The Brooke’s Bush Gang & Other 19th Century Criminal Gangs in Toronto

Note: This article is an addition to an earlier two-part article about the Brook’s/Brooke’s Bush Gang. You may read those here and here.

Introduction

From about 1855 to 1862, the dangerous, disorderly desperadoes of the Brooke’s Bush Gang terrorized Toronto. Headquartered in a wooded area and shanty on the east side of the Don River, the group made their mark assaulting and robbing travellers along Kingston Road near the river. Their actions culminated in the murder of Ontario politician John Sheridan Hogan on the Don Bridge and led to the trial and execution of one the gang members.

The Brooke’s Bush Gang provides an interesting window into the criminal history of Victorian Toronto. In particular, it speaks to some of the early workings of organized crime. However, the group was not the only criminal collective in the period and area. Two other groups existed in the decades before and after the Brooke’s Bush Gang — that is, the 1840s and 1860s. These were the Markham Gang and the Ridout’s Bush Gang, respectively. The groups resemble and differ from one another in the level of sophistication of their operations and information available about them.

The Markham Gang

The Markham Gang was formed by 1841 and, like the Brooke’s Bush Gang, enjoyed a relatively short existence which was ended by several high-profile trials involving violent crimes. As the name suggests, the group focused their activities to the north and east of Toronto. Its origins have been linked to the 1837 Rebellions.

The membership and function of the Markham Gang were an interesting subject. Gang members were young, often related to each other (in prominent local families) or neighbours. Unlike the Brooke’s Bush Gang, which seemed to be more of an amorphous group of desperadoes and unfortunates, the Markham group was comprised of rich, well-to-do men — which made their tendencies toward burglary more curious. Members were sworn to secrecy by oath to protect each other. The Markham Gang also operated in a very distinct way to its later counterpart. First, the group was quite sophisticatedly organized with leaders and prominent members. The gang posed as ‘avant couriers’ who would conduct reconnaissance on their future victims — noting where money was located in houses and their occupants’ activities.

There are two defining events in the history and end of the Markham Gang: (1) the robbery and assault of John Morrow and family and (2) the murder of William McPhillips.

The first case occurred in the Morrow home on the night of November 7, 1845. This was the year the gang gained the most notoriety and began to be reported on almost regularly by The British Colonist. The Morrow household was located in Reach Township, near the hamlet of Jockey Hill (now Epsom) halfway between Uxbridge and Port Perry. Just after midnight, Hiram and James Stoutenborough, Nathan Case, and Robert Burr violently entered the home and began wielding clubs while demanding money (the Morrows had sold some livestock earlier that day). John Morrow was repeatedly beaten and left badly injured.

In the subsequent arrest and two trials (Burr was charged separately from the others as a ringleader), all were found guilty and sentenced to hang. These were commuted to life sentences at Kingston Penitentiary, but they were released and pardoned by 1853, long after the gang ceased operations.

In the second, the William McPhillips killing occurred in Logan’s General Store in Markham on November 20, 1846. It was deduced that someone entered the store and struck McPhillips viciously on the head while he was working. Among the identified culprits were Stephen Turney who was arrested and tried successfully for murder. He was hanged in June 1847 in Toronto.

Other criminal activities took place in Whitby, Vaughan, Pickering, Sharon, and other nearby localities. Although the methods differed, much like the Brooke’s Bush Gang, they were often larceny involving money, watches, grain, and livestock. From 1845 to 1846, other members of the gang were arrested and tried for varying crimes to varying results. The end of the gang was likely spelled by several members being dead or, if still alive, mostly jailed, eventually returning to society and distancing themselves from their criminal pasts after their served terms.

The Ridout’s Bush Gang

The first mention of Ridout’s Bush was in June of 1859 when members of the Brooke’s Bush Gang were found in another ‘bush’. A group of “unfortunates” consisting of Maria Reid, Mary Sheppard, Catherine O’Brien, Harriet LeGrasse, Mary Martin, and Ellen McDonald were “charged with conducting themselves in a disorderly manner in the bush in the rear of Mr. Ridout’s residence, head of Sherbourne Street”.

The events had Sergeant Major Cummings receiving word of what was happening behind Ridout’s home and proceeding to the area with a posse of constables to apprehend the girls. In court, one of the captured girls, Reid, defended that she was just “out for a walk for the good of her health” when they saw some boys catching birds. What followed was a humourous exchange with laughter in the courtroom in which Sergeant Cummings asserted to the Magistrate the girls were “notoriously bad characters.” Reid replied how can they be bad characters if they are in gaol all the time where they can’t have any mischief. The episode ended with a sentence of one month gaol (although the Magistrate added that it probably wouldn’t help) and the prisoners left “laughing and jeering”.

John Ross Robertson noted in 1894 in an anecdote about another “historical sketch” that “Ridout’s Bush” was now Sherbourne Street. The naming of the street and the bush both relate to the Ridout family, who from 1818 owned Park Lot 4 — consisting of the modern borders of Sherbourne Street to Ontario Street and Queen Street to Bloor Street. The lot seems to have been subdivided into thirds with different Ridout members holding ownership at different times. The 1858 Boulton Altas of the area indicates two marked Ridout houses (to a T.G. Ridout and J. Ridout) and a third at the head of Sherbourne which may refer to the house in the 1859 episode with the Brooke’s Bush Gang. The area from Sherbourne to Bleecker Street, north of Carlton Street (which corresponds to the western third) is illustrated in a grassy motif. In 1845, Thomas Gobbs Ridout donated a 30-foot wide strip of land which straddled his property and the adjacent property to the west. It was initially called Allan’s Lane (William Allan was the adjacent owner) and, by request from Ridout to honour his family’s birthplace, was changed to Sherborne (without the ‘u’). Allan’s Lane was a grassy road with a wagon trail in the middle and straddled the pasture to the west and the bush to the east.

The next time Ridout’s Bush seems to appear as a locale for disorderlies was in May 1862. It was noted in The Globe that following the final Hogan trial and execution of James Browne in March, the Police disbanded the Brooke’s Bush Gang. “Depredations” in the city had been reduced since then. Some persons, including some formerly belonging to the gang, began to gather in Ridout’s Bush, and like in their former hangout, began to behave “in a very unbecoming manner”. A posse of constables visited the bush and apprehended Catherine Dunn, John Wiley, and Edward Finagan, charging them with disorderly conduct. In a subsequent court appearance, the women were charged with 30 days in gaol and the men were discharged.

The Ridout’s Bush Gang’s antics seemed to continue into the next years, although references were sparse in the historical records. In May 1863, police arrested members in the bush in connection to a robbery near the Blind Tollgate at Bloor Street and Dundas Street. A woman approached a travelling victim and invited him back to the bush with her, at which point he was surrounded and “requested money” to buy a drink. He attested he had little money and was subsequently attacked and robbed of his coat which had seventy-five sovereigns (British pound sterling). There was no direct mention of the idea at the time, but the action resembled the tendencies of the Brooke’s Bush Gang.

Commenting on the episode, The Globe did warn:

“This gang is becoming quite notorious, and if it be not soon completely broken up and dispersed, will, in all likelihood, finish its career by some scheme of villainy equal to that of the late Brooke’s Bush party.”
The Globe, June 1, 1863

In July of the year, two men and four women were arrested for robbing hen roosts and disorderly conduct; one man was fined and the others sent to gaol for a month. In September 1864, police stopped “a band of ne’er-do-well’s” who “were holding high carnival at Ridout’s Bush, near Sherbourne street.” They found seven persons in “the midst of the riotous mirth” and “their conduct was disgraceful in the extreme”. Four women and three men were arrested and sentenced to hard labour in gaol.

The Ridout’s Bush Gang seem to disappear in the historical records after the fall of 1864. Their activities while akin to the Brooke’s Bush Gang did not seem to reach the level of notoriety of the more eastern-situated group. Also, the Ridout’s Bush Gang, unlike the Markham Gang and the Brooke’s Bush Gang, did not have a high profile trial pertaining to a violent crime which led to their end. While no record points to any possibilities towards their disbandment, it may be that the group quietly ceased their mischief.

The similar activities and timeframe between the Brooke’s and Ridout’s Bush Gangs, as well as the possibility that one gang was an offshoot of the other, led to some subsequent reporting that may have confused the two. In 1920, a Colonel Grassett, born 1847, recalled in The Globe that “Ridout’s Bush, above College Street” was a “pleasant place” for young persons “in long ago summers”. He did, however, distinguish it from “the black pine woods east of Sherbourne Street”, which were to be avoided. Grassett noted there were a lot of robbers and people in them. He also recounted how the gang murdered Mr. Hogan, although he seemed to have them confused with the Brooke’s Bush Gang. It seems like The Globe may have also made the mix-up as well when they reported that “trinkets and valuables” from the Brooke’s Bush Gang were found while tearing down a home at the corner of Carlton Street and Homewood Avenue in 1924; the site was written to be the shanty headquarters of the gang. The house was located on the sizeable lot of former Homewood Estate, which was located on the west side of Sherbourne Street opposite Ridout’s Bush and may explain its association with the latter gang.

Conclusion

The Markham Gang, Brooke’s Bush Gang, and Ridout’s Bush Gang paint a very interesting picture of organized crime in and around Toronto in the mid-19th century. While the nature of the crimes between the three groups were quite similar, their execution, scale, and frequency differed. The first group was a complex and layered gang with pre-meditated crimes and secret oaths. The second was an amorphous collection of individuals with a great frequency of thefts and assault. The third gang had the least presence of the three. Both the Markham and Brooke’s Bush Gangs were associated with significant violent crimes. The Brooke’s and Ridout’s Bush Gangs operated in similar fashions and may have been tied together. All three seemed to have a short existence of less than ten years, but their stories are notable aspects in local history.

Works Consulted

2 Wellesley Place. City of Toronto. (n.d.). https://www.heritagetrust.on.ca/en/oha/details/file?id=1893

Another landmark in danger. (1924, April 19). The Globe, p. 14.

Arculus, P. (2003). Mayhem to murder: The history of the markham gang, organized crime in canada west during the 1840’s. Observer Publishing of Port Perry.

City news. (1862a, May 21). The Globe, p. 2.

City news. (1862b, May 22). The Globe, p. 2.

City news. (1863, June 1). The Globe, p. 2.

City police. (1859, June 22). The Globe, p. 3.

EGPLadmin. (2021, July 26). Stephen Turney: Murderer and member of the Markham Gang. EGPL Blog. https://www.egplblog.com/post/stephen-turney-murderer-and-member-of-the-markham-gang

Henderson, E. (1930). Bloor Street, Toronto, and the Village of Yorkville in 1849. Papers & Records (Later Ontario History), Volume 26, 445–456.

