The Wallace Emerson neighbourhood owes its development to the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railway lines which began freight services to this area in the late 1800s. Nowadays, the main thoroughfare of Bloor Street consists almost exclusively of mixed-use residential and commercial buildings. The residential area north of Bloor Street is primarily single-family dwellings. Many of these structures have been converted into apartments, housing up to eight separate units, but some new homebuyers are renovating them back to single-family homes. The Village of Dovercourt was founded in the 1870s. Its residents were originally poor immigrants from England. The village was annexed by the old City of Toronto in 1912, helping stimulate its growth and development by 1923.