Cabbagetown gets its name from the first Irish immigrants that settled here in the years following the Irish Potato Famine. Because these new Irish immigrants were so poor, many of them dug up their front lawns and grew their own cabbage. It wasn’t very long until this area of Toronto became famous for its streets lined with cabbage and ever since, it has been called Cabbagetown.

For much of Cabbagetown’s history, it was a poor, working class area of Toronto. During the depression of the 1930’s, it became even more impoverished than it already had been and it became one of Toronto’s largest slums. In the 1940’s, the area of Cabbagetown south of Gerrard Street was demolished and replaced by the Regent Park housing project. Starting in the 1970’s however, the landscape of Cabbagetown started to change drastically as wealthier people started to move into the area buying up and restoring many of Cabbagetown’s old Victorian style homes. This ushered in a whole new era for Cabbagetown and today, Cabbagetown is a very desirable area of Toronto in which to live.