Parkwoods

Parkwoods
Neighbourhood

Location within Toronto

Coordinates: 43°45′04″N 79°19′23″W / 43.751°N 79.323°W / 43.751; -79.323Coordinates: 43°45′04″N 79°19′23″W / 43.751°N 79.323°W / 43.751; -79.323
Country  Canada
Province  Ontario
City Toronto Toronto
Area
  Total 4.72 km2 (1.82 sq mi)

Parkwoods or sometimes referred to as Parkwoods-Donalda is located in the city of Toronto, a geographically large neighbourhood located just south of Ontario Highway 401, West of Victoria Park Avenue, North of Lawrence Avenue East and east of the Don Valley Parkway.

The Northern part of the neighbourhood (area north of York Mills Road/Parkwoods Village Drive) is populated by mostly new immigrants to the city and has a mix of lower income and middle income families. As a result, there is a huge number of visible minorities (over 50%). Chinese, South Asians and Blacks (African, Caribbean) make up the largest percentage of ancestries in the area, after Canadian and other mixes. The area south of York Mills Road is a fairly affluent neighbourhood, with a large number of original homeowners (1957 to 1962 purchasers) still occupants (or their heirs).

In the North West quadrant of the neighbourhood is the area known as Graydon, which is built up on hillside terrains and is home to the Donalda Golf course.

One of the dominant characteristics of the neighbourhood is its winding streets and undulating topography. Several large parks and trails can be found throughout the area. Of particular note is Brookbanks Park; a branch of the Don Valley ravine system. Running throughout the ravine is Deerlick Creek, which is a tributary of the Don River. "For several seasons in the late '80s and early '90s, Dr. Mima Kapches of the Royal Ontario Museum conducted a variety of archaeological digs in some of the backyards that line the Brookbanks Park ravine. During a dig in the fall of 1987 she uncovered a Meadowood-cache blade dating from 1000 BC, making it one of the oldest ever discovered. Continued excavation the following year uncovered a variety of Middle Archaic period artifacts, including a small pebble that displayed a human face in effigy, believed to have been created in 4,700 B.C. making it one of the oldest dated human representations in northeastern North America. From 1988 to 1990, digs in an adjacent backyard revealed a wealth of Early Iroquoian pottery (ca. AD 1000), as well as the remnants of an "open-pit firing event," a site that would have been used in its production. These discoveries have led local archaeologists to hypothesize that the ravine surrounding Deerlick Creek may have once served as a seasonal pottery production and firing campsite."[1]

Schools

There are 10 public schools in Parkwoods, eight secular schools managed by Toronto District School Board and two separate schools operated by the Toronto Catholic District School Board. Prior to 1998, the North York Board of Education operated the secular schools.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.