Stock Yards Village

History

In decades past, “the stockyards” at Keele Street and St. Clair Avenue West were just as the name implies: stock yards where cattle, sheep and pigs were slaughtered and sold for human consumption.

The property began as a 30-acre lot but eventually expanded to be nearly 200 acres. A fire in 1908 burnt down most of the timber structures; they were quickly replaced by concrete ones. As the stockyards expanded, more and more packing houses began popping up along St. Clair Avenue West. Famously, Maple Leaf Foods opened in the neighbourhood in 1927.

Given all the animals and meat-packaging companies, the area had a rather unpleasant smell, which only further reinforced Toronto’s “Hogtown” nickname (I’ve always wondered why Toronto is still sometimes referred to as Hogtown… now I know):

In 1944, the Ontario government took ownership of the stockyards, renaming them the Ontario Public Stockyards and later the Ontario Stockyards. This site was one of the largest in all of North America:

Redevelopment

In January 1994, the Ontario government closed the yards; demolitions were mostly complete by March. The horse exchange was demolished in December 1994. An administrative building, erected in 1904/05, was demolished in 1995. The last manager of the stockyards moved to the CNE in 1995.

The area was redeveloped and the current mall opened in March 2014. The Stock Yards Village mall is anchored by several major stores, including SportChek, Winners, and HomeSense. The mall formerly had a Target from March 2014 to April 2015. That space remained vacant from April 2015 to November 2017, when Nations Fresh Foods opened:

The architecture of the outdoor mall is rather odd: the small streets twist and wind around the shops, and the shops themselves are located on 3 different levels which can only be reached by going to the parking lots or the suspended pedestrian bridges. The site is part-pedestrian mall, part-vehicle throughway, and part-parking lot. Music blares from loudspeakers situated throughout the entire site, sidewalks are wide, and benches are scattered throughout the outdoor mall. Clearly, the architects were striving to achieve a “village feel” to the place:

Nations Fresh Foods

Nations Fresh Foods is an independently owned grocery store chain, founded in August 2012 in Woodbridge. According to the company, Nations are considered “a new, higher-end, banner store”. In total, the parent company owns 8 stores: 5 Nations Fresh Foods stores, 2 Oceans Fresh Foods Market stores, and 1 Grant’s Foodmart store, which is another affiliate chain. Two of the stores are located in Brampton, three in Mississauga, one in Vaughan, one in Hamilton, and one in Toronto.

Nations Experience

A ride up the escalator will bring you to the Nations Experience, a vast, noisy and chaotic gaming spot/playground for kids:

Food Court

Nations Fresh Foods

And yes, there is actually a bona fide grocery store amidst the chaos:

Over the decades, the neighbourhood has almost completely transformed. Since the closing of the original stockyards the land has been redeveloped, mainly for big-box stores.

These days the Ontario Stockyards are found further north, in Cookstown.

Reference: BlogTO, The History of the Stock Yards District