Most readers will be familiar with the iconic Thorncliffe Park sign at Overlea Boulevard and Millwood Road that has been a local landmark and gateway to the neighbourhood for nearly 70 years. But why is it there?
Is it a cenotaph honouring Canada’s veterans, like the one at Sunnybrook Hospital? Or is it a community sign, like the Welcome to Prince Edward County placard on Highway 401?
The famous sign that Thorncliffers refer to simply as “The Monument” was, in fact, privately built to advertise the Thorncliffe Market Place shopping centre at 45 Overlea Blvd., now called East York Town Centre.
Built soon after the Thorncliffe Park racetrack had been demolished, after the Town of Leaside had annexed the land, Thorncliffe Market Place was one of the first enclosed malls in Canada and a popular destination for many years.
For whatever reason, the original owners built what is undeniably a handsome, permanent structure, instead of a standard pylon sign advertising all the retail stores in their mall. It likely wasn’t that successful as a marketing tool, but what they built is fantastic.
An important symbol
Undeniably, the monument has become a symbol of coming home to Thorncliffe Park. It appeared in postcards of Toronto, when those were still a thing. In the 1990s, it served as inspiration for the Borough of East York to reimagine Overlea Boulevard with placemaking public realm improvements, since partly removed by Metrolinx. It is even part of the logo of a local grassroots group.
All these decades later, the monument is still privately owned. And that could be a problem for its future existence.
The Thorncliffe Park Monument has not gone unchanged over the decades. Significantly, the original post-war era lettering was removed in the early 1990s and replaced with East York Centre, in a move that shocked many Thorncliffers at the time. The fate of the original Thorncliffe Park lettering remains unknown to this day.
Thankfully, the name Thorncliffe Park was restored to its rightful, prominent place on the monument in the early 2010s. For the community, it was a long wait given that the birth of Megacity Toronto had put an end to the concept of East York Centre in 1998. As the late Alan Redway told me, the reverse was thanks to the leadership of Councillor John Parker.
Monument at risk?
More recently, the monument’s future was threatened when Metrolinx announced the Ontario Line would be built over top of it. Thorncliffers spoke up, and Metrolinx moved their train line.
Sadly, the monument’s owner appears not to have maintained it for many years. Flowers never bloom from its planters in the summer. Its three spotlights have been out since last December, leaving it in the dark every night, and the owner seems to have ignored calls to 311 for over a year to remove graffiti from two of its sides.
The Thorncliffe Park Monument is our heritage and should be under public ownership so it can be maintained and shown the respect it deserves.
This article was guest contributed by Jason Ash.