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Queen East and Boulton

No area is immune to the forces of gentrification, but this sunny patch of urban Toronto refuses to give up its soul.

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Take Regal Hardware, one of the last of the old-style local hardware shops where you can still buy nails by the pound and rummage for odd bits. It’s owned by Jimmy Berdousis. His family acquired it in the 1970s, but the store itself dates back to the late 1800s.

“Here you have your cafés, your restaurants, but it’s not brand-name,” says Berdousis. One couple, he says, drove in from Burlington. “They came with old pictures of their granddad. He worked here as a stock boy in 1890. It was a picture of him standing against old wooden barrels.” The photo had “300 Queen St. E. – first job” written on it.

It’s the kind of neighbourhood pride Riverdale is known for.

The park around the corner on Degrassi is named for Bruce Mackey, the teacher and librarian who opened his house to the founder of the Degrassi TV show. One plaque celebrates the local homes, shops, parks and schools used as sets in the 80s TV series.

But that’s not the nabe’s only cinematic claim to fame. This end of Queen East was redone to resemble 1930s New York for the filming of Cinderella Man with Russell Crowe and Renée Zellweger five years ago.

Further back, the area was definitely blue-collar. A Colgate plant and a tannery were the economic anchors. Colgate closed in the 80s, and “suddenly a lot of people were living on social assistance,” Berdousis remembers.

By then, the E.J. Lennox-designed Postal Station G, that neoclassical sandstone edifice at Saulter and Queen, had become the Ralph Thornton Centre, named after the activist cabbie who fought for marginalized people’s rights. Just across the street is the Poulton Block, a stunning Gothic Revival structure.

The postal station has given way to a library branch, the scene of heated gatherings in the battle that ultimately succeeded in keeping Walmart from draining the community’s spirit. A Home Depot managed to sneak into Gerrard Square, north of Queen, but it hasn’t killed Regal.

“People are loyal,” says Berdousis.

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