Agincourt Neighbourhood – Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Agincourt is a neighbourhood and former village. This Northeast Toronto’s community lies along Sheppard Avenue between Kennedy Road and Markham Road (north-south includes the land between Highway 401 and Finch Avenue). It used to be part of Scarborough before the “megacity” of Toronto was created in 1998. Toronto officially recognizes Agincourt South, North and Malvern West as neighbourhoods.
In addition to the officially recognized neighbourhood, it is commonly used to refer to a much larger area of northwest Scarborough. It is sometimes included with Agincourt as the Tam O’Shanter-Sullivan area to the west, where the local Mall can be found.
A section of the community, west of Midland Avenue is part of Scarborough, while an area to its east is within Scarborough North (federal, previously Scarborough—Rouge River) or Scarborough—Rouge River (provincial, until the 2018 provincial election, when Scarborough North will be replaced).
Agincourt – Hero Town!
This community was once referred to as “hero town” by the citizens that lived there. The village of Agincourt was officially founded with the establishment of the post office, opened in June 1858 by John Hill. The name of the settlement was after the site of Henry V’s decisive English victory over French forces in 1415. Local legend has it that the town’s name was chosen when Hill requested that the town be given a post office, and the French-Canadian Postmaster agreed, on the condition that it be given a French name, with ‘Agincourt’ chosen to undermine the Postmaster’s intention.
The site of the 1415 battle is now known as Azincourt: the namesake of today’s Agincourt, Ontario should not be confused with Agincourt, Meurthe-et-Moselle. The original crossroads are located at Midland Avenue and Sheppard and served a rural agricultural population.Agincourt from Kennedy Road and Village Green Square
A Presbyterian church (from France) was built on the north-east corner, which is today’s Knox United Church. In addition, an Agincourt Public School was built in 1914, which has evolved over time into Agincourt Junior Public School. Founded on the second floor of the same building in 1915, Agincourt Collegiate Institute later developed into a secondary school. Scarborough Board of Education operated the schools from 1954 to 1998.
This local community had two railway stations constructed in the second half of the 19th century. There was one building near the crossroads on the Toronto and Nipissing Railway, which ran north from Scarborough Junction along the Toronto – Montreal mainline. As a result, Canadian National Railways acquired the line in the 1930s, and Agincourt Station is now operated by GO Transit Stouffville. It was later built east of the crossroads on what is now CP Rail track running diagonally northeast through the neighbourhood from downtown Toronto through Sheppard Avenue and Brimley Road.
There were various routes of commuter rail service from the CPR serving Toronto’s Union Station, including the Lake Ontario Shore Line and the Toronto-Peterboro Dayliner (1950s). As of 1990, CP passenger service has been discontinued for good, following the discontinuance of passenger service in 1982. As the line branches east from McCowan and Markham Roads between the subdivisions of Peterborough-Havelock and Belleville-Montreal, it passes through the marshalling yards built by CP in the 1960s. Over the course of the 1980s, Chinese Canadians moved into the neighbourhood in large numbers.
As a result of the 1980s emigrant wave from Hong Kong, Chinese and Taiwanese moved into the Agincourt area, especially along Sheppard Avenue near Midland Avenue. Chinese-themed shopping centres built in the 1980s transformed it into a bustling suburb of Toronto Chinatown, which pioneered the proliferation of “Chinese malls” to serve the Chinese community.
