Oakridge / Crossroads of the Danforth

Oakridge is an early 20th Century community that evolved within the original Scarborough Junction post office delivery area. The spine of the Oakridge community centred along Danforth Avenue from Victoria Park Ave. to approximately Warden Ave. in Scarborough.

With a close connection to the Grand Trunk Railway’s Danforth Yards, this area evolved quickly in the 1900s due to several small industries that needed rail access establishing themselves along the rail line. Much of the area surrounding the industries were subdivided into housing lots by real estate developers.

The residents, or ratepayers in Oakridge established themselves as a driving force of progress in the area just after the end of World War One.

Many of the people to settle in Oakridge in the early 1920s were returned Veterans of the War (or, “The Great War”) and several of them grouped together to form the Oakridge Great War Veterans Association. The G.W.V.A pledged to oversee the needs of those who had returned from overseas to live in this area, many with new families.

Oakridge experienced a quick boost in housing and population when in 1923 a Ford Motor Company built a car assembly factory just over the township line, located on the south west corner of Victoria Park Ave & Danforth Ave. Several new housing subdivisions appeared in the area in anticipation of the factory arriving. The structure of the old Ford factory still exists, although extensively renovated, it is now a retail mall called “Shoppers World”.

The name “Oakridge” has all but disappeared from the area today, not being used in popular context used due to the commercial area on Danforth Ave. currently being promoted as “The Crossroads of the Danforth” by the local BIA (business improvement area).