Cabbagetown
Cabbagetown's name derives from the Irish immigrants who moved to the neighbourhood beginning in the late 1840s, said to have been so poor that they grew cabbage in their front yards. Canadian writer Hugh Garner's most famous novel, Cabbagetown, depicted life in the neighbourhood during the Great Depression. Garner called Cabbagetown "the largest Anglo-Saxon slum in North America". Cabbagetown was gentrified by affluent professionals, beginning in the 1970s. Many restored small Victorian row houses and became community activists. Today, wrought iron fences, stone walkways and beautifully kept gardens are common in some parts of Cabbagetown.