under construction, 1930; until June 1931, Carlton Street ended at Yonge Street College Street takes its name from the
University of Toronto, originally established as King's College. Between
Spadina Avenue and Yonge Street, College marks the southern boundary of the original 1827 land grant for the college. The street was immediately proposed as an east-west route along the boundary, although the section was not built until 1859. The first section built was to the west of Spadina Avenue, through the estate of
Robert Baldwin, who laid out the route. This section was built with the that was also used for Spadina. The section through Baldwin's estate was laid out in 1842, and the wide section was extended to Manning Avenue through the Denison and Crookshank estates. After
John Howard made the 1873 land grant which would become
High Park, the Denison family proposed that the city extend College Street west as a sort of 'driving park' to access the new public lands. The path to the west of Manning Avenue was blocked by William Wakefield, who owned the land beyond and was holding out for a high sale price. The purchase of Wakefield's land did not take place until 1879. The right-of-way purchased through Wakefield's land was the standard width, rather than the 100 ft width to the east. The cost of the land may have been a factor. Building the route west of
Clinton Street was a challenge in the 1880s. At the time, a direct line west would have traveled through the ravines of
Garrison and Brewery Creeks as far as
Dufferin Street, the western city limit at the time. Instead, the road was rerouted along a north-western crescent running parallel to the creeks. The route then proceeded straight as far west as Havelock Street, just east of Dufferin. At Havelock Street, the right-of-way intersected the property of Charles Lindsay. The alignment of College Street would have bisected his property, leaving unsaleable lot sizes on the south side of College. Lindsay was able to convince the city to reroute around his property to the north, with a 'kink' that exists to this day. == Route description ==