Abe Orpen
Canadian businessman
Abraham 'Abe' Michael Orpen (February 9, 1854 – September 22, 1937) was a Canadian businessman, best known for his ownership of several horse-racing tracks in Ontario, Canada. Born in Toronto, Orpen first worked as a carpenter, became a hotel keeper, owned several construction-related businesses, then branched into horse-racing. He owned the Dufferin Park Racetrack, Hillcrest Racetrack and Long Branch Racetrack, and was a partner in the Kenilworth Park Racetrack at Windsor, Ontario, and the Thorncliffe Park Raceway in Leaside, Ontario. Orpen was well known as a facilitator of gambling, first at his hotel, and eventually at a casino in Mimico, Ontario. After his death, his family continued the horse-racing businesses until the 1950s, when they sold their tracks during a time of consolidation of racetracks in Ontario.
Early life
Orpen was born in Toronto in 1854, at the family home at Oxford Street and Spadina Avenue. He was one of six children. His parents both came from northern Ireland; his father Samuel Orpen was a railway paymaster from Kilmairn, Killowen, and his mother Sarah was from McGuire's Bridge, Enniskillen. After his father died in 1863, his mother operated a hotel at Queen's Wharf at Bathurst and Front Streets. After finishing public school, Abraham would work as a carpenter.
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This entry incorporates text from “Abe Orpen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.