Fantasy Fair when the train passes through
Outside the mall, much of the parking lot is fenced off and is now used for truck and trailer storage, and the storage of overflow rental car fleets. Though the rental car parking began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people stopped travelling, it continues to be an easy revenue stream for the mall management. The truck trailers, on the other hand, are an unsightly feature, particularly where they face Highway 27.
Fenced-off rental cars in the Woodbine Centre parking lotTruck trailer parking on part of the mall parking lot
Unfortunately, the future is not good for Woodbine Centre as a mall. Though mixed-use development remains a possibility — Humber College is within walking distance — the airport noise will continue to be a challenge for condominium sales. Transit expansion would certainly help; the nearly-complete Finch West LRT terminates nearby. Extending that two kilometres south to serve Woodbine Centre, Woodbine Racetrack/Casino, and a planned GO Transit station, could be the boost the site needs. (Of course, the mall site could have made a good location for a mega-spa, particularly with the nearby casino venue and hotels, but I digress.)
The Humber College LRT terminus is less than a kilometre north of Woodbine Centre
The mall’s fate will likely be decided soon. The site is up for sale again, not advertised as a shopping centre, but as a “50 acre mixed use site.”
1992 Tenants
Below is the list of tenants at Woodbine Centre in 1992, obtained from the 1993 Canadian Directory of Shopping Centres, published by Maclean-Hunter. Tenants still open in 2024 are bolded.
Anchors Anchors: The Bay (140,000 sq.ft.), Sears (135,000 sq.ft.)
Fashions and footwear Children’s Wear: Flora’s, Just Kids. Family Wear: Cotton Ginny. Ladies’ Wear: Addition-Elle, Antel’s, Au Coton, Braemar, Braemar Petites, La Cache, The Cavery, Cotton Plus, D’Allaird’s, Dalmy’s, Emotions, Fairweather, Irene Hill, Jacob, La Jolie, Karuba, Lady Foot Locker, Limité, Lindor, Liz Porter, Mia, Northern Reflections, Ports International (Ladies), Reitmans, Ricki’s, Shirley K Maternity, Smart Set, Suzy Shier, Tabi International, Tan Jay, Tristan, Tucci Fashions. Menswear: Casa Angelo, Petrocelle Vomo, Randy River, Star’s Men’s Shop, Steel, Tip Top, Tuxedo Royale.
Unisex / Men’s & Ladies’ Wear: Benetton, Boca, Bootlegger, Canary Island Adventure & Travel Company, Le Château, Frenz Leather, Jean Machine, Levi’s 1850, Pantorama, The Pro Image, Stitches, Thriftys, Willow Ridge. Footwear/Leather Goods: Agnew, Aldo, Bata, Belinda & Brother, Bentley Leathers, Calderon, Florsheim Shoes, Foot Locker, Fredelle, K. Jamson, Kinney, The Little Shoemaker, Moneysworth & Best, Naturalizer, Pegabo Jewellery/Fashion Accessories: Accessories For You, Ardene, The Joy of Sox, Mappins, Peoples Jewellers, Reflexions, Young’s Jewellers
Other retailers Books: Classic Bookshop, Coles, Moyer’s The Teacher’s Store, Smithbooks Cosmetics/toiletries: Body Reform, Caryl Baker Visage, Enchante Perfumes, Merle Norman Cosmetics Department store/mass merchandiser: Marks & Spencer Drugs/health & beauty: Shoppers Drug Mart Electronics/Computers: Bell Canada Phone Centre, Compucentre, Majestic Sound Warehouse, Radio Shack, Safe & Sound Fabric & Sewing: Needle ‘n’ Thread Florist/Nursery: Woodbine Florists Furniture & Furnishings: Brass Imports, Clocks Unlimited, Diamond Furniture, Lighting Unlimited, Pictures Gift: A. David Soloway, China Panda, Den For Men, Jinny’s China & Gifts, Party Hut, Rafters, Le Roulet Grocery: Bulk Barn Hardware/Paint & Paper: St. Clair The Paint & Paper People Hobby/Craft: Lewiscraft Housewares: House of Knives, Pot Pourri, Shaver Centre Fine Blade, Stokes Music/Records & Tapes: A&A Music & Entertainment, Discus, Music World Optical:LensCrafters Pet: Aquarium Toronto Photo/Camera: Blacks, Japan Camera Restaurant and Fast Food: A & W, Abacus Cuisine, Baby O’Donuts, Dutch Treats, Jimmy The Creek, J.J. Muggs, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Kernels, London Style Fish & Chips, Los Rios, Made In Japan A Teriyaki Experience, Manchu Wok, Manfreds, McDonald’s, Mr. Submarine, New York Fries, Sbarro. Specialty Food & Drink:Baskin-Robbins, Laura