5 and 10 - Mississauga (Dundas & Hurontario), Cooksville, Ontario, Canada
5 & 10 aka. Four Corners - the Intersection of Dundas & Hurontario streets in Cooksville, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Today Mississauga, Ontario, just west of Toronto, is Canada's 6th largest city with a population of over 730,000. It is the 2nd biggest city in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) after Toronto itself. From the 1980s to 1990s, Mississauga was Canada's fastest growing city, with developers gobbling up farmland for residential, commercial, and industrial development. Today growth has slowed because there's no undeveloped land left. GTA developers have moved on to places further out, like York Region and Milton.
Until about the mid-20th century, Mississauga wasn't a city at all. Instead, it was a group of separate rural villages known collectively as Toronto Township. The city's modern name comes from the Algonquian-speaking Mississauga indigenous people, who lived there until the 19th century.
Many of the old villages of Toronto Township have become modern neighbourhoods in the city, including Cooksville, Port Credit, Sheridan, Streetsville, Meadowvale, Malton, and Clarkson.
The modern city of Mississauga was formed in the 1960s and 1970s by the amalgamation of these different villages. For much of its history, Mississauga was administered by Hazel McCallion, who came to office in 1978. She stepped down in 2014 around the age of 93, as one of the longest serving and oldest mayors in North America.
Even before Mississauga became a city, the intersection of Dundas and Hurontario streets in Cooksville, known colloquially as 5 and 10, served as the commercial centre of Toronto Township. The nickname comes from the fact that Dundas Street used to be called Highway 5, and Hurontario Street used to be called Highway 10. Today the busy intersection is officially called Four Corners.
When Mississauga was 1st amalgamated in 1968, 5 & 10 served as the headquarters of the town government. But after 1971, the town administration gradually began moving its offices north, to Hurontario and Burnhamthorpe streets. A new Civic Centre was completed there in 1987. The Mississauga Central Library was also moved from 5 & 10 to Hurontario and Burnhamthorpe during this period. Square One Shopping Centre, built on what used to be farmland in the 1970s, is also located in this area. In addition, the city's main bus terminal is here. The Hurontario and Burnhamthorpe area has now been designated the official downtown of Mississauga.
But Hurontario and Burnhamthorpe still doesn't really feel like a downtown. The wide streets are mostly built for cars and Square One Mall draws people indoors, away from the street. 5 & 10 still feels like the closest thing Mississauga has to an urban downtown. Its an important transit hub for Miway (Mississauga Public Transit) buses. The Route 1 and Express 101 Dundas buses go west from 5 and 10 to the University of Toronto Mississauga's Erindale Campus, and towards South Common Centre Mall and Oakville. And they go east to Islington Subway Station in Toronto, connection with the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) public transit and subway trains. Routes 19 and 103 Express buses run up and down Hurontario Street, from Port Credit GO Station in the south to Shopper's World in Brampton to the north. Along the way, the Hurontario buses stop at the main Mississauga bus terminal at Square One Mall.
5 & 10 also has relatively dense residential housing (by suburban standards)- townhouses and low and highrise buildings line Hurontario south of Dundas. The area has lots of plazas with small mom and pop stores along Dundas and Hurontario. There are also newer plazas with big box stores and franchises like Royal Bank, Shopper's World and McDonald's. The intersection usually has a relatively high amount of foot traffic by suburban standards, which occasionally attracts panhandlers- something that's common in Downtown Toronto, but you rarely see in other parts of Mississauga.
Tags: Mississauga, Brampton, Toronto, 5 and 10, Dundas Street, Hurontario Street, Miway, Route 1, Route 101 Express, 103 Express, Route 19, bus, public transit, plaza, building, suburb, suburban, urban, mall, Square One Mall, cars, bus terminal, Four Corners, Cooksville, Greater Toronto Area, GTA, Ontario, Canada