Moss Park home of William Allan. (n.d.). http://www.lostrivers.ca/content/points/mosspark.html

Old-time crooks often gentlemen, muses ex-chief. (1930, June 18). The Globe, p. 13.

Robertson, J. R. (1894). Robertson’s landmarks of Toronto: A collection of historical sketches of the Old Town of york from 1792 until 1833, and of Toronto from 1834 to 1908. J.R. Robertson.

Smith, W. (n.d.). The Toronto Park Lot Project. The Toronto Park Lot Project by Wendy Smith. https://parklotproject.com/

Thornburn, M. (1956, June 23). Mud road in 1800’s now a 5th avenue. The Globe and Mail, p. 25.

Toronto : J.H. Beers & co. (1970, January 1). Commemorative biographical record of the County of York, ontario : Containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens and many of the early settled families. – : J.H. Beers & Co . Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/recordcountyyork00beeruoft

Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, June 4). Markham gang. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markham_Gang

‘Sports of All Sorts’: A Quick History of Sporting East of The Don River

In the lost geography of Toronto’s sports history, there are notable sites that have disappeared from the city’s streets. On the east side of the Don River in particular, a group of sites representing three sports — baseball, cricket, and shooting — tell an intriguing tale of late 19th-century and 20th-century sporting in the city.

The Toronto Base Ball Club & Sunlight Park

Baseball in Toronto has a history dating back to at least 1859, when the “Canadian Pioneer Base Ball Club” was organized. The group practiced every Monday on the University of Toronto grounds. In the fall of 1885, the Toronto Baseball Club, previously playing out of the Jarvis Street Lacrosse Grounds on Wellesley Street, sought a wider and larger playing field. They settled on a site east of the Don River.

Despite the size and potential of the new field, The Globe questioned the idea:

“But there are surely other considerations besides merely preventing an occasional ball from going over the fence involved in the matter. Certainly if people living in the north-western and western parts of the city have to lose half a day two of three times a week in order to see baseball amtches, there were be a considerable dimuntion in the gate receipts next season.”
The Globe, October 26, 1885

But sure enough, the newspaper reported the next month that:

“One of Mr. John Smith’s fields, between Queen Street and Eastern Avenue, has been leased to the East Toronto Cricket Club; and an eight acre field adjoining it has been leased to the Toronto Baseball Blub for a term of ten years. The trees are being taken down, and other preparations being made for next season’s work. This ground will have carriage entrance on Queen-street.”
The Globe November 19, 1885

John Smith was a descendant of an original pioneer of the town of York, William Smith Sr. The Smiths owned 200-acres from the Don River to about today’s Broadview Avenue (Lot 15) and the adjacent 200-acre lot east of Broadview (Lot 14). Leslieville historian Joanne Doucette noted the southern end of the lot was ideal for the elder Smith as it “was an excellent location for his favourite sport, hunting, with easy access to Ashbridge’s Bay, a stop over point for many thousands of migrating waterfowl…” The Smiths also leased some land near the bay to Gooderham and Worts in 1866 for their cattle sheds.

On May 22, 1886, The Toronto Baseball Grounds hosted its Grand Opening – a 3 o’clock contest between Rochester and Toronto. A Grand Stand was located south of Queen Street and the grounds themselves were flanked on the west by Base Ball Place (originally Pioneer Avenue) and Scadding Avenue (named for another early pioneer, John Scadding, and later renamed Broadview Avenue) on the east.

Historian Adam Bunch writes the 1887 season was quite a successful one at the park: The Toronto Baseball Club, also known as the Toronto Canucks, playing out of the International League (a minor league that exists today), won the pennant that year. The team was renamed the Toronto Maple Leafs (before the existence of the famed ice hockey club of today) and played in the park until 1896, briefly transferring to Albany for part of the season before returning to play at Hanlan’s Point.

The Toronto Baseball Grounds were renamed Sunlight Park around the turn of the century. The event was precipitated by the construction of the Lever Bros Sunlight Soap Factory located just across Eastern Avenue. The park continued to host baseball matches, such as the Commercial League in 1901, a league seemingly for company teams. It hosted military bands and the circus also came to town! A large, five-foot snake was found following the exhibition and was killed by a resident. Sunlight finally closed in 1913, but still remains a storied part of baseball history in Toronto.

The East Toronto Cricket Club & Grounds

Cricket in Toronto has a history dating back to the early 19th century with troops at Fort York playing the sport and later in the 1820s with friendly matches at the Home District Grammar School (Jarvis Collegiate Institute is partly descended from the school).

In 1885, a Dominion Day match was played between the Guelph Cricket Club and the East Toronto Cricket Club (C.C.), on the “new” grounds of the latter on Eastern Avenue. The home team lost the contest and The Globe reported “the day was all that could be desired, and the wicket played well; but the outfield has not yet been got into shape”. It was a successful season despite the easterners not having a field to practice on to start it. They went 12-7-1.

The locations of these grounds are slightly unclear but most likely were on the south side of Eastern Avenue. The lands looked to have been part of the George Leslie property. The East Toronto C.C. began playing on their new Eastern Avenue field in July 1885, but the report in November of that year referenced above stated that John Smith leased fields to the cricket club and the Toronto Baseball Club. The City Directories first listed “Cricket Grounds” on Eastern in 1887 on its south side between the Grand Trunk Railway on the west and Vacant Lots and Blong Street (today’s Booth Avenue) on the east. “Base Ball Grounds, s e” also first appeared in the 1887 Directory on the north side of Eastern Avenue between the Don Bridge and Broadview Avenue. Moreover, the 1893 Bird’s Eye View in the header of this article seems to depict some sporting activity, perhaps baseball or cricket. It is possible that the club used both locales as athletic fields of the day did not seem to be purpose built to one sport.

The East Toronto Cricket Club, headquartered at 272 Sherbourne Street, was quite a successful endeavour. It was described in the 1894 season as “the most enterprising of the city cricketing organizations”. That year, it was reported 190 wickets for 615 runs at an average of 3.39. The City Directories cease to list cricket grounds on Eastern Avenue by 1890, although the East Toronto Cricket Club played into at least the first decade of the 20th century.

Stark’s Athletic and Shooting Grounds & Toronto’s Gun Clubs

Beginning in the late 1870s, Charles Stark operated a shop on Church Street near King Street which sold watches and firearms. Stark made quite a healthy living from it too — he was a major salesperson of guns who operated a catalogue that pre-dated and even dwarfed Eaton’s efforts in the early going. Stark also changed the use of and attitudes towards guns, particularly in urging men “to buy firearms for activities like recreational sport hunting or competitive target shooting.”

By the late 1880s, references to Stark’s Athletic and Shooting Grounds began to appear in city directories and news stories. As the name suggests, the site served a multiple purposes: general sport and the sport of firearms. In 1888, several amateur baseball teams received on offer to play at Stark’s Grounds. The Toronto Amateur League seemed to play at least some of its games on the grounds: in 1890, it was reported that a day’s games were to be played on the Toronto Base Ball grounds instead of Stark’s.

The latter shooting purpose is summarized well with a competition in February 1889:

“Tomorrow will be an interesting day to sportsmen. At Stark’s shooting grounds, Eastern Avenue, will be held two big sweepstake matches at blackbirds. Starting at eleven o’clock there will be a sweepstake shoot. Entrance fee, $5, in which $1000 is guaranteed in prizes by Mr. Stark.”
The Globe, February 1, 1889

Stark’s Athletic Grounds also hosted other shooting events in the 1890s, such as the McDowell gun competition and shoots by the Toronto Gun Club. The space also was called the “Charles Stark Company Grounds” and the “Eastern Avenue Shooting Grounds”.

Stark’s Grounds were partly described in an odd episode in February 1891. The Globe reported that mounted policeman was shot by someone on the grounds. The report turned out to be false as:

“…The shooting lodge, they point out, is placed at the lower part of a twelve acre field and the shooting is done over the marsh. Even if the shot had been fired directly towards the street, the distance of 500 yards would have to be covered, and no shot gun will carry shot beyond 150 yards, and even that is only a rare occurrence.”
The Globe, February 24, 1891

This description likely confirms the location of the Stark grounds on the south side of Eastern Avenue facing Ashbridge’s Marsh, which was, as noted above, a place where migratory and native birds could be found. The City Directories begin to list “Stark’s Athletic and Shooting Grounds” in 1890 and place it on the south side of the street between the Grand Trunk Railway and Blong Avenue (today’s Booth Avenue). It replaced the entry for the East Toronto Cricket Grounds. In November 1900, the Stanley Gun Club held their annual pigeon match on the “old Stark Athletic Grounds” at Booth Avenue and Eastern Avenue (the club also had a nearby clubhouse and Morse and Eastern, possibly at Ayre’s Hotel).

Charles Stark died in 1899 and related on not, references to Stark’s Athletic Grounds ceased in the early 1900s, but other clubs and grounds seemed to occupy a similar locale. in November 1901, the Stanley Gun Club held a shoot at the “Gooderham athletic field” at Booth and Eastern. As noted, the Gooderham Cattle Sheds were adjacent. In 1907, the club had a shoot at the ‘Stanley grounds’ at the corner of the Grand Trunk crossing and Eastern Avenue. In the 1910s, the club was playing at the foot of Saulter Street on Ashbridges Bay. In 1920, the Past time Gun Club had a shoot at the foot of Booth Avenue.

The 1920s were the last hurrah for bird shooting in Toronto. The Globe reported in May 1929 that a by-law was set to be introduced preventing the firing of guns within the city, except at gun clubs and license shooting galleries. By this time Ashbridge’s Bay had been filled in and the area had become a “thriving industrial area”. The area of Eastern Avenue and Booth Avenue in particular had been occupied by the Consumers Gas Co.’s “B” complex beginning in 1904.

View off Gas tank, Booth Ave., Eastern Ave., Toronto, Ont, 1919.
Source: Library & Archives Canada

Sources Consulted

“Ashbridge’s Bay Is Out of Bounds.” The Globe, 3 May 1929, p. 16.

“Ball Park on Mainland in ’25: Commence Work in Few Weeks.” The Globe, 26 July 1924, p. 12.

“Base Ball.” The Globe, 9 Aug. 1859, p. 2.

“Baseball.” The Globe, 10 Apr. 1888, p. 2.

“Baseball.” The Globe, 19 July 1890, p. 18.

Brown, R. “The Largest Stock of Guns in Canada: Charles Stark and Firearm Retailing in Late-Nineteenth-Century Toronto – Ontario History.” Érudit, The Ontario Historical Society, 11 Apr. 2022, https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/onhistory/2022-v114-n1-onhistory06907/1088106ar/abstract/.