Secord Mrs. Fields Cookies, mmmarvellous mmmuffins, Swiss Fudge, Timothy’s Coffees of the World, Yogurty’s Yogurt Discovery. Stationery/Card: Garfield, Grand & Toy, Hallmark. Toy: Toy World. Variety/Convenience: The Silver Dollar Store, United Cigar Store. Dry Cleaners: Parker’s Cleaners. Financial/Legal: Bank of Montreal, Canada Trust Hairstyling/Esthetics: The Cut Above, Da Vinci, Tantastic, You’nique Hairstyling. Medical/Dental: Eye-Exam Centre, Procare Medical Centre, Woodbine Dental. Printing: K.P. Copy. Theatre / Entertainment: Cineplex, Orville & Wilbur Family Games, Wizard’s Castle Travel: Marlin Travel Miscellaneous: Lottery Kiosk
Islington Station, opened in 1968 as part of a major expansion of the Toronto subway system into Etobicoke and Scarborough, is now literally falling apart.
At platform level, Islington looks little different than most stations on the Bloor-Danforth Line with the faded wall tile, coated with a layer of brake dust. Upstairs, on the concourse level and the old bus terminal, the station is in far worse shape. Wear and tear from hundreds of buses entering and exiting the station every day, along with water seepage from an underground stream, has caused the station to look much older than it actually is.
From 1968 to 1980, Islington Station was the Bloor-Danforth Line’s western terminus, with buses branching out to points all over Etobicoke. The bus terminal boasted six bus bays, each with its own driveway. One of the six platforms was dedicated for Gray Coach services, which included an express bus to Pearson Airport.
An arriving bus would first pull into the east side of the terminal, with all passengers descending a set of stairs to the subway concourse, either to transfer to the subway, exit the station, or transfer to another bus route. The bus, once the operator took their break, would then pull forward to the boarding area, where a second set of stairs emerged from a waiting area. Below, on the concourse level, a flashing light would alert waiting passengers that their bus was boarding. The terminal design was similar to the original bus terminal at Eglinton Station; at Warden Station, the levels are reversed, with the bus bays below the passenger concourse.
Aerial view of Islington Station’s bus terminal in 1975, City of Toronto Archives, Series 836, Subseries 4, File 46. Note the Mississauga Transit bus passing by on Bloor Street. Looking northwest toward the sealed-off bus terminal, May 2023
In 1980, the subway was extended one stop westward to Kipling. The extension allowed the TTC to reroute most of its Etobicoke routes from Islington, which provided new space for Mississauga Transit, whose buses now loaded inside the bus terminal. (As the bus bays are inside the station’s fare-paid area, Mississauga Transit buses off-loaded passengers outside the station’s main entrance on Islington Avenue.) A seventh bay, located to the south of the original structure, was added to provide additional capacity for Mississauga Transit, however, only simple bus shelters provided protection from the rain and snow.
But by 2016, the bus terminal area was starting to crumble, and bus bays 1 and 2 (the bus bays closest to the subway platforms) were closed permanently to prevent further structural damage. Mississauga and GO Transit planned for a new terminal adjacent to Kipling Station, but it was delayed by several years. Part of the delay was caused by Hydro One — owner of the transmission lines that parallel the subway and adjacent Canadian Pacific Railway corridor — who refused to allow a terminal building under its wires.
The opening of the new Kipling terminal for GO and Mississauga Transit buses in May 2021 (repositioned to avoid the hydro corridor) allowed the TTC to permanently close the crumbling bus terminal bays. All remaining buses — 37/937 Islington, 50 Burnhamthorpe, and 110 Islington South — began only using the outer bus loading area in late 2021.
Bus passage, Islington Station. Stairways to the old bus bays are sealed off, with the signs above the old stairways blacked out. Passengers transferring to TTC buses must walk to the far end of this corridor and then up a stairway to access the outer bus bay.
