St. James Town

St. James Town (sometimes misspelled St. Jamestown) is a neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It lies in the northeast corner of the downtown area. The neighbourhood covers the area bounded by Jarvis Street to the west, Bloor Street East to the north, Parliament Street to the east, and Wellesley Street East to the south.

St. James Town is the largest high-rise community in Canada. It has been identified as one of 13 economically deprived neighbourhoods within the city. It consists of 19 high-rise buildings (14 to 32 stories). These residential towers were built in the 1960s. Officially, approximately 17,000 people live in the neighbourhood's 19 apartment towers and 4 low rise buildings, making it one of Canada's most densely populated communities.

St. James Town began to grow in the 19th century when it became a semi-suburban area home to the city's middle class. It was also part of the City Liberties bounded roughly by Bloor, Don River, Dundas and Bathurst.

St. James Ward was rezoned in the 1950s, and the nineteenth century homes were leveled, and apartment towers — inspired by Le Corbusier's Towers in the Park concept — were erected. Each tower was named after a major Canadian city with some accommodating over 1000 residents. The 14 story Quebec was completed in 1959, the 18 story Victoria in 1965, and The Toronto's 24 floors in 1967. In the same census time period (1961 - 1971) St. James Town's population grew to 11,462 from only 862.

In the late 1960s, the developers attempted to acquire land south of Wellesley, as far as Carlton Street, to expand the St. James Town development. Many residents of the area resisted, with the support of civic activist and future Mayor of Toronto John Sewell. The St. James Town expansion was cancelled, and the homes that had been demolished were replaced with several housing cooperatives.

The plan for St. James Town's highrises was conceived in the 1950s to house young middle class residents who worked downtown. It was spurred forward by the federal government, which saw city building as a key to the nation's recovery after the Depression and the Second World War. The buildings failed to attract the large number of demographics the developer envisioned, and the neighbourhood was designed without proper amenities to support the spike in density. Parallel to the development of St. James Town were large suburban developments of detached family homes in the Toronto suburbs. Many prospective tenants chose suburban houses in the developing areas of Scarborough, Etobicoke, and North York. After the first generation of tenants left the buildings, the area quickly started attracting tenants of a lower income bracket. Four buildings were later built by the province to provide public housing. The towers are now mostly home to newly arrived immigrant families, with only 33% being born in Canada, according to the 2011 Census.

After the provincial health care restructuring of the mid-1990s, the Princess Margaret Hospital site on Sherbourne Street became available. In 2001, the City of Toronto launched a major initiative to add social amenities in the area and began the construction of a new Toronto Public Library branch and community centre, which opened in 2004 at the corner of Sherbourne and Wellesley. Lanterra Developments has also proposed plans to replace some of the remaining Victorian homes in St. James Town with several more towers.

On September 24, 2010, a fire broke out on the 24th floor of 200 Wellesley St. East (the white building behind the library and community centre). Fourteen people were taken to hospital due to injuries, including three firefighters and two children. Three of the injuries were classed as serious. The cause of the fire was determined to be a cigarette thrown from a balcony above.