Bunch, Adam. “An Illustrated History of Baseball in Toronto.” Spacing Toronto, 16 Apr. 2015, http://spacing.ca/toronto/2015/04/14/illustrated-history-baseball-toronto/.

Bunch, Adam. “Toronto’s First Great Baseball Team – the Old-Timey Toronto Baseball Club of 1887.” Spacing Toronto, 2 Apr. 2013, http://spacing.ca/toronto/2013/04/02/torontos-first-great-baseball-team-the-old-timey-toronto-baseball-club-of-1887/.

“Commercial League Final.” The Globe, 24 Aug. 1901, p. 25.

“Cricinfo – Canada.” Cricinfo.com, http://static.espncricinfo.com/db/NATIONAL/ICC_MEMBERS/CAN/CCA_HISTORY_11SEP1997.html.

“Cricket.” The Globe, 2 July 1885, p. 8.

“Cricket: East Toronto’s Fine Record.” The Globe, 8 Dec. 1894, p. 18.

“Cricket: Gooderham & Worts’ Victory.” The Globe, 28 July 1890, p. 3.

“The Dog Nuisance in Toronto.” The Globe, 7 Sept. 1886, p. 4.

“Down in Ashbridge’s Marsh.” The Globe, 3 Sept. 1904, p. 10.

“An Expanding Concern: Report of Consumers Gas Company for the Year.” The Globe, 31 Oct. 1904, p. 12.

“Firearms.” The Globe, 25 Apr. 1882, p. 8.

“Football: The Leagues Open To-Day.” The Globe, 27 Apr. 1901, p. 30.

“The GunThe Globe.” The Globe, 26 Mar. 1887, p. 16.

“Large Snake in East End.” The Globe, 11 Oct. 1907, p. 12.

“List of Baseball Parks in Toronto.” Wikiwand, https://www.wikiwand.com/en/List_of_baseball_parks_in_Toronto.

MacCallum, Peter. “From Sunlight Park to East Harbour, Part 2 of 2.” Spacing Toronto, 26 Mar. 2022, http://spacing.ca/toronto/2022/03/28/from-sunlight-park-to-east-harbour-part-2-of-2/.

“Miscellaneous.” The Globe, 30 July 1890, p. 6.

“Notes.” The Globe, 26 Oct. 1885, p. 8.

“Observations.” The Globe, 11 Aug. 1888.

“Shooting For The Dinner.” The Globe, 19 Dec. 1887.

“Shooting on Stark’s Grounds.” The Globe, 24 Feb. 1891, p. 8.

“Sporting Intelligence.” The Globe, 20 Oct. 1885, p. 8.

“Sporting Intelligence: Cricket.” The Globe, 4 July 1885, p. 12.

“Sporting Notes.” The Globe, 28 May 1887, p. 3.

“Sports of All Sorts.” Sports Of All Sorts, 28 Jan. 1893, p. 16.

“Sports Of All Sorts.” The Globe, 16 Nov. 1901, p. 25.

“Sports of All Sorts.” The Globe, 1892 Sept. 3n.d., p. 3.

“Sports of All Sorts.” The Globe, 22 May 1907, p. 9.

“Sports Of All Sorts.” The Globe, 30 Apr. 1892, p. 17.

“Sports of All Sorts: Hamilton Gunners Coming.” The Globe, 9 Feb. 1906, p. 10.

“The Stanley Shoot To-Day.” The Globe, 23 Nov. 1900, p. 8.

“Stanley’s Will Shoot To-Day.” The Globe, 1 Jan. 1915, p. 12.

“This Is Circus Day: The Greatest Show in the World Is Now in Toronto.” The Globe, 10 Aug. 1906, p. 7.

“Toronto Baseball Grounds: Queen-St, East of Don Bridge: Grand Opening.’” The Globe, 1886 May 2n.d., p. 2.

“Toronto East: Humours, Gossip and Actualities Which Interest The People East Of The Don.” The Globe, 19 Nov. 1885, p. 2.

“The Trigger.” The Globe, 10 May 1888, p. 3.

“The Trigger.” The Globe, 30 Mar. 1892, p. 6.

“The Trigger: At Bluerocks and Sparrows.” The Globe, 23 Apr. 1897, p. 14.

“The Trigger: At Stark’s On Saturday .” The Globe, 7 Mar. 1892, p. 6.

“The Trigger: Great Shooters Coming.” The Globe, 18 Jan. 1907, p. 9.

“The Trigger: Stanley Gun Club Shoots.” The Globe, 18 Mar. 1901, p. 10.

“The Trigger: Stark’s Sweepstakes.” The Globe, 1 Feb. 1889, p. 3.

“Twenty-Five Shooters At Balmy Beach Traps.” The Globe, 13 Apr. 1920, p. 15.

“Watched and Firearms.” The Globe, 21 Dec. 1880, p. 5.

Wencer, David. “Historicist: Wicket Little Town.” Torontoist, 16 July 2016, https://torontoist.com/2016/07/historicist-wicket-little-town/.

“‘Military Tattoo by Boys.’” The Globe, 6 July 1901, p. 24.

A Criminal History of The Notorious Brook’s Bush Gang

Note: This is Part II of a two-part series about the Notorious Brook’s Bush Gang. You can read Part I here.

In August 1857, James Gokey alias DeLavelle, Thomas Readmond, Andrew Jenkins, and Samuel Hannon, who were described as “four stout fellows”, and Susan McCormack and Mary A. Walton, “abandoned females”, were charged with being connected to the gang of thieves who infested Brook’s Bush, and who would pounce upon travellers passing the Don Bridge, rob and assault them, and otherwise “conduct themselves in a most lawless manner”. The constable who arrested them visited the bush and said the eastern end of the city was not safe from the low characters who infest it. The party were fined, sent to break stones, and sent to prison.

The episode provides a great account of the operations of the gang. First, it describes the physical and possibly social identity of the group. The men were stout and imposing – the kind that would be involved in physical assaults and worse. The description of the women as “abandoned” has been described previously, and their inclusion with men in the acts was common. The Don Bridge would come to be a common setting for their crimes, which would culminate in their most dastardly act a few years later. The general sentiment was of lawlessness and danger, particularly in their area. The gang were also targets of the police and were often sentenced to monetary fines, or breaking stones at the House of Industry when they could not pay, or time in prison.

A Series of ‘Motley Spectacles’

Over the next five years, the Brooks Bush Gang were involved in several robberies and assaults which terrorized the east end. In October 1857, six males and five female “disorderlys” of Brook’s Bush were brought into custody by Sergeant Smith, who dealt frequently with the group, and charged with disorderly conduct. They were fined 20s and those unable to pay were sent to gaol for a month and ordered to be kept at hard labour.

The year 1858 was eventful for the gang. On New Year’s Day, The Globe reported a Samuel Hannah, who was known to police, was charged with “uttering a flash bill”. He visited Mercer’s eating house at 24 Church Street at Wellington Street and paid with a counterfeit bill. The landlady, Mrs Verena as per the 1859 City Directories, told him the bill was bad. She informed the police and Hannah was arrested and “committed…as a rogue and vagabond to hard labour in the common gaol for one month.”

Later in January, denizens of the Brooks Bush Gang were charged with several acts of robbery. Those involved were Catherine O’Brien, Catherine Hogan, Bridget McGuire, and Matthew Flynn, the latter of who was described as a “rough-looking fellow”. The crimes included hen houses being robbed, clothes stolen off clotheslines, and other thefts which have led to citizens’ inability to leave any items in gardens and yards. Two officers, including Sergeant Smith, pursued two thieves on Parliament Street and caught up with one of them. Flynn hid in a culvert at Gerrard and Parliament Streets with his stolen goods hidden in a nearby culvert. Among the property were shirts, a pail, an axe, an iron pot, and other things. Flynn was going back to the Bush after the robberies. The officers found at the site poultry, two geese, three lanterns, two boilers, and other property. O’Brien, Hogan, and McGuire were also waiting there with supper for Flynn and his accomplice. In court, Flynn acted with “great effrontery” and “appeared as if he had been recently drunk”. He defended himself that the goods were his own and he was protecting them from his landlord who he owed rent. However, several people — Francis Langrill, Mrs Hagarty and Mrs Murphy — refuted the story and identified the items. In the directory for the year, Langrill was listed as a “butcher, 30 St. Lawrence arcade, house Parliament Street”. A Patrick Hagerty was listed at 279 Parliament Street between Gerrard and Dundas. The identities of the ladies are unknown. Flynn was later reported to be sent to the Penitentiary for two years.

Following the thefts, a reader of The Globe wrote into the newspaper expressing a hope that “there will not be too much clemency shown towards him”. He lamented how City and York Township authorities have allowed the group to annoy the public and residents of the area. The only course was to make an example of the group and clear the bush of its denizens so local inhabitants can live a little easier.

The following month, Sergeant Smith placed Patrick Matthews, Samuel Jocelyn, Catherine O’Brien, Catherin Cogan, and Margaret MacGuire in front of the bar again. Smith had found stolen property such as axes, lanterns, tins, boilers, and geese and fowls. Richard Boles of Sumach Street, who had three fowls and an axe stolen, went to the Brooks Bush shanty and said he recognized Matthews, who told Boles that he would “knock the brains out of any person who dared to enter”. The alleged victim appears in the 1859-60 Caverhill Toronto City Directory, listed as “Richard Bowles”, a labourer at 185 Sumach Street in the Dundas Street area. In July, William Brown, Robert Brown, J. Pigeon, P. Matthews, James Hallachy, and Samuel Josleyn were brought up with the charge. Sergeant Smith said he went to the shanty and found several of the prisoners and three females, which he took into custody. The females said they were in the shanty all night and Pigeon, R. Brown, Hallachy, and a man named Smith not in custody came back early in the morning with the poultry. Robert Brown, John Pigeon, and Hallachy were founded guilty and a sentence was deferred.

In April 1858, James Harrachy, William Brown, Patrick Matthews, Samuel Josleyn, Robert Brown, and Bridget McGuire were brought again to the bar for crimes of theft. William Brown was acquitted, but the others were found guilty. Robert Brown was imprisoned for ten days in the city prison and then in the provincial penitentiary (in Kingston, Ontario) for three years and three months. Harrachy was committed to ten days for larceny; Matthews for three years and three months in the penitentiary; Josleyn was sentenced to three years and four months and McGuire to two years and one month. John Pigeon was charged with larceny and committed to ten days in the city prison and five years in the penitentiary.

In June, three ruffians of the Brook’s Bush attacked two men on Queen Street. One of the victims got away but the other was struck in the face, neck, and shoulders with a black bottle and severely cut.

