The West Park property and nearby mall was once a railway yard on the intersection of Bloor and Dundas. It was redeveloped when the school was built and opened in September 1968. West Park Vocational School was a special vocational school for boys with learning difficulties and served the entire western half of the city. In addition to classrooms, the building included a double gymnasium, a tailoring shop, an auditorium and a swimming pool, and a parking garage. The building cost $22.45 per sq ft. The school was designed by Abram and Ingleson Architects. In 1985, Cathy McPherson, the coordinator of the PUSH Central Region, stated that West Park and five other schools were listed as having "excellent" access for disabled persons by the Toronto Board of Education continuing education program. Decrease in enrollment had the Toronto Board of Education announced in 1986 that it planned to close the West Park facility by 1988. Irene Atkinson, the trustee of Ward 2, said in 1986 that it would likely be the first Toronto school closed due to declining enrollment. A task force recommended that the student body is transferred to Brockton High School. That year, the Toronto Star wrote that West Park students were expected to be transferred to Brockton. The Metropolitan Separate School Board offered to take over the campus and make it into a Roman Catholic separate school. The MSSB's Bishop Francis Marrocco Catholic High School on St. Clair/Dufferin area was over capacity, and the separate school board wanted additional space. There was a proposal stating that both public secular and public separate schools could share the same building. On January 7, 1988, Ned McKeown, the director of the TBE, recommended that West Park be transferred to the MSSB. On March 7, 1988, the MSSB accepted taking the West Park facility. Sandro Contenta of the Toronto Star stated that the TBE was not willing to pay the funds to make the West Park building shareable between the two school boards. The transfer became effective July 1, 1988. Afterwards, the programs at West Park were dispersed at Bickford Park High School, Brockton High School, Castle Frank High School, Central High School of Commerce and Western Technical-Commercial School. It was reopened as Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School in September 1988, which they were once called Bishop Francis Marrocco Catholic High School and St. Joseph Commercial School.o In 2017, Choice Properties REIT proposed to redevelop the property adjacent to the West Park site, although a replacement school is not ruled out.
