In 1914, the City of Toronto’s Engineering Department was actively involved in filling low-lying areas, such as valleys and hollows, to level the terrain for urban development, including roads and railway infrastructure. A borrow pit is a site where material (e.g., soil, gravel, or sand) is excavated for use as fill elsewhere, and it likely helped speed up servicing and development in the area.
The borrow pit’s exact boundaries are not precisely mapped in the available sources, but its location on and around Clendenan Avenue and Bloor Street West is clear, dating back to a time when formerly rural land was being transformed for urban use.
The area around Clendenan Avenue was part of the Kennedy Estate and played a key role in the rapid urbanization of Toronto’s west end. Clendenan Avenue itself is named after D.W. Clendenan, a significant figure in the development of the West Toronto Junction, whose influence shaped the area’s layout and growth.
An article from the West Toronto Junction Historical Society features a photo caption stating:
“In 1914, this stretch of Bloor between Runnymede and High Park Avenue was filled in with a mountain of dirt several stories high, allowing the Toronto Civic Railway to lay streetcar tracks and connect Bloor West Village with the Toronto Railway Company streetcars at Dundas Street West.”