In September, Cornelius Leary was charged with assaulting a feeble-looking woman, Mary Sheppard. The lady said she had a dispute with Leary in which he struck her and dragged her toward a shed. She fell and he stepped on her, severely injuring her. Constables said both prisoners (it is unclear if this meant Sheppard too) were part of the Brooks Bush gang. Leary was fined $5 but was unable to pay, so he was sent to break stones for a month.

In November, Jane McDonald, Margaret Evans, Sarah Fielder, Mary Ann Walton, Mary Crooks, James Brown, and Thomas Willis appeared in court and “presented a very motley spectacle.” The men were fined $5 and the women were sent to prison for a month. In an odd layer to the story, Mary Cary, also of the gang, went to the police station to find them, but behaved “disorderly”. She too was arrested and sent to gaol for a month.

In May 1859, four coats and a bag of coppers were stolen from Leak and Matthews, soap and candle manufacturers on Palace Street (today’s Front Street East). The Directories identified this at 62 Palace Street near George Street. There was also a “Leak’s Wharf” associated with the business at the foot of George Street. A witness heard them chuckling over the haul. Several days later, several officers on The Esplanade were monitoring the water for “persons bathing during prohibited hours” and attending to arriving and departing steamers, when they interrogated four suspicious fellows. One had a bundle in his hand. They were taken into custody — they were Thomas O’Brien, John Connolly, Barker Coulder, and John Scott of the Brooks’ Bush Gang. They appeared to be sheltering in an old boat moored off the Esplanade.

Also in May, William Reid and Henry Miller, of the gang were brought up on the charge of stopping a young man on the Don Bridge. They offered to leave the city and were discharged. The judge was about to send them to prison for a month as “disorderly characters” but relented after hearing their pleas.

Maurice Malone, John Clyde, John Esson, Margaret Hagarty, Elizabeth Nolan, Mary Ann Pickley, Mary Ann Flanaghan and Bridget Drew were sent to gaol for a month each. William Edwards and Francis Curran were sent for 14 days for disorderly conduct as well as Charles White for a similar offence with hard labour.

In August 1859, the Globe reported a number were in custody for assaulting Edward Closghey. There was a chase for them. Among the party is a desperado named John Clyde, who replaced the former ringleader, Carr, who was committed to the Penitentiary. James Tuck, Denis O’Dowd, Edward Short, Martin Kelly, William Macpherson, Marry Ann O’Bryan and Elizabeth Nolan were brought in for assaulting Edward McCloskey. The victim fell into the company of Clyde, Kelly Marry Ann O’Bryan, and Nolan on Carlton Street. They had a bottle of whiskey and asked him to drink part of it, which he did. He paid a dime and tried to leave but was stopped by Clyde. Clyde struck him and tried to kill him with the help of Martin Kelly. Eliza Nolan tried to protect the victim. McCloskey got away and Clyde threatened him again not to tell on him or “he would make him suffer for it.” Clyde and Kelly, the attackers, were sent to Assize Court. Nolan got “only two months in gaol” for protecting McCloskey. O’Dowd was discharged for previous good behaviour. The others were sent to gaol for three months.

In September 1859, William McPherson, John Burns, Jeremiah Leivy, James Tuch, James Brown, Thomas Richardson, James Cochrane, John Eppison, Mary Anne Pickely, Mary Anne Walton, Sarah Fidder, Ellen McDonald, Margaret Hill, Mary Crooks, Mary Sheppard and Isabella Convony were found at the bush and arrested. The offences are unknown. The females were sent to gaol for fourteen days and the men for a month.

The Murder of John Sheridan Hogan

On December 1st, 1859, Mr John Sheridan Hogan, a journalist turned member of parliament for Grey County for the Province of Canada, was visiting a female acquaintance on Terauley Street ( now Bay Street). The unmarried 44-year-old man left the home at 8:30 to visit the office of the new editor of The British Colonist, his publication. It was the last time he was seen alive.

Hogan’s disappearance was not noted by police until months after his last known sighting. He lived a peculiar life in Toronto, having few friends and no family and living a transient life with the Rossin Hotel as his base. His sudden disappearance was a mystery. His body was found washed up at the mouth of the Don River in March 1861, some sixteen months later, by some fishermen. He was identified by Mrs Laurie, the acquaintance he visited on the December night, identified a broach or patch she put on his clothing.

Suspicion quickly turned to the Brook’s Bush Gang for having something to do with Hogan’s death. His final location at the mouth of the river suggested he had washed down from somewhere upriver — potentially the Queen Street bridge, a location the gang had notoriously terrorized over the past five or so years. But pinning it on The Brooks Bush Gang was a task.

Queen Street East, Church St. to Davies Avenue, bridge over Don River (1851-1878), looking northeast, 1861. This was likely the bridge Hogan was murdered.
Source: Toronto Public Library

The key to the case was the testimony of Ellen McGillick, a member of the Brook’s Bush Gang present when Hogan was murdered. In the four years leading up to the event, McGillick had often given witness testimony about the actions of the gang, which the Police trusted as truth. The detective on the case, a Colgan, hailed from the same Irish place as McGillick and went to question her. McGillick told him about the murder and who was involved. Arrests were made soon after of Jane Ward, James Brown, also known as ‘English Jim’, William Reid and Mary Crooks.

McGillick testified seeing two men struggling with each other and another woman with them on the east end of the Don Bridge. The woman, who turned out to be Jane Ward, told one of the men, James Brown, to throw the other man, Hogan, off the bridge. She also noted other gang members were present and how they spoke of tying Hogan’s legs before throwing him into the river. Ward also told McGillick how she robbed the man and was holding a rock and handkerchief. Members of the gang after the murder threatened McGillick not to say anything about it. McGillick finally added that there was blood on the rail of the bridge and Brown had gone the next day to clear it; police corroborated by finding blood on the bridge.

In a trial in April 1861, John Sherrick and Jane Ward of the Brooks Bush Gang were acquitted. James Brown was found guilty that fall in a separate trial. He was retried again in 1862 with the same result. Brown was a labourer born near Cambridge, England in 1830. He moved to the United States and then Toronto in 1852, hoping to find work in shipyards. At some point, he fell in with the Brook’s Bush Gang (the first mention of him in the newspapers was November 1858). Brown was hung in front of spectators on March 10, 1862, at the York County Courthouse on Adelaide Street. It was the last public execution in Toronto.

The End of The Brooks Bush Gang

After the Hogan trial, references to the Brooks Bush Gang dwindled. In August 1862, members of the gang were charged with assaulting and robbing a farmer a short distance from the city. They were tried at Yorkville as the crime was outside city limits. In 1864, John Smith was violently assaulted and nearly robbed near the Don River by two ‘desperadoes’. The victim was possibly a property owner as the Smith family was known east of the Don. The attack was very much like the antics of the Brook’s Bush gang, “who infested the neighbourhood some time ago”, which signified that although they were not behind the attack, the gang was no longer present and their memory still haunted the area. Interestingly, Charles Sauriol noted how E.T. Seton said members of the gang destroyed his cabin in 1875, although this may be dubious as it was much after the early 1860s.

In the following years, stories of past members crept up in the news. In 1864, Mary Ann Pickley was found dead. Since the murder and police broke up the gang, she had been living “here there and everywhere” but mostly in jail. The Globe reported she was one of the last of the gang with almost all of them dead. In 1868, the Globe reported Kate (possibly Catherine) Cogan, “the last of the Brook’s Bush Gang”, was arrested for breaking windows. Similarly, the newspaper also wrote in 1872 about a former member of the gang, Bill Reid, who was described as “probably the last who will ever be seen of the once dreaded Brooks Bush Gang” and how nineteen years ago he was “conspicuous even among the lawless community, and he was connected to them about the time of the murder of” Hogan. Finally, Jane Ward moved to Guelph in the mid-1860s, changing her name to Jane Lewis and saying very little of her past life. She wound up in the Wellington County House of Industry for the remainder of her life, dying in 1904. She was said by newspapers of the time to be the last member of the Brook’s Bush Gang.

The former haunts of the Brook’s Bush Gang east of the Don River disappeared too, leaving little geographic trace of the gang. By 1880, the lot near the Don Jail was subdivided, houses were built on it, and Holly Brook was buried. Even Withrow Park, the other possibility for the gang’s headquarters, was made a public park by 1910. In 1912, the Butcher’s Arms, the old hangout of the Brook’s Bush Gang, was torn down for houses, where a strip of Edwardian-style, century-aged homes stands there today.

Broadview Avenue, at the former location of The Butcher’s Arms, 2020.
Source: Google Maps

The Globe also reported in 1924 on the upcoming demolition of a house at 154 Carlton Street at Homewood Avenue which stood on the site of a former Brook’s Bush Gang headquarters. There are few details of this “shanty”. The Oldright House was built in the 1870s according to The Globe piece and some of the gang’s belongings were found when the house was constructed. Its location was appropriately situated in the east side of the core of Toronto where the gang did some of their criminal activities.

The east end of Toronto was transformed in the decades following the end of the gang. In addition to the redevelopment of the specific woodlots mentioned above, the general area was laid out with streets and landmarks. ‘Brook’s Bush’ as a district name understandably fell out of use. On March 25, 1888, the area of Riverside was annexed by the city of Toronto (Riverside replaced ‘Don Mount’ as a name in 1880, the latter was likely used alongside Brook’s Bush; Riverdale later came into use in the early 20th century). Police protection, a lacking factor which allowed the Brook’s Bush Gang to prevail as a menace, was cited as a reason for annexation.

Annexation Map of the City of Toronto, 1967
Source: Old Toronto Maps

Appendix I: List of Members

Michael Barry (possibly an affiliate), Jane Ward, Catherine Cogan (possibly also listed as Catherine Hogan or Kate Cogan), Andrew Jenkins, Catherine O’Brien, John Clyde, Samuel Joslin, James Gokey alias DeLavelle, Thomas Redmond, Samuel Hannon (possibly also listed as Samuel Hannah), Susan McCormack, Mary A. Walton, Bridget McGuire, Matthew Flynn, Patrick Matthews, Margaret Maguire, William Brown, Robert Brown, John Pigeon, James Hallachy, Cornelius Leary, Jane McDonald, Margaret Evans, Sarah Fielder, Mary Crooks, James Brown, Thomas Wills, Mary Cary, “Yankee” Mary (unclear if she was one of the listed Marys), Robert Wagstaff, Thomas O’Brien, John Connolly, Barker Coulter, John Scott, William (Bill) Reid, Maurice Malone, John Esson, Margaret Hagarty, Elizabeth Nolan, Mary Ann Pickley, Mary Ann Flanaghan, Bridget Drew, a man named Carr, James Tuck (or Tuch), Denis O’Dowd, Edward Short, Martin Kelly, William MacPherson (possibly an affiliate), Mary Ann O’Bryan, John Burns, Jeremiah Leivy, Thomas Richardson, James Cochrane, Johm Eppsion, Sarah Fidder, Ellen McDonald, Margaret Hill, Mary Sheppard, Isabella Convony, Ellen McGillick, John Sherrick, John Coteau, William Dillon, Charles Gerne, Andrew McGuire, John Hudie, Patrick Fogarty, William Eppison, Sarah Hill, Anna Maria Gregory, Mary Carey, Catharine Dalton, Bridget Kane, Francis Furdon, Esther McDonell, Margaret Adams, Rachel Smith, and James Curtain.

