Oliver E. Crockford
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Oliver E. Crockford (1893 - 28 March 1986) was the reeve (mayor) of Scarborough, Ontario from 1948 until 1956. He is credited with transforming the rural township into a modern suburb of Toronto by spearheading the creation and development of the "Golden Mile" - Canada's first industrial park,[1][2] resulting in both industrial and residential development of the strip and the surrounding area. After his election in 1948, he convinced Scarborough Town Council to purchase land along Eglinton Avenue East from the federal government, which had been used during the Second World War for munitions production by the government owned General Engineering Company. The parcel of land consisted of 125 buildings on 225 acres. Worth an estimated $7 million, Crockford convinced the federal government to sell the land to Scarborough for $350,000. Scarborough repurposed some buildings for municipal offices while selling other properties to manufacturers such as Frigidaire, Inglis, SKF, General Motors and others for use as factories. The manufacturing boom also resulted in a residential boom with 100,000 houses being built in Scarborough in 1953 alone.[3]
References
- ^ "Golden Miler: As reeve from 1948 to 1956, Oliver Crockford turned Scarborough from a rural backwater". Getty Images/Toronto Star. 12 March 1981. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
- ^ Monsebraaten, Laurie (5 November 2019). "Follow the Toronto Star on social media: STAR EXCLUSIVE Revitalization project aims to put the glitter back in the Golden Mile". Toronto Star. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
- ^ Leblanc, Dave (28 July 2006). [On the heels of industry came mass housing. Reeve Crockford boasted in January, 1953, that 10,000 homes would be built in Scarborough that year, most of them ringing the Golden Mile. Builders' advertisements touted the proximity to the smokestacks as if it were a good thing. By that December, as if by symbiosis, Eglinton Square Shopping Centre appeared at Pharmacy and Eglinton to service the happy new smog-inhaling homeowners. "Not much remains of Scarborough's Golden Mile"]. Globe and Mail. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
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