Mar 16 2011
A Community in Toronto as Varied as its Name – Cabbagetown
The name of the town may be strange, but do you know its origins and how the name came about? Despite the fact there are a few stories about the origins of Cabbagetown, the most accepted reason is when Irish immigrants settled in the area sometime in the 1840s. For those of you that know your history, at the time Ireland was in the grip of a potato famine, as they were so poor they grew cabbage in their gardens to make stew; which was all they could afford. Cabbage became one of the major foods of their diet, and the name Cabbagetown stuck, as it is still used more than 150 years later.
Years ago, it was a run-down, low-or-no-income area, the ‘largest Anglo-Saxon slum in North America’ as Hugh Garner wrote in his novel Cabbagetown. The neighbourhood stayed this way for quite a few years until the first enterprising homebuyers saw the promise of a future in Cabbagetown.
In the 1970s, wealthy Canadians were buying up unkempt Victorian houses and restored them to their original beauty with fanciful architectural detailing, brightly painted walls, delicate iron fencing, carefully manicured lawns and fragrant gardens. Nowadays Cabbagetown has a wide variety of occupants and is really popular with writers, musicians and artists, making it a very Bohemian neighbourhood.
Within easy reach is downtown and mid-town Toronto which has shopping, entertainment and business and all are under 10 minutes from Cabbagetown.
Cabbagetown – The Attractions
As a Cabbagetown real estate professional, I can recommend some fun activities. Riverdale Park, is a park for all the family, have a day out in wonderful surroundings. In Riverdale park, you’ll also come across the municipally owned Riverdale Farm, where you can take your younger family members to enjoy demonstrations of daily farming tasks like animal feedings, egg collection, cow and goat milking, horse grooming, and other agricultural concepts and experiences. There are pathways weaving through 7.5 acres of wooded areas, around ponds and into butterfly-herb-vegetable-flower gardens.
The Cabbagetown Fall Festival is an event not to be missed; taking place each September it is a big favourite for visitors and residents alike. Commencing at 10 am, the festival advertises a parade, which sees a vibrant array of floats, bands, as well as local politicians taking part. The parade is not the only thing to look forward to, the festival features the Short Film and Video Festival, a community garage sale, vendors, street entertainment, barn dancing and the cutting of the sacred cabbage.
Toronto is a very diverse city and embraces the differences of its citizens, only a short distance from Cabbagetown, Toronto is the home to a large gay village . The community is packed with cafes, restaurants, gay-oriented shops and a huge array of bars and hot nightspots that cater to an irresistibly seductive mosaic of orientations, cultures, ages, shapes and sizes. Have any of you seen or heard of the series ‘Queer as Folk’? – well the program was filmed in the village, a clear claim to fame. The last week of June sees another massive event taking place in this area, when Church and Wellesley host the annual Pride Week celebrations; an event were the talents and energy of the gay communities work together to celebrate the diversity of citizens that live in Toronto and Canada itself
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