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The History of the Kemp Manufacturing Co., Toronto

For nearly a hundred years, the Kemp Manufacturing Company of Toronto and its predecessor and successors manufactured household metal products. Its rise, growth, and leadership is an interesting chapter in Toronto history.

The Beginnings

In 1867, Thomas McDonald founded his Dominion Tin & Stamping Works, operating out of 153-159 Queen Street East near George Street. McDonald was joined by Quebec-born Albert Edward Kemp in 1885 to form the McDonald, Kemp, and Co.

The Dominion Tin & Stamp Works from the Goad’s Atlas of the City of Toronto, 1880.
Credit: Goad’s Toronto:

The new partners moved the business to the southeast corner of River Street and Gerrard Street East in then working-class Cabbagetown, eventually taking the street address 199-207 River Street. The joint venture between Kemp and McDonald did not last long as the men had a falling around 1888. Kemp bought out McDonald and brought in his brother William from Quebec as his new partner. Together, the brothers formed the Kemp Manufacturing Company. McDonald moved to Montreal in 1893 where he ran another iron and tinware business; he passed away four years later.

Growth & Expansion

From a structure at the corner of River and Gerrard, the Kemp Manufacturing Company grew to house a grand complex that spanned an entire city block. In 1894, The Globe toured the factory and described it as having a main building that extended from the Don River to River Street on Gerrard containing workshops, warehouses, and shipping departments. Offices were located at the corner of streets. Storerooms containing pig tin and plates, rod iron, hoop do., iron and steel sheets, zinc, spelter, copper, and more were located on the other side of a laneway separating the building and covered bridges connected departments.

The decades that followed effectively resulted in the annexation of nearly the entire block from Gerrard Street East to Oak Street and River Street to the Don River:

May 1895: The company asks for a lease of a site on the Don for the new enamelled iron and steelworks, and for exemption for the building to be erected there
July 1895: Kemp purchases the balance of the whole block of Gerrard to Bell Street and from River street to the Don; this new site will be occupied by a fully equipped factory specially adapted for their new Diamond specialties of enamelled goods
June 1896: Kemp expresses his intention to make some extensions to its premises as soon as it knows what the policy of the new (federal) Government

April 1898: The company applies to lay a 12-inch water main at its own cost from the Don for fire protection
June 1898: The company, now occupying the block bounded by Gerrard, River, and Bell Street, makes an application to the Assessment Commissioners department for the terms in which they may get city property at the east end of Bell Street to the road on the Don Flats and north to the Gerrard Street Bridge. It was awarded to another company the following month.

October-November 1902: The Kemp Manufacturing Co ask Mayor Howland and Council to purchase a portion of Bell Street and the Don Terrace to extend their works to the south and east and give them a railway connection. The Assessment Commissioner favoured the purchase but fixes the sale price at $5000. A.E. Kemp, now MP, argues that a new building would not disturb the houses remaining on the street.
April-October 1903: The Kemp Manufacturing Co was permitted to erect a bridge from the east side of their factory to Gerrard Street, and to construct a siding running from the Grand Trunk Belt to their property.

November 1906: AE Kemp denies intending to build an automobile factory opposite the company overlooking Riverdale Park. The land was bought for the Kemp Mfg Co by Victoria Harbor Lumber Co.
June 1920: The Sheet Metal Products Co. applies for a title to the land consisting of the remainder of Bell Street and the north side of Oak Street.

North Wall, 1922.
Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

An ambitious leader

Edward Kemp was the ambitious head of the Kemp Manufacturing Co. and Sheet Metal Products. In addition to the savvy business moves that expanded the company’s footprint in the River and Gerrard Street area, Kemp added factories in Winnipeg and Montreal in the early 1900s. Kemp and his brother also purchased the MacDonald Manufacturing Co. located at 401 Richmond Street West at Spadina Avenue, adding it as a subsidiary.

At the turn of the century, Edward Kemp took a step back from the company as he pursued a political career. He was first elected to the House of Commons in 1900 as the Conservative Member for East Toronto. In 1916, he was appointed Minister of the Militia. He was knighted after World War I for his political efforts in the conflict. Kemp was also appointed to the Senate in 1921.

While Kemp was keen on growing his prosperity, he also furthered general Toronto and Canadian manufacturing interests. He was President of the Canadian Manufacturers’ Association in 1895 and 1896; President of the Toronto Board of Trade in 1899 and 1900; and Director of the National Trust Company, the Imperial Life Assurance Company, and other high-profile corporations.

Unsurprisingly, Kemp and his wives (he married in 1879 and remarried in 1925) were part of high society in Toronto. He was listed in the Toronto Society Blue Book of the city’s ‘elite’ on multiple occasions. In 1902, he built his massive estate ‘Castle Frank’ after previously living at 106 Winchester Street. He was a member of the National Club, Albany Club, York Club, and other prestigious exclusive organizations.

In 1929, Edward Kemp died suddenly in his summer home near Pigeon Lake of reported “acute indigestion”. It was only hours after his seventy-first birthday. The Globe described his success as “bound up in the growth of Toronto.”

SMP Quality

The Kemp Manufacturing Co. and later the Steel Metal Metal Products Co. were renowned for their household goods. A 1922 SMP Catalogue offers an interesting insight into the product line, which was divided into types of products by material, all with quality assurances!

The SMP Line catalogue, 1922.
Credit: Toronto Public Library

Products ranged from baby baths to chamber pails to ash sifters, and of course, lanterns.

A dedicated workforce

Workers of the Kemp Manufacturing Co. lived on Sumach Street, River Street, and Oak Street, among others. Injuries such as limp lacerations and crushing were reported in the newspapers. Notable is the young age of some of the injured men, which were between seventeen and nineteen years.

As described in Sojourners and Settlers, Macedonians made up the highest proportion of the Kemp Manufacturing and Sheet Metal Products Co.’s workforce. A noted number of Ethnic Macedonians arrived in Toronto around 1910 and worked hard manufacturing jobs. The Globe noted two unfortunate events involving Macedonian employees of the company: in 1909, Peter Dassil, aged 17, was instantly killed after being jammed between the floor of a freight hoist and the ceiling; and in 1910, Christo Tomie, aged 22, drowned in the Don River near Riverdale Park.

In 1896, The Globe described an ‘old fashioned tea meeting’, organized by Mr Thomas A. Scott, ‘a colored man’, held at the African Methodist church. He was employed by the company for twenty years. The event had members of the Kemp Manufacturing Co. and the Wrought Iron Range Co.

The End of an Era

In 1927, Steel Metal Products Co merged with the McClary Manufacturing Co. and the Thomas Davidson Manufacturing Co. to form General Steel Wares Limited. The new company continued to operate the River Street plant for another fifty years. A. E. Kemp did not head the new company.

The General Steel Ware Co before demolition, 1964.
Credit: City of Toronto Archives

General Steel Wares closed the River Street plant in 1964 and shifted production to Montreal, Fergus, and London. The building sat vacant until the construction of a 3-tower, 984-suite apartment complex requiring Ontario Municipal Board approval was built on the site. It makes up part of today’s Regent Park neighbourhood.

The southeast corner of Gerrard Street East and River Street, 2019.
Credit: Google Maps

Scenes From The Danforth (Broadview Avenue to Pape Avenue)

For a history of Danforth Avenue, a good place to start is the Playter Farmhouse at the head of Playter Boulevard on Playter Crescent. Although the family had roots in Toronto since the 1790s with land holdings east and west of the Don River, the house was not built until the 1870s.

When the Playters came here, virtually nothing of modern reference existed. Danforth Avenue was laid out as Concession II in the 1790s when York Township was surveyed, but it did not become a usable road until 1851 when the Don and Danforth Plank Road Co. redid the street. Broadview Avenue north of Danforth was known as Mill Road or Don Mill and also was laid out in the 1790s while south of Danforth the street came by the 1860s. Modern day Ellerbeck, Pretoria, and Cambridge Avenues were the first local streets to appear around that time.

Danforth Avenue in the JO Browne Map of the Township of York, 1851. Credit: Historical Maps of Toronto

Danforth Avenue in Tremaine’s Map of the County of York, Canada West, 1860. Credit: Historical Maps of Toronto.

The Playters sold off their land over the coming decades and the street grid gradually took its present shape. By the 1920s, Bayfield Crescent looped around the remaining Playter property to surround the old farmhouse. What we today call the Playter Estates came to be filled with beautiful now multi-million dollar Edwardian homes with the occasional Ontario workers’ cottage, hinting at the perhaps humble origins of its early residents.

Today, Broadview Avenue and Danforth Avenue is a gate into the eastern part of the city. Once upon a time however, this part of the city just ended. There was no bridge across the Don River. Anyone looking to travel between Riverdale and Toronto had to go south to Gerrard Street or Queen Street.

Danforth and Broadview avenues before viaduct, looking east, ca. 1908. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

Despite the Toronto’s annexation of Riverdale south of the Danforth in 1884 and the village of Chester (made up the former Playter lands) north of the Danforth in 1909, the eastern part of the city remained disconnected from the core of the city for some time. Around 1900, Danforth Avenue and the areas north and south of the street were sparsely populated. There were less than twenty structures between Broadview and Jones, most of them houses!

Danforth Avenue, 1903. Credit: Toronto Historic Maps.

Several developments in the 1910s began to change things. Beginning in 1912, Danforth Avenue was paved and widened to 86 feet. In October of the following year, the Toronto Civic Railway opened the Danforth Civic Streetcar Line to much local support. A Globe article described the scene of 25,000 converging on the street to celebrate — even blocking the cars from passing!

Danforth Avenue east of Broadview Avenue during civic car line construction, Aug 1912. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

“VAST THRONG IN STREET BLOCKS NEW CAR SERVICE” The Globe, October 31, 1913. Credit: Globe & Mail Archives.

Danforth Avenue, looking east from Broadview Avenue, 1914. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

Danforth and Broadview Ave [Toronto, Ont.]., 1920. Credit: Library and Archives Canada.

