York, Ontario

York, Ontario

The Township of York was incorporated by the Province of Ontario in 1850, bounded in the west by the Humber River, in the east by what would become Victoria Park Avenue in the City of Toronto and in the north by what would become Steeles Avenue. To the west was the Township of Etobicoke and to the east was the Township of Scarborough while to the north were the townships of Vaughan and Markham. York became the township in which the City of Toronto experienced nearly all of its growth.

In the 1920s, the character of the township changed, with its southern reaches abutting the City of Toronto taking on a more urban character, compared to the very rural character of the north. The decision was made to split the township in two, with the northern, rural portion becoming North York. The remainder, two pockets of unincorporated urban development at the north end of the city, was split by the village of North Toronto, which was by then a part of the City of Toronto. Within years, the Province of Ontario saw that this arrangement was impractical, and further subdivided York, creating the Township of East York out of the eastern pocket. In this state, the Township of York contracted streetcar and bus services from the Toronto Transportation Commission, but remained independent from the City of Toronto

York was part of the federation of twelve suburban municipalities that joined the cit of Toronto in 1954 to form Metropolitan Toronto and, in 1967, it absorbed the Village of Weston and later became a city. It was amalgamated into the "Megacity" of Toronto on January 1, 1988.