With little room remaining for buses to load, offload, and layover, passengers on TTC buses arriving at Islington are now let off on the street and must walk to the main entrance and show their transfer or tap their Presto card to enter the subway or transfer to another bus. Though Route 37/937 and 50 buses stop right in front of the station entrance on Islington Avenue, Route 110 buses off load on Bloor Street, a two-minute walk to the subway entrance.
A Route 110A Islington South bus off loads on Bloor Street; passengers must walk north to the subway entrance on Islington Avenue, to the right of this photograph
Since the bus terminal closure, the decay at Islington Station has extended beyond the bus area. On the mezzanine level, ceiling tiles were removed, while black netting catches chunks of broken concrete. Removed wall tiles reveal crumbling concrete and exposed rebar. Water leaks cover the mezzanine floor. There are no signs advising passengers of work underway or future construction, though there have been several plans to rebuild the station and promote new development on the site.
Fare gates partially obscured by temporary columns
Not only is reconstruction needed to rectify the deteriorating state of the station, Islington is also one of 15 subway stations that still do not have barrier-free access for passengers using wheelchairs or other mobility devices. Islington and Warden were left at the bottom of the list for station retrofits largely due to the difficulty of providing barrier-free access. The outdated bus terminal layouts at those stations require complete redesigns, and both stations are good candidates for urban development.
Netting keeps chunks of concrete from falling onto passengers’ headsCrumbling terrazzo floor in the passageway underneath Islington AvenueWater leak on the concourse level
There have been several proposals for redevelopment at Islington, taking advantage of its large bus terminal area and parking lot. The city first looked at redevelopment in 2006. At that time, there was a proposal from engineering firm SNC-Lavalin for a new office building that would incorporate a rebuilt station. However, that proposal deal fell through.
In 2021, a new plan to rebuild the station was presented to the public. It would include a new six-bay bus terminal in the commuter parking lot north of the existing terminal. Upon completion, the old bus area would be redeveloped under the city’s CreateTO housing program. Aberfoyle Crescent, which connects Islington Avenue and Bloor Street, would be extended through the station property to provide bus access and allow for development of the rest of the station property. The site is constrained by the same Hydro One corridor that stymied construction of the new Kipling terminal (much of the parking lot is under hydro wires), but this is a much smaller bus terminal, and hopefully lessons were learned this time.
Work on station construction was scheduled to begin in Spring 2023.
Rendering of new bus terminal and station entranceSchematic of the TTC station redevelopmentCreateTO development blocks at Bloor and Islington, from 2021 presentationCreate TO conceptual plan for Islington Station site
It is now mid-June 2023, and for now, there is no sign of work. Inside the station, there are no signs informing customers of impending construction, even if only to reassure passengers that the decrepit conditions are being addressed.
The many delays at Islington Station are also indictive of the difficulties of redeveloping even city-owned properties for new, much needed housing. It won’t be until 2026 — at the earliest — that new development can take place.
Until then, TTC customers must put up with a rapidly deteriorating station.
Late last year, I wrote about the closure of the Hamilton City Centre mall, the last of Ontario’s downtown Eaton Centres to open. But Hamilton’s failed shopping centre wasn’t the only old downtown mall to close in recent years: Sarnia’s Bayside Centre, opened in 1982 as the Sarnia Eaton Centre, was recently demolished, with a seniors’ residence and long-term care home set to take its place.
Bayside Mall in 2013
I previously visited Sarnia’s Bayside Mall in 2013, when the mall was already mostly dead. Community uses, such as a local museum, a Canadian Blood Services clinic, a seniors’ drop-in centre, and a March of Dimes office predominated, with only Hong Kong Express and Subway left in the food court, and a few other shops — a rug store, an optician, a beauty salon, and a pharmacy — scattered amongst the vacant storefronts. The old Eaton’s department store was already converted into offices for Lambton County’s social services department.
The old fountain at the main entrance to Bayside Mall in 2013.
As I discussed previously on this website, there was a downtown redevelopment boom across Ontario in the 1970s and 1980s, with municipalities and the province eager to support the construction of new shopping centres to help them compete with suburban malls.