Finally, after many debates of its necessity and four years of construction, the Bloor Street Viaduct opened in 1918. The idea of Public Works Commissioner R.C. Harris and the design of famed Architect Edmund Burke (he has a namesake pub at 107 Danforth Avenue as appreciation), the bridge and transit were in talks since at least 1910. Their proponents saw them as linked and necessary projects. Broadview Avenue already had a streetcar route since 1888, so the corner was set to became a nexus. It is no coincidence that Albert Edward and William Ellerbeck Playter opened the Playter Society in 1908 with grand expectations for the corner in the coming decades. Albert also funded the Playtorium, a building whose incarnations included a vaudeville theatre. Both were two of the earliest on the strip. The Canadian Bank of Commerce branch across the street came around 1918, replacing a blacksmith ship.

Prince Edward Viaduct under construction, 1917. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

Northwest corner of Danforth Avenue and Don Mills Road (now Broadview Avenue) shop, 1913. The current CIBC branch occupies building. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

Playter Society Building, 1912. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

Danforth Avenue in the City of Toronto Directories. 1913. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

Danforth Avenue east of Broadview Avenue from Goads Fire Insurance Map, 1913. Credit: Goads Toronto.

The Former Danforth Hall/Playter Fun House/Playtorium at 128 Danforth Avenue, 2019. Credit: Google Maps.

In 1913, the Globe identified the Danforth as new business section in the northeastern part of Toronto. It also described a bizarre episode in which a man discovered a muskrat on Moscow Avenue (today’s Gough Avenue). It perhaps shows The Danforth in transition: growing yet still rural (albeit urban wildlife is not uncommon in 2019).

This strip west near 592 Danforth Avenue of Gough Avenue, built 1911, was one of the first row of stores built between Broadview and Pape Avenue.

“EXPANDING TORONTO– MAKING HOMES IN OUTSKIRTS FOR CITY NEARING HALF MILLION”, The Globe, October 25, 1913. Credit: Globe & Mail Archives.

‘Caught a Muskrat on Danforth Avenue’ The Globe, March 24 1913. Credit: Globe & Mail Archives.

There was a residential aspect to Danforth Avenue, too. Most of those who now live on the street reside above the shops, but there are at least two remnants of when houses still populated the way at 278 and 280 Danforth Avenue. These were residences built in 1911 for Mr. Alfred W. Pestell and Mrs. Ellen Mackey, respectively. The street addresses were 152 and 154 Danforth Avenue. Residential in nature when they were built, now they host shops.

Danforth Avenue, east from Broadview Avenue, 1913. Credit: City of Toronto Library.

A view from 260 Danforth Avenue, east of Playter Boulevard, 1920s. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

A look at the Danforth today sees houses of worship on either side of the street which also date to this early period in the 1910s. St. Barnabas Anglican Church in 1910 and Danforth Baptist Church in 1914 were two of the first. The Church of the Holy Name followed with construction also in 1914, although it took twelve years to complete.

Another sign the street was coming of age in the decade: Allen’s Danforth, now the Danforth Music Theatre. Built in 1919, it was advertised as “Canada’s First Super-Suburban Photoplay Palace” according to its Heritage Toronto plaque. At least three neighbourhood theatres would open — and close — between Broadview and Pape in the coming decades.

By the 1920s, Danforth Avenue reached its peak. Empty lots from the prior decades filled out. The Danforth Civic Line turned the area into a streetcar suburb, but the era of the automobile was just beginning. In 1922, the Globe, speaking about growing suburbs across Toronto, declared that the lesson was that ‘settlement follows good roads’, citing the upgrades of the prior decade.

Danforth Avenue from Goads Fire Insurance Map, 1924. Credit: Toronto Historic Maps.

“Park and Shop in the Danforth District”, The Globe, May 2, 1928. Credit: Globe & Mail Archives.

Further to the notion that the automobile was now in play, Logan Avenue at one time existed in two sections north and south of Danforth Avenue. City politicians and politicians proposed road improvement schemes after both World Wars, and street widenings, alignments, and extensions were large factors within them.

Aerial view of Logan Avenue, 1947. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

Danforth Avenue east at Logan Avenue, 1932. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

Danforth Avenue west at Logan Avenue, 1932. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

In the mid-1950s, the Danforth-Logan was eliminated, allowing traffic to flow straight through without the need to travel west or east on Danforth. Although the sizeable Withrow Park existed just south on Logan, the event created some much needed public space right on Danforth Avenue which would later serve as important gathering point for the community.

Aerial view of Logan Avenue, 1956. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

Danforth looking east to Logan, 1987-1992. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

Logan looking south to Danforth, 1987-1992. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

By the 1930s, Danforth Avenue was full of the expected businesses: banks, theatres, dry goods shops, men’s and ladies wear, confectioneries, shoe repair places, drug stores, and more. But the demographics began to change. The 1930 Might’s Greater Toronto Directories show Ethels Delicatessen at 173 Danforth and Lorrain Delicatessen at 457 Danforth. More prominently, we also see Italian fruit stands at 127-129 Danforth Avenue by Vincenzo and Augustino Casuso, at 283 by A Maggio, at 449 Danforth by Salvatore Badalli, at 507 Danforth by Vito Simone, 513 Danforth Avenue by Joseph Badali, at 573 Danforth by Tony Fimio. Finally, there were a number of Chinese themed businesses (with unnamed owners): cafes at 108 and 505 Danforth Avenue, restaurants at 107 and 523 Danforth, and a laundy at 471 Danforth.

South side of Danforth Avenue from the Toronto City Directory, 1930. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

Sunkist Fruit Market, Southeast corner Carlaw and Danforth, 1934. Sam Badali, son of fruit stand owners at 449 Danforth Avenue, started the stand in 1929. It remained a long-standing business until recently. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

By the 1950s, political talk in Toronto shifted toward a subway line under Danforth Avenue. The streetcar was the busiest surface route and, with the populations shifting north from the old city of Toronto, underground rapid transit was nearing a reality. On February 26, 1966, the Bloor-Danforth Subway line opened between Keele Street and Woodbine Avenue, utilizing the lower track of the Bloor Viaduct to faciliate the cross-town transit line. The TTC built a “Y-connection” between the two lines to eliminate the need for transferring.

“Toronto Public Libraries Served By New Subway Extension”, The Globe, February 25, 1966. Credit: Globe & Mail Archives.

The green line’s opening meant at least two significant changes to the Danforth. First, as the subway corridor was planned to run north of the street rather than under it, hundreds of houses were expropriated and demolished. The physical result today is a linear set of connected parkettes (and some parking lots) between Chester and Pape Stations.

Danforth Avenue between Pape Avenue and Chester Avenue, 1962. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

Bloor-Danforth Subway Corridor, 2019. Credit: Google Maps.

Second, following a similar effect of the Yonge line, the new subway meant the end of streetcar service on the street. Passengers on the Danforth Streetcar and four other routes (Bloor, Coxwell, Harbord, and Parliament) opted for their last rides on the night before the subway’s opening. The Lipton streetcar loop at Pape Avenue and the Erindale loop at Broadview Avenue also closed as transit stations took their spots.

After the Second World War, the Danforth received the identity it is commonly associated with today. The story has been told many times: Greek immigrants left Greece after the military junta of 1967 with a number of them opening up enterprises on Danforth Avenue while settling in the streets north of their shops and further in nearby East York.

A snapshot of Greek businesses on the north side of Danforth Avenue from the City Directory, 1969. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

Why did they select the Danforth specifically? One theory goes back to the subway. Some shop owners noted how the loss of a surface transit route actually negatively impacted local shopping. The area was not doing as well in the late-1960s as prior decades — a condition for the street to be reinvented. The same would happen in the 1970s when Gerrard Street East became Little India. The rents for closed shops were attractive and affordable for new Greek entrepreneurs.

Greek businesses east Pape Avenue on Danforth, 2019. Credit: Google Maps.

They also brought their faith with them. In perhaps the most exemplary case of Danforth’s transformation, an old garage built in 1921 when the street was still named Moscow Avenue became St. Irene Chrisovalantou Greek Orthodox Church.

Finally, the Danforth Avenue of today is mostly imagined as a mostly homogeneous collection of Greek affiliated businesses and organizations and the nearly-century old structures they occupy. What is overlooked is how some of these old structures have disappeared over time and new buildings and non-Greek businesses have taking their place.

348 Danforth Avenue, a building with roots in 1924 (and a site that once housed the residence of John Lea Playter), hosts Carrot Common. The 1980s saw new additions that transformed the old structure. Today, a green roof and garden makes the space truly unique. Near Pape, a bank and event space replace an older two story structure at 629 Danforth and an office building usurped the former Palace Theatre at 664 Danforth of the 1920s.

Palace Theatre, 664 Danforth Avenue, near Pape Avenue, showing its overhanging electric sign, 1920s. View is looking east on Danforth Avenue, from Pape Avenue. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

From the 19th century rural environment of the Playter family to the 1920s boom period of muskrats and nabes to the transformative post-war period of subways and souvlaki, Danforth Avenue has shown its fascinating layers of history and geography.

Scenes From The Distillery District

What began as the Gooderham & Worts complex, the Distillery District is associated with a distinct set of Victorian structures that make up its stunning geography. Its story, though, is as much about what remains as it is what hasn’t remained — its lost geography.

Gooderham & Worts, Ltd., Toronto., 1896. Source: Toronto Public Library.

Running through the middle is Trinity Street. At its foot is the Distillery District’s most recognizable building: the Stone Distillery of 1859. Cut from Kingston limestone, it is the largest and oldest of the existing G&W buildings. It infamously went up in flames in 1869 — the pressure from the fire blowing the roof off! It was rebuilt again, but several workers perished in the fire and burn marks can still be seen in the brickwork.

Rising high on the west side of Trinity Street is the Malt House & Kiln Building and Cooperage Building. They are most noticeable for the cupola overlooking the area. Gristmill Lane leads into Trinity Street from Parliament Street.

On the east side (from south to north) is the Pump House, Pure Spirits and Cannery complex, and interestingly, the old Lunch Room. Along what is now Tank House Lane is, well, a complex of Tank Houses, built to house and age liquor for two years by law.

Case Goods Lane houses the Case Goods Warehouse, which is the youngest of the existing buildings (erected in 1927). Its age shows as it looks different than the earlier structures. It came when Harry Hatch, a Bridlewood horsebreeder and industrialist, bought the distillery in the 1920s and merged it with Hiram-Walker.

“Gooderham & Worts Taken Over By Hatch” The Globe, December 21, 1923. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

“Historic Windmill from Which a Great Modern Industry Grew” The Toronto Daily Star, January 8, 1927.

Aside from the Case Goods Building, the Distillery District’s architecture was designed by David Roberts Sr. and his son David Roberts Jr., who were Gooderham & Worts’ exclusive architects and civil engineers. Roberts Jr also designed the company’s headquarters, the Gooderham Building on Wellington Street, and other Gooderham family residences, such as Waveney — otherwise known as the George Gooderham House on Bloor Street.

