History of the Town of Mimico

The Town of Mimico began as a Police Village in 1905 when it requested, and was granted powers that enabled it to gain some independence from the more rural Township of Etobicoke.  Under the terms of the bylaw passed by York County Council on January 27, 1905, Mimico was able to elect three trustees who were empowered to set local taxes in support of local services.  By 1910 Mimico had a population of almost 800 and the citizens petitioned York County Council requesting that Mimico become a fully independent Village.  The request was granted and Mimico became an independent Village on January 1, 1911.  It was now completely independent and able to elect its own political representatives and manage its own affairs.  The community continued to grow and in May 1917 the province of Ontario made Mimico a Town.  It would remain an independent municipality until 1967 when it was forced to amalgamate with Borough of Etobicoke.  In 1997 it became part of the City of Toronto. 

The boundaries of the Town were as follows:   a line running north from Lake Ontario up Dwight Avenue, over the railway tracks and along St. George Street up to Evans Avenue on the west; easterly along Evans Avenue to Church Street (present day Royal York Road) then along Algoma Street to Grand Avenue then north one block and along Manitoba Street on the north; Mimico Creek at the north east corner then westerly along the railway track to a line extending south to the end of Victoria Avenue (which was originally a short distance east of Louisa Street), across the Lake Shore Road to Lake Ontario on the east; and, Lake Ontario on the south.

There are two published histories of the Town of Mimico already known.  The first was The Story of Mimico:  Home of the Wild Pigeon, written by Edwin Eland and published in 1935.   The second was The Mimico Story, written by Harvey Currell and published by the Mimico Library Board in 1967.  I hope to provide interesting supplementary material to these two original publications. 

Do you have any photos or documents on the history of Mimico? Are you interested in keeping up to date on heritage issues in Mimico by being added to the heritage email list?  If so please contact me at mimicohistory at hotmail.com. 

All information and photographs on this site are copyrighted and may not be used without my permission unless otherwise noted.   © Copyright Michael Harrison 2011.  All rights reserved. (originally posted January 12, 2011)