The Evolution of Castle Frank Hill, Toronto

Note: This is the second article in a series which aims to describe the 230-year evolution of the Castle Frank area. The first part is available here.

“The Sugar Loaf hill stands alone in the Don Valley. It is still covered with woods that join with those of Castle Frank, a quarter of a mile off in the woods, between the two hills, is a pine-tree in whose top is a deserted hawk’s nest. Every Toronto school-boy knows the nest, and, excepting that I had once shot a black squirrel on its edge, no one had ever seen a sign of life about it. There it was year after year, ragged and old, and falling to pieces. Yet, strange to tell, in all that time it never did drop to pieces, like other old nests.”
E.T. Seton, Wild Animals I Have Known

In 1898, author, naturalist, and artist Ernest Thompson Seton released his famous Wild Animals I Have Known, a compilation of short stories from his time exploring Toronto’s wilderness in the 1880s and 90s. In particular, Seton spent a lot of time in the Don Valley and Castle Frank Hill. English-born Seton grew up in nearby Cabbagetown.

E.T. Seton’s tales recounted the stories of the certain wildlife inhabiting the district, including Silverspot the Crow, Red Redruff the Patridge. He also noted other animals such as the blue jay and rabbit. Prevalent in Seton’s characterization of the fauna of the area were the old pines, hemlocks, grapes, and berries, altogether painting a pristine picture of the hill.

Decades later, another Don Valley explorer, conservationist Charles Sauriol also recounted the hill:

“The visitor who glanced down from the ramp of the viaduct, sees the top of the hill almost level with the floor of the bridge. The C.N.R. line flanks the hill on the east. North-westwards, a panorama of woodland (Old Drumsnab), becomes in summer a vista of undulating waves of billowy leafage extending towards Rosedale Ravine.”
Charles Sauril, Tales of the Don

Sauriol spent his summers between the 1920s and the 1960s in a cottage in the Don Valley. He was an advocate for the preservation of the valley.

The Castle Frank that Seton knew and explored was during a period in which the hill was largely untouched since the activities of the Simcoes and others, but would be on the cusp of major changes. The last two decades of the 1800s saw a transformation of and debate over the future of the hill and valley(s) below. As history moved into the following century, it would see an intensification in housing, three major public works projects, and an institutional additional – all that would change the complexion of the hill snd its surrounding area forever.

A New…and Newer Castle Frank

Walter McKenzie was the Clerk of the County Clerk for Toronto. He was also a former soldier. By the 1850s, he had taken up residence on Castle Frank Ridge. Along with a house, which he also called “Castle Frank,” there was an orchard and vineyard overlooking the Don River, located north of the spot where Mr. Simcoe built his cottage. It was the first permanent home on the hill since the ancient Castle Frank burned down in 1829.

In 1857, McKenzie placed an advertisement in The Globe selling “About Four Hundred Standing Pines,” located on the forested hill. McKenzie was a well-connected man in Toronto, particularly in the law profession; his son-in-law John Hoskins, also a lawyer, lived in the