George Gooderham residence, northeast corner of St. George and Bloor streets, 1892. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

As much as the current building stock is an impressive visual reminder of the history of Gooderham and Worts, the Distillery District’s story also lays in its lost geography too. The obvious start is the windmill near the mouth of the Don River, started by William Gooderham and James Worts Sr in 1832. Several years later the gristmill turned into a distillery and was the beginning of an empire. It stood until the 1860s when the buildings on the west side of Trinity Street replaced it. A curved line of bricks in Grist Mill Lane marks where it once stood. In the 1950s, G&W and the York Pioneers (of which the Gooderhams were members) erected a replica windmill on Parliament Street near the Victory Mill Silos.

Gooderham and Worts (Toronto, Ont.) Gristmill, 1840s. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

Gooderham & Worts, foot of Trinity St. showing replica of original windmill, 1954. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

Aerial showing location of Gooderham and Worts Windmill replica, 1957. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

Another little known enterprise in the Gooderham & Worts empire was a dairy and cattle business. These cow byres were once located on the east side of Trinity Street across the original mill in the 1830s. They relocated east of the Don near the river’s bend decades later. Residents in the east end of the city complained about the ‘intolerable nuisance’ of pollutants G&W were discharging into Ashbridges Bay in the 1880s and ’90s.

Gooderham & Worts Cattle Sheds from Goads Fire Insurance Map, 1903. Credit: Goads Toronto.

“The Marsh”, The Globe, August 21, 1881. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

Moving up Trinity Street from Mill Street, there are other lost Gooderham & Worts sites — particularly houses! On the northwest corner of Mill and Trinity was the residence of Henry Gooderham, as the 1880 City of Toronto Directories tell us, but was built and lived in by his father William Gooderham himself. A funeral for the man in 1881 ran from the house to his resting place in St. James Cemetery. In 1902, the General Distilling Company — a subsidiary of G&W — replaced the house. Directly across the street was the James Gooderham Worts House, Lindenwold. It was razed for Rack House “D” in 1895. Both warehouse structures still stand.

View of Toronto’s Front Street from Windmill to Old Fort from Robertson’s Landmarks of Toronto, circa 1850. The Gooderham house at Trinity Street and Mill Street is on the left. The gristmill and wharf are to its right. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Lindenwold, 1870s. Credit: Distillery District Heritage.

On the southwest corner of Trinity and Front was the William George Gooderham house, also as per 1880 City Directories. In the first decade of the 1900s, it fell victim to the expanding Consumers Gas Co. Across street on the east side was the residence of his father, George Gooderham, who perhaps lived there before moving into Waveney around 1892. There are parking lots on both sites today.

Gooderham and Worts houses in the Goads Fire Insurance Map, 1903. Credit: Goads Toronto.

Looking north on Trinity Street, 2018. Credit: Google Maps.

Moving east, the Gooderham and Worts Cooperage once stood on Front Street east of Cherry Street. Bordering the north side of the cooperage yard was Worts Avenue. Worts was originally called Market Street with the name change occurring sometime in the 1880s. George Gooderham had three houses built on the street in 1901. On the north side of Worts was St. Lawrence Square, a oddly situated tract of land shaped by Worts, Cherry, and a bend in Eastern Avenue. G&W sold their land to the Canadian Northern Ontario Railway in 1906 as the CNOR grew its yards, absorbing the cooperage and St Lawrence Square. Cooperage Street today pays homage to the history.

Gooderham and Worts Cooperage in the Goads Fire Insurance Map, 1903. The three houses are hilighted. Credit: Goads Toronto.

Cooperage Street & Front Street, 2018. Credit: Google Maps.

The Canadian National Railway’s expansion also absorbed several residential streets including Water Street and Tate Street, whose residents were labourers at the railroads, G&W, the Toronto Rolling Mills, and at the William Davies Co. With the recent redevelopment of the area to what is now the West Don Lands, little physical reminders remain beyond some street names.

West Don Lands from Goads Fire Insurance Map, 1924. Credit: Goads Toronto

Along with the emergence of the CNOR, there were other railway lines that surrounded the complex. First, the Canadian Pacific Railway curled around the north of Gooderham & Worts, crossing at Parliament Street and Trinity Street.

Bird’s-eye view of plant, 1918. The railway curls in the bottom right of the page. Trinity Street is on the left side. Credit: City of Toronto Archives

Parliament St., looking n. across Mill St., 1907. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

Plant from Parliament Street, British Acetones Toronto Limited, Toronto, Ontario, 1918. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

Parliament Street – old C.P.R. crossing, 1932. The railway ceases to cross Parliament. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

Plant, Trinity Street view, British Acetones Toronto Limited, 1918. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

Railroad, Trinity south of Front, 1971. View is looking north. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

George Gooderham also co-founded the Toronto & Nipissing Railway which he used to transport raw materials from the northern parts of Ontario to the Distillery. From a train station located in today’s Parliament Square Park, the tracks ran steps away from the Stone Distillery. The T&N Railway was eventually absorbed into the CNR by the 1920s. Part of it is used by the York-Durham Heritage Railway for themed train rides.

Gooderham and Worts from Bird’s Eye View of Toronto, 1889. The old Toronto & Nippissing terminus station is located on the left side of the image. Credit: Old Toronto Maps.

On the same right of way was the Grand Trunk Railway, who also had railyards west and east of the complex. The latter now houses the Cherry Street streetcar loop. The GTR also became part of CNR. Overlooking the loop is the Cherry Street Interlocking Tower which was built here in 1931 to monitor rail traffic within the Union Station Railway Corridor.

With Gooderham and Worts leveraging the rails in its growth, it also had water at its whim. With the changes to Toronto’s waterfront, it has been forgotten that the Stone Distillery was steps from Lake Ontario. G&W also had its own wharf beginning in the 1840s, housing its grain elevator.

Gooderham and Worts from Barclay, Clark & Co. Bird’s Eye View, 1893. The elevator is right on the water to the south of the Stone Distillery. Credit: Old Toronto Maps.

Since the closing of Gooderham & Worts Ltd in 1990 and its reopening as the Distillery District in 2003 by Cityscape Holdings, the area has been transformed into a pedestrian-only district, friendly for festivals and movie shoots. Although Trinity Street was gravel historically, bricks from Ohio were added for an old-time feel in its redevelopment — if you look close enough you can make out their origins on a select few.

The buildings themselves have been repurposed to host cafes, chocolate shops, micro-breweries, bars, bakeries, and theatres. The area’s past is also nicely displayed throughout via heritage plaques and displays of artefacts, images, and paintings.

Every turn produces some place of interest. Favourites include the clock tower and the famous Love locks sign. Together with the buildings themselves, they create a distinct modern geography.

Useful Links

Distillery District Heritage Website

Scenes From Earl Bales Park

The history of Earl Bales Park starts with the John Bales House. The family arrived in the Bathurst and Sheppard area in 1824, finding a hilly topography bordering on the West Don River. John Bales cleared the land and built a log farmhouse south of Sheppard and east of Bathurst. From there, the layers of story build.

Bales House, south-east view, date unknown. From North York Historical Society. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

Tremaine’s Map of the County of York, Canada West, 1860. Credit: Historical Maps of Toronto.

Steps from the John Bales House is the Earl Bales Community Centre. The meeting place for classes and events came to us by 1981 (a revitalization project took place in 2018 too). Before its arrival, another complex of buildings were neighbours to the John Bales House: The York Downs Golf and Country Club.

York Downs Golf and Country Club near Armour Heights, North Toronto, 1926. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

In 1922, the York Downs Golf Course opened on the former Bales land (albeit by then property passed into the hands of Shedden Company). The John Bales homestead was actually the residence of the groundskeeper and the barn was part of the clubhouse.

“York Downs Course Ready Next Summer” The Globe, February 6, 1922. Credit: Toronto Public Library

Map of the Townships, York, Scarboro, and Etobicoke, 1916. Credit: University of Toronto Map and Data Library.

Ownership map – township of york showing unsubdivided area of 10 acres and over with names of owners and acreages, 1922. Credit: City of Toronto Archives

York Downs Golf and Country Club, 1953. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

Ownership map for the region formerly known as the Township of York including York, North York, East York, Forest Hill, Swansea, 1932. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

In 1968, the club’s executive voted to move to Unionville and to sell the property to Max Tanenbaum of Pinetree Developments for $6,400,000. Tanenbaum intended to build apartments and houses on the former course. After much debate, local protests under the banner of ‘Save York Downs’ stopped the proposal. Ultimately, Metro Toronto Council purchased the property in 1972 for $9 million to use for parkland. Council also did the same with the Tam O’Shanter Golf and Country Club in Scarborough, although that ultimately became mostly a municipally owned golf course. Earl Bales Park — named for a former North York Reeve and great-grandson of John Bales — opened on a chilly December 2, 1973 with one last round of golf on the 163 acre site.

“Max Tanenbaum and Morry Smith”, Toronto Daily Star, April 16, 1971. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

Walking south from the Bales homestead, the landscaping leftovers of the York Downs course are still evident on the land with sand traps, mounds, and trees. Then and now aerial maps provide an interesting comparison of the layouts of the course and the park.

York Downs Golf Course & Earl Bales Park, 1947 & 2019. Credit: Sidewalk Labs OldTO.

Walking down the western half of Earl Bales Park, you can see several attractions added to the park over the years. Taking advantage of the park’s elevation, the North York Ski Centre came in 1973 to provide local skiing to the residents of North York and Toronto.

“North York’s Big Opener”, Globe and Mail, Jan 9, 1974. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

There is also the Barry Zukerman Amphitheatre, which came by 1989 and named for a prominent Canadian Jewish businessman. The theatre is notable for its great performances in the summer.

The most powerful installation in Earl Bales Park is undoubtedly the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. It was unveiled in 1991 with The Wall of Remembrance devoted to victims and survivors coming in 2001. Particularly sombre is the portion dedicated to children, including Anne Frank. The obelisk is the Spirit of Bravery Memorial.

Finally, a bust of Philippine National Hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal came as a gift from the Philippine Government to the City of Toronto in 1998.

These additions to Earl Bales Park represent the notion that parks can be and should be reflections of their environs. For example, the John Bales House — a representation of British colonial York — is now the Russian House Toronto. Since the end of the World War II, the area around the park along Bathurst Street gradually grew with new subdivisions and new populations. Toronto’s Jewish population (and Eastern Europeans in general) moved north on Bathurst to Forest Hill by 1950 and even further to Bathurst Manor in 1957. Toronto’s Filipino population arrived to the city mostly in the 1960s, first to St. Jamestown and then to ‘Little Manila’ at the Bathurst and Wilson area.

