Carleton Village

History

The first European settlement in the area was the village of Carlton, at the intersection of St. Clair Avenue and today's Old Weston Road. Carlton was established in the late 1840s around the carriage and wagon-making shop of William Bull and appears in the 1851 Browne's Map of the Township of York. It was named after governor Guy Carleton. The settlement was not large, consisting of approximately thirty buildings. Carlton railway station was opened in 1857 and Carlton Post Office opened in 1858. By 1865, it was listed as having 150 residents. A new Carlton & Weston Road railway station was built in 1885 on the east side of the CNR tracks. It was renamed West Toronto Station and additions were added in 1902 and 1912. It still stands. Along Davenport at today's Perth Avenue, the settlement of Davenport developed. When the Northern Railway line was built, a Davenport Station was built. Davenport was also small, having only a population of 120 by 1875. The two villages grew steadily and more building lots were developed, all getting their water from wells. The neighbouring village of West Toronto Junction was incorporated in 1887. Rather than join the junction, villagers proposed forming a new merged village of 'Stanley', after Lord Stanley the Governor General of Canada at the time. The plan failed and Carlton and Davenport were later annexed into West Toronto Junction in 1889. Connolly Street in the area was first laid out as Carlton Avenue and renamed when West Toronto was annexed by the City of Toronto in 1909 (likely to avoid confusion with Carlton Street). At the centre of the neighbourhood is Wadsworth Park, named after long-serving Alderman and Controller William J. Wadsworth. Most development dates from the era of the building of St. Clair Avenue after the…

Most-observed species

• American herring gull, Smithsonian Gull

  Larus smithsonianus Coues, 1862 · Aves
  997
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  870
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  833
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  808
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  620
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  606
• Double-crested Cormorant

  Phalacrocorax auritus (Lesson, 1831) · Aves
  601
• Great Black-backed Gull

  Larus marinus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  563

Most recent

• M 2.6 — 2021-02-10
  28 km W of Yarmouth, Canada
• M 2.5 — 2018-09-29
  39 km NNW of Yarmouth, Canada
• M 3 — 2016-12-13
  42 km SW of Digby, Canada
• M 3 — 2016-06-09
  24 km S of Yarmouth, Canada
• M 3.5 — 2015-07-01
  30 km NNW of Yarmouth, Canada
• M 2.5 — 2015-06-27
  38 km SE of Digby, Canada