Local Street names on EPRA’s turf

“What is in a name?” Juliet’s question, in Shakespeare’s famous play. As she knew, names have meanings.

So, let’s look around.

Yonge? Sir George Yonge, friend of John Graves Simcoe and enthusiast for ancient Roman roads – often long, often straight.

Eglinton? Rumour has it that John Montgomery, of the tavern, and the avenue, thought he himself descended from the earls of Eglinton, in Scotland, and named the village later called North Toronto — Eglinton. We lost the village name except where immortalized by Toronto’s longest east-west street.

Orchard View?: once upon a time there was an orchard, in view. Northern District Library, on the old days, had two ancient cherry trees, relics.

Roselawn?: Lynda Moon, local historian, tells us there was a greenhouse full of roses, property of one Lawrence, an alderman (then the term for city councillor).

Duplex?: two theories, that it doubled Yonge (odd nomenclature!), or that the eight semi-detached houses, four still standing, four replaced by Neon condo, bestowed the name.

Edith?: local historian Lynda Moon, tells us that the local developer Ralph W. Burnaby who laid out this part of town had a girl-friend named Edith. So said his son to Lynda? His eventual wife? We do not know.

Who then, to our Burnaby, was Helen, of Helendale? Henning’s beloved? His horse? His dog? To find out someday.