“Bathurst Manor Shopping Plaza Grand Opening”, Globe and Mail, November 21, 1957. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

One neighbouring area tied to the history of the York Down Golf Course is Armour Heights. The community, located directly south of Earl Bales Park, is named for the Armour family who were contemporaries of the Bales clan. The Armour lands came under the control of the Robins Real Estate Limited in the early 20th century, who in the 1910s and 1920s intended on making three master-planned, upscale communities in north Toronto: Armour Heights, Ridley Park, and Melrose Park. Together these were to be the ‘Highlands of Toronto‘. Robins Ltd also had a hand in Cedarvale’s ambitious genesis. Much in the same way as that suburb, Armour Heights was planned with lavish roundabouts, gardens, squares, and tennis courts and bowling greens.

Armour Heights – being the subdivision of parts t lots 11, 12, 13, Concession 1, west of Yonge Street, circa 1913. Credit: City of Toronto Library.

“The Highlands of Toronto”, Toronto Daily Star, April 13, 1923. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

“Why People Are Buying in Armour Heights”, The Globe, April 9, 1923. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

The owner, Colonel Frederick Burton Robins, built a Tudor-style estate house near Yonge Street and Wilson Avenue. Marketing pieces highlighted a bus line between Yonge and Bathurst Streets via Yonge Boulevard and Armour Heights’ proximity to the York Downs Golf Course. Armour Heights hosted air demonstrations and was even considered by McMaster University for a campus.

Robins Country Estate, Wilson Avenue west of Yonge Street, circa 1930. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

“Robins Limited Motor Bus Service”, Toronto Daily Star, May 21, 1914. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

“A Plan of The Splendid Site on Armour Heights”, Toronto Daily Star, December 24, 1926. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

Like in Cedarvale, Colonel F.B. Robins’ vision for Armour Heights never fully materialized. By 1929, he sold the 300 acres to R. K. Lillico and associates for $930,000. Their idea was to re-brand the area as ‘Beverley Hills’, but the moniker never caught on. The street grid developed under its current form, filling out completely by 1950. It did eventually receive its bus line with the Toronto Transit Commission’s Armour Heights route in 1952. Armour Heights Robins’ grand estate house is now used by the Canadian Forces College. Today York Downs Boulevard — one of the early streets — remains as a tribute to the golf club and fittingly connects the park and subdivision.

Back in Earl Bales Park, a man-made pond exists on the southern end. Earl Bales Lake is a storm-water management pond. Beyond it is the Don Valley Golf Course. The Hoggs Hollow Bridge portion of Highway 401 runs over the course. The Toronto By-Pass, as the expressway was known before it was numbered, opened here in 1953, splitting up the golf course and Armour Heights.

Don Valley Golf Course, Yonge St., w. side, from s. to n. of Macdonald-Cartier Freeway; looking n.w. to Macdonald-Cartier Freeway bridge over West Don River., 1955. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

The east side of Earl Bales Park is scenic walk through nature. One is struck by the tree cover, both on this hills and in the valley. A topographical map of the West Don River from 1915 shows off the contours and some cases the tree types of the land that would become the park.

Plan of west branch Don River Valley from Lawrence Avenue to corner Sheppard and Bathurst, 1915. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

One also gets a look from below at the ski slope. ‘Downs’ refers to a grassy hill, so this might explain the naming of golf course.

A shallow west branch of the Don River runs through the edge of the property. The river and the way across it has had a few interventions in the second have the 20th century. At one time, albeit north and south of the park, the waterway hosted saw and grist mills. In 1956, the river’s winding course was straightened.

West Don River, 1953-1956. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

Further up, at the park’s northern entrance, one looks up at the massive bridge carrying Sheppard Avenue West over the West Don River Valley. A marker dates the bridge to 1961, but it is not the first structure in this location

The history is unclear, but the first photographed bridge was a wooden construction that existed until at least from 1910 (its construction date is unknown).

Sheppard Avenue bridge over the Don River near Bathurst Street., 1910. From North York Historical Society. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

Wooden bridge over Don, 1908-1910. From North York Historical Society. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

Its replacement — a more sturdy setup — came by 1920. Flood damage from Hurricane Hazel briefly closed the bridge in November 1954. The storm did, however, completely wipe out the nearby Bathurst Street Bridge. The event might have led to the bridge’s replacement in the following decade.

Sheppard Avenue West bridge over West Don River, 1920. This is the same view as the above wooden bridge photo. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

“Find Flood Damage, Close Sheppard Bridge” Globe and Mail, November 26, 1954. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

Don River (West Don R.), looking w. across Sheppard Ave. bridge, 1954. Photographer James Salmon notes the bridge’s washout after Hurricane Hazel. Credit: Toronto Public Library.

The third – and present – bridge began construction in 1961 and opened by 1962 or 1963. The section of the West Don River below it was channelized with concrete holdings. Also in 1962, the Don River Boulevard bridge replaced an earlier bridge opened in 1928. The short and quiet street curiously dates to the 19th century – at least to 1860 by cartographic accounts – and ran through the Shepard family property in Lansing to Bathurst. When both bridges were replaced in the 1960s, Don River Boulevard was also reconfigured to circle up the Sheppard Avenue, linking the street with the park.

Sheppard Avenue over Don River, 1962 & 1963. Credit: City of Toronto Archives.

Source: Toronto Daily Star November 30, 1928.

Exiting Earl Bales Park, one may go up to the main street or cross the bridge into the Hinder Property, leaving behind a great history.

Useful Links

Marshall’s Musings – “Exploring Earl Bales Park”

North York Historical Society – “June-August 2015 Newsletter”

OldTO Mapping historical photos

Scott Kennedy – Willowdale: Yesterday’s Farms, Today’s Legacy

Scenes From East Don Parkland

It’s all about the layers in the East Don Parkland. The residual landscape from the last Ice Age, the ravine, which stretches from Leslie and Steeles to Don Mills and Sheppard, has come to see pre-contact wilderness, colonial farming and industry, and post-war revitalization and reconfiguration.

But ‘East Don Parkland’ is a bit of a misnomer if only because it encompasses not only the east branch of the Don River but another – albeit smaller – tributary waterway.

German Mills Creek originates just to the north of Steeles in its historic namesake Markham community (sadly, now lost). The label is pretty literal, too: German Mills was once an industrious village along John Street founded by Bavarian-born William Berczy and a group of his countrymen and women. In addition to being a prosperous settlement, the community was instrumental in the early development of York too. The goods supplied by the mills aided in constructing the actual built form of the young town. The German Mills pioneers also cleared Yonge Street from Eglinton to Thornhill before the Queen’s Rangers finished the job.

East Don Parkland became part of Toronto’s parks network in the 1980s after efforts to remediate and rehabilate a river that had been worn out by European activity. Today, it is home to a number of flora and fauna, most notably salmon and white-tailed deer, the latter which are prominently displayed on the park’s signage. A neat tidbit: the deer’s precense in Toronto dates back to around 9000 years after the end of the last Ice Age.

Cummer Avenue bisects (or trisects?) East Don Parkland and offers more history. Unsurprisingly, the street’s name plays homage to the family who toiled around and built it – although to different designs.

Jacob and Elizabeth Kummer (the name was inexplicably changed to a ‘C’ around 1820), like the pioneers of Markham were of German descent, and came to the Toronto area in 1795, first settling near Yonge and Eglinton. They would relocate further up the main street to Willowdale where they would amass an extraordinary fortune. Their original property was a 190-acre lot fronting Yonge and stretching to Bayview. With subsequent generations of Cummers, their holdings grew to encompass not only large plots fronting Yonge but portions of the East Don Valley too. Whereas the former real estate was good for farming and commercial activities, the power of the river allowed the Cummers to engage in some industry. In 1819, they built and began operating a sawmill.

The Don property was interestingly significant in that early settlers as well as First Nations peoples took part in church and camp activities there. Through the meetings, the area was famously known as “Scripture Town” and “Angel Valley”.

Tremaine's Map 1860 — East Don from Tremaine’s Map, 1860. Source: Toronto Historic Maps.

Around the 1850s, Jacob III, grandson of Jacob Kummer, built a farmhouse to overlook the valley. The home isn’t perfectly parallel to the street it rests on, making it a bit of an intriguing anomaly with the surrounding post-war subdivision.

To connect the Cummers’ Yonge and East Don holdings, a side road was constructed. Today, we know that road allowance as Cummer Avenue. Where the street crossed the East Don, it veered south to follow the curve of the river on its way to Leslie Street. The aforementioned mill was also located near this junction.

East Don Parklands 1950 — East Don River and Old Cummer, 1950. Source: City of Toronto Archives.

In the mid-1960s, Cummer was re-oriented away from the valley. A bridge that used to carry car traffic across the river serves as a reminder of its former course. One has to think of the vehicular ghosts when traversing the recreational trail that replaced the street.

A paved portion also leads to Old Cummer GO Station, where the street once passed through before the station’s construction in 1978. For years I puzzled about the station’s name.

South of Finch Avenue, with golden foliage of fall to accentuate the walk, the trail winds on.

So does the river, although not as it once did. Like Cummer Avenue, the Don’s history has come with some alterations. Along the way is at least one algae-covered oxbow – an orphaned or even ghost segments separated from the river’s course. This particular one was severed around the early 1950s.

East Don River, 1950. Source: City of Toronto Archives.

East Don River, 1965. — East Don River oxbow, 1965. Source: City of Toronto Archives.

One has to note the monstrosity of human construction that is the CNR Richmond Hill GO line looming above the park.

A fallen tree trunk spanning across the river instantly urges me of more pioneering connections. It reminds me of an Elizabeth Simcoe depiction of an early bridge across the Lower Don River.

Winchester Street, bridge over Don R. (Playter's bridge) 1794 — Winchester Street, bridge over Don R. (Playter’s bridge), 1794. Source: Toronto Public Library.

Finally, at the park’s southern end is Old Leslie Street. Just like Old Cummer, Leslie used to take on a different route. Heading south, the street used to jogged west at Sheppard before continuing south, all presumably to avoid crossing the Don River.

Sheppard and Leslie, 1961. Source: City of Toronto Archives.

The junction of Old Leslie and Sheppard was the nexus of the tiny, lost mill community of Oriole, named for George S. Henry’s homestead located off the Betty Sutherland Trail.

Old Leslie Street and Sheppard, 1956. Source: Toronto Public Library. Oriole Wesleyan Methodist Church stood on the southwest corner from 1873 to the 1950s.

By 1969, the street was rerouted directly through Sheppard. Old Leslie remains mainly as a service road for the Leslie TTC Station, terminating across from North York General Hospital.