Heart Park

At the old Otter Loop on Avenue Road

Added 2011-04-03

Update 2018-08-05

Six years later, a mature parkette. You'd never guess this used to be a trolley loop. Or an emissions testing station more recently.

Update 2011-12-18

Work on Heart Park has completed. Compare the following photo with the earlier one (below) taken eight months ago.

In the center of the "heart" (about where the pulmonary artery would be) is a circular bench which I am confident would be a fabulous place to play a game of Duck Duck Goose.

For anyone interested, there is a Grand Opening Ceremony this week, on Wednesday at 5 pm, hosted by Councillor Karen Stintz.

Original post 2011-04-03

Just south of Lawrence Avenue on Avenue Road, across from Havergal College which dominates this 1936 photo from the Toronto Archives, Otter Crescent leads towards the northwest and a new subdivision of modern homes. The sign advertises a few "choice lots" still to be had.

Here's the same view, taken this morning. Havergal is all but obscured by trees, even without leaves. In the foreground is a small piece of open land known as the Otter Bus Loop, where the Nortown trolleys and then Avenue buses turned around.

The bus loop is still there, but the bus shelter, built about 70 years ago, and the subject of some controversy (whether it should have been kept), was demolished late last year. However, you can still see it on Google Street View 2009.

Replacing the loop some time this year will be a new park in the shape of a heart.