Fairbank is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The area covers a large central portion of the former City of York, Ontario centered on the intersection of Dufferin Street and Eglinton Avenue West. Fairbank includes the neighbourhoods of Briar Hill–Belgravia and Caledonia–Fairbank. The western border is the CNR lines. The northern and southern borders are the former borders of the City of York and the eastern border is Dufferin Street.
History
The area began at the Fairbank Postal Village at the intersection of Vaughan Road at Eglinton and Dufferin Street. The postal village name was derived from the Fairbank Farm owned by English settler Matthew Parsons. St Hilda's Anglican church was built at the Fairbank intersection, although a cul-de-sac was later created at the northern end of Vaughan Road to simplify the Eglinton and Dufferin intersection when Eglinton Avenue began to develop as a commercial street with many mid-rise apartment buildings.
Character
The neighbourhood has many rolling hills and steep, climbing streets. To the west, Prospect Cemetery separates Fairbank from development along the railway. Most of the neighbourhood as it exists today was planned in the interwar years with mostly small single family 2 and 1½ storey detached homes on north-south residential streets. Eglinton Ave. is organized into two BIAs: and York-Eglinton. St. Clair Avenue to the south is organized into two BIAs: 'Corso Italia' and 'St. Clair Gardens'. The neighbour historically acts an extension of Corso Italia - having a heavy Italian influence, however is now heavily influenced and inhabited by Portuguese immigrants.
Districts
This neighbourhood contains several named areas.
Caledonia covers the area along Caledonia Rd west of Prospect Cemetery and east of the railroad tracks. For demographic purposes the city has titled this neighbourhood Caledonia-Fairbanks. As of the 2006 Canadian Census, the total population of the Caledonia-Fairbank area was 3335, as of the 2011 National Household survey it was said to be 3230.
North Fairbank the area north of Eglinton and west of Dufferin
Belgravia the portion of the neighbourhood east of Dufferin, north of Eglinton, and south of the former Belt Line, where the tracks have been removed as part of the York Beltline Trail.
Briar Hill the area north of Belgravia and the Belt Line. Briar Hill and Belgravia are both modest areas with house values and average incomes in the lower quadrant compared with the Toronto average. The area's inhabitants are diverse; there is a very large Roman Catholic base, and Italian, Russian, and Portuguese are widely spoken as home languages. More than half of the immigrant population of Briar Hill-Belgravia arrived after 1981, with a majority of immigrants in 1996 and 2001 arriving from the Philippines, with Tagalog becoming a major immigrant language of the neighbourhood.
Fairbank Village is the Business Improvement Area along Eglinton Ave. W. from Dufferin St. to Chamberlain Ave., as well as along Dufferin St. from Hunter Ave. to Schell Ave.
York-Eglinton is the Business Improvement Area Along Eglinton Ave East of Dufferin St and extends to Marlee Ave.
According to the 2006 census, the majority of the neighbourhood's population is Roman Catholic, and there are a large number of people who speak Portuguese and Italian, with many recognizable ethnic influences in the neighbourhood. As of the 2011 National Household survey, the population was divided into 37% Portuguese, 6% Italian, 2% Spanish, with the remaining 55% being of other Southern European origins, compared to the 75% of Portuguese reported in the 2006 census. The neighbourhood is inhabited mostly by first generation Canadians.
Education
The Toronto District School Board operates public anglophone secular schools. The Toronto Catholic District School Board operates public anglophone Catholic schools. The Conseil scolaire Viamonde operates public secular Francophone schools serving the area. The Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud operates public Catholic Francophone schools serving the area. Schools in the area include:
Fairbank Public School, a TDSB school, is in the community
DB Hood Community School had been converted to the Lycée Français de Toronto, a private French school
Transportation
The Toronto Transit Commissionbus routes that serve this neighbourhood include the 29 Dufferin, 32 Eglinton West, 47 Lansdowne, 109 Ranee, and 929 Dufferin Express during regular hours, and for night service, 329 Dufferin and 332 Eglinton West. Currently, although there are no subway stations within the neighbourhood, there are two within walking distance from its boundary; the two nearest stations are Glencairn station and Eglinton West station. The Eglinton Crosstown light rail line, now under construction along Eglinton Avenue, will provide three underground stations in the Fairbank neighbourhood: Caledonia station, Fairbank station and Oakwood station.