The Sarnia Eaton Centre was the first of several malls funded by the Ontario Downtown Redevelopment Program, though previous downtown shopping centres, such as Hamilton’s Jackson Square and the Sudbury City Centre, were built with municipal support.
The case for Sarnia Eaton Centre was always weak, but it was the result of inter-municipal rivalry as much as it was an attempt to revitalize Downtown Sarnia. In the 1970s, Lambton Mall opened in the city’s outskirts, near the intersection of Highways 40 and 402. But Lambton Mall was built outside the city limits, in suburban Sarnia Township. Lambton Mall’s anchors included Sears, Canadian Tire, and Toys R Us.
While Sarnia Township’s population was growing due to residential, industrial, and institutional growth (Lambton College’s main campus was also established in the township, near Lambton Mall), the City of Sarnia’s population declined. Along with the new Eaton Centre, the city also encouraged new highrise residential development in the downtown core, and two new office buildings were also constructed. The city – with support from Imperial Oil, a major employer – renovated the old movie theatre, converting it to a playhouse for local productions and touring shows.
The Imperial Theatre remains a popular attraction
When it opened in 1982, Sarnia Eaton Centre was the centrepiece of Sarnia’s downtown comeback. It filled in nearly four blocks of Downtown Sarnia, with Lochiel Street closed between Christina and Vidal Streets, and Victoria Street closed north of Cromwell.
The mall was anchored, of course, by Eaton’s, a smaller, two-storey store with 91,470 sq. ft. of floor space (just under 8500 square metres), and an A&P supermarket on the southern end. Sarnia Eaton Centre’s 1993 Canadian Directory of Shopping Centres, showed that the mall still had a healthy assortment of national retailers, along with some local businesses. But many retailers refused to renew their store leases, and when Eaton’s entered bankruptcy for the first time in 1997, the Sarnia store was among the first to close.
The City of Sarnia merged with Sarnia Township in 1991, while the area surrounding Lambton Mall continued to grow as the region’s commercial centre. Big-box stores such as Walmart and Home Depot clustered around the older mall, and even with Sears Canada’s closure, Lambton Mall continued to do well, with Marshalls/Home Sense taking over the old Sears store.
20132023
The Bayside Mall property was purchased by Seasons Retirement Communities in 2017, and most of the mall was demolished in 2021-2022. Lambton County, which operated its social services offices in the former Eaton store, expanded its footprint, with a new municipal courthouse located next to the old Eaton’s store, which was renovated.
Lochiel Street has been partially restored as a pedestrian walkway across the site, while the southern half of the old mall will be redeveloped for mid-rise seniors’ homes, with a central plaza.
Map showing the redevelopment of Bayside Mall, with the Lambton County building, in red, already complete in early 2023. The top of the map faces west.
Meanwhile, Downtown Sarnia will continue to hold its own. It has a few nice restaurants, cafes and pubs, and the highrise development of the 1970s and 1980s ensures that there’s a local population that will frequent the businesses there. The addition of seniors housing won’t hurt either.
Below is the list of tenants at Sarnia Eaton Centre in 1992, obtained from the 1993 Canadian Directory of Shopping Centres, published by Maclean-Hunter. In 1992, the collection of retailers was still quite strong, largely driven by Cadillac Fairview’s leasing team.
Anchors
A&P (26,512 sq ft), Eaton’s (91,470 sq. ft)
Fashions and footwear Children’s wear: Just Kids Unisex/family wear: Le Chateau, D’Gala, Pantorama, Stitches, Thrifty’s Ladies’ wear: Fairweather, Irene Hill, Just Petites Lady Foot Locker, Lindor, Reitmans, Smart Set, Suzy Shier Menswear: Tip Top Footwear/leather goods: Agnew, Baronessa, Bata, Belinda & Brother, Joggers, Kinney, Mr. Minit Shore Repair Jewellery/accessories: Ardene, People’s
Other retailers Books/stationery: Carlton Cards, Garfield, WH Smith Health and beauty: Caryl Baker Visage, Shoppers Drug Mart Department store/mass merchandiser: Marks & Spencer, A Buck Or Two Electronics: Radio Shack Entertainment: Fun & Games Furniture & furnishings: Brass Collections Gifts: Things Engraved Hardware/paint & paper: St. Clair Paint and Wallpaper Housewares: The Royal Douton Store, Stokes Music/ records & tapes: Discus, Music World Pets: Tropicarium Pet Centre Photo/camera: Black’s, Japan Camera Restaurants & fast food: Elephant & Castle, Global Donuts, Hamby’s, Hong Kong Express, Kernels, Mykie’s, Viva Pasta Specialty food & drink: Laura Secord, mmmarvellous mmmuffins, Second Cup
Services Banks/financial: Canada Trust, TD Bank Hairstyling/esthetics: Regis Hairstylists Medical/dental: Tridont Dental Travel: Marlin Travel Misc: Infoplace
Main entrance to Hamilton City Centre, on James Street North. Note the awkward spacing of “City” over the entrance; it originally read “Eaton.”
On December 26, 2022, Hamilton’s former Eaton Centre, opened just 32 years ago, will close for good. Early in the new year, demolition will begin on the failed downtown mall, making way for a new residential development.
Hamilton Eaton Centre, fully opened in October 1990, was one of several downtown malls built in Ontario through a partnership between Eaton’s and commercial developer Cadillac Fairview, hoping to replicate the success of the Toronto Eaton Centre, which opened in phases between 1977 and 1979. It was the second major shopping centre to open in Downtown Hamilton; it followed the construction of the massive city-led Jackson Square development in the 1970s and 1980s in which entire city blocks were cleared to make way for urban renewal.
With support from the Ontario and municipal governments, the T. Eaton Company and Cadillac Fairview built new malls in Ottawa, Peterborough, Brantford, Kitchener, Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Sarnia, Hamilton, and expanded London’s existing Wellington Square. These private-public partnerships seemed to be beneficial; smaller cities worried about the decline of their downtowns would get an attractive new shopping centre after expropriating and demolishing existing buildings and/or providing municipal lands for the project. The municipality would finance new parking garages to support the new development. Meanwhile, Eaton’s would help finance the construction and provide a lead anchor for the new development. Cadillac Fairview, which specialized in retail and office development, would arrange the construction and the leasing for the mall stores. (There were a few downtown shopping centre projects in Ontario that did not have Eaton’s involvement, including malls in Chatham, Cornwall, Tillsonburg, and Waterloo.)
The old Eaton’s Hamilton Store in the 1920s, looking southwest from James Street North and (now disappeared) Merrick Street (Hamilton Public Library)
Unlike malls in Kitchener, Sarnia, Brantford, or Guelph, the Hamilton Eaton Centre was mostly built upon lands already acquired by Eaton’s itself, much like the larger and more successful Toronto Eaton Centre (the city of Hamilton assisted by closing Merrick Street between York Boulevard and James Street and transferring the right-of-way for the new development). The first phase of the project, built on the site of the Merrick Street parking garage and the old Hamilton Farmers Market, became the home of a new four-storey Eaton’s store to replace the dilapidated building on James Street. When the new store opened in April 1989, the old store was quickly demolished to make way for the mall itself, which opened just 18 months later.
The new Eaton’s Hamilton store on York Boulevard soon after opening in 1989. The store had exits to both Jackson Square and once completed, the new Eaton Centre mall. (Hamilton Public Library)
At first, Hamilton’s Eaton Centre was able to attract prestigious tenants such as HMV and Eddie Bauer thanks to Cadillac Fairview’s expertise and new office development in Downtown Hamilton, including a new CIBC office complex. The new mall was also able to attract existing downtown businesses out of storefront retail and the older Jackson Square mall.
YouTube video showing the exterior and interior of the old Downtown Hamilton Eaton’s store prior to closing, as well as its demolition in 1989 to make way for the new Hamilton Eaton Centre (via Hamilton Sight & Sound YouTube channel)
However, as I discussed previously on this website, the malls developed by Eaton’s and Cadillac Fairview did not do well in most markets. New, full-line Eaton’s stores were a poor fit for smaller, industrial cities like Peterborough, Brantford, and Sarnia. The malls themselves were more difficult to get to by car, and shoppers usually had to pay for parking. The established suburban malls were typically larger, and they offered ample free parking. By 1990, the old, large industries were in decline due to free trade and industrial automation, and in the 1990s, a new retail format — the big box “power centre” — emerged as serious competition during a major recession. And in 1994, Walmart entered the Canadian market.
The former Hamilton Eaton Centre (known as Hamilton City Centre since 2000) from the corner of James Street North and York Boulevard. The clocktower on the corner is an homage to the old Hamilton City Hall, which was demolished in 1960. The clocks themselves were originally installed in the old city hall and will be preserved when the current building is demolished.
With low traffic and many national retailers unwilling to renew their leases, Cadillac Fairview divested itself of most of its downtown malls. It sold its half-stake of Hamilton’s Eaton Centre to the T. Eaton Company in 1995 (Of its downtown malls, Cadillac Fairview would only hold onto the flagship Toronto Eaton Centre, and the Rideau Centre in Ottawa). According to a Hamilton Spectator article from that year, one of the mall’s three floors was already closed, just five years after its grand opening.1 Among the tenants that left the mall early was upscale men’s clothier Harry Rosen. By 1996, only 50 of the 120 stores outside the Eaton’s department store were still occupied, with another six stores closing early that year.2 A McMaster University business school lecturer predicted that one of the two downtown malls — Eaton Centre or Jackson Square — would close within 10 years. (He was only 15 years off the mark.)2
In February 1997 — after years of mismanagement and neglect by the fourth generation of the Eaton family — Eaton’s entered bankruptcy protection, allowing it to settle debts and restructure. Though stores in other downtown malls in Brantford, Sarnia, and Kitchener were among the first to go, the Downtown Hamilton store was left off the closure lists, as Eaton’s itself owned the property – losing the department store anchor would not help the mall in case of a property sale. In the meantime, Metrus Developments — which purchased the neighbouring Lister Block in 1989 — evicted its remaining tenants and boarded up the six-storey commercial building, hastening Downtown Hamilton’s visual and commercial decline.
In 1998, the Region of Hamilton-Wentworth (dissolved in 2001 after amalgamation) began leasing space on the formerly vacant third floor of Hamilton Eaton Centre, partly to help maintain the department store’s presence and support Eaton’s, which still owned the property. The City of Hamilton agreed to provide two hours of free parking at the attached York Boulevard garage and planned for the construction of a new store entrance to the Hamilton Farmers’ Market. This was just enough to keep the department store open until the company collapsed in 1999; the store closed for good in October of that year. The mall was rebranded Hamilton City Centre the year after, sold to a private real estate firm.
View from the third floor in Hamilton City Centre; the conversion of retail space to offices on the top level is apparentThe central atrium. All remaining stores must close by December 26, 2022.The connection between Hamilton City Centre and Jackson Square. This was originally the main route between the old Eaton’s store and the first phase of the 1970s-era mall. The largerJackson Square will undoubtedly benefit from the residential re-development of the Eaton’s site.
After Eaton’s closed, part of the massive retail space was renovated and turned into a fitness club. The City of Hamilton leased additional space in the old Eaton’s store, especially as it undertook renovations to its modernist 1960s-era city hall. New windows were punched into the brick facade to provide natural light to the new occupants. But the remaining national retailers like HMV, Fairweather, and Eddie Bauer left the mall, while a few small, independent retailers came in, attracted by cheap rents.
A fresh labelscar on the south-facing roof of the Eaton’s store, as seen from the patio on top of Jackson Square. Until 2021, a forgotten and unmaintained Eaton’s sign was left alone, hidden from street level.
The new development will have 1,940 residential apartments, along with street-level retail and office spaces, constructed in three phases. Walkways will allow the public to cut through the property, with one of those roughly following the old Merrick Street alignment. Unfortunately, it is being developed and planned independently of the rest of the Jackson Square superblock bound by James, King, and Bay Streets, and York Boulevard, and which also contains the farmers market, the central library, and Copps Coliseum, the sports venue built for an NHL franchise that never arrived.
But with the influx of new residents, Jackson Square — which, despite is retail vacancies, holds its own due to the attached office, hotel, and civic functions, as well as the full-service Nations supermarket — will only benefit from the demise of its newer downtown competitor.
Rendering for the new development on the Eaton Centre site by SRM Architects.
“Eaton eyes the future after buying centre” Hamilton Spectator 13 July 1995: D12.
John Burman. “A tough sell: Struggling Eaton Centre looks for new direction” Hamilton Spectator 13 Feb 1996: A1
Sean Marshall 