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Cabbagetown is an historic neighbourhood located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is rich in culture and history, with a number of 19th century buildings, most notably churches. A large proportion of the homes in the area are original structures, and residents tend to favour maintaining the original architectural flavour. According to the Cabbagetown Preservation Association, the neighbourhood comprises "the largest continuous area of preserved Victorian housing in North America".
Local legend has it that Cabbagetown is so named because poor Irish immigrant inhabitants from the late nineteenth century could only afford to eat the cabbage they grew themselves, supposedly in their front yards. Its original boundaries were Gerrard Street to the north, Queen Street to the south, Parliament Street to the west and the Don River to the east. However, Cabbagetown was one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Toronto, and in the late 1940s much of the original Cabbagetown was razed to make room for the Regent Park housing project, and the Cabbagetown name (but not necessarily its actual inhabitants) migrated north to the Victorian neighbourhood it now calls home. Cabbagetown's current boundaries are now generally accepted as Gerrard Street to the south, Wellesley Street to the north, Sherbourne Street to the west and the Don River to the east.
The neighbourhood of Corktown, south of Regent Park, now incorporates part of the southern reaches of 'old' Cabbagetown. Along with a small number of houses east of River Street, this is the only part of the original Cabbagetown area not to have been demolished in the 1940s.
As of 2004, the present-day Cabbagetown has become a Heritage Conservation District, protected by municipal bylaw. Included within the district are St. James Cemetery, Necropolis Cemetery, the Riverdale Park and Farm, and Wellesley Park.
Canadian writer Hugh Garner's most famous novel, Cabbagetown, depicts life in this neighbourhood during the Great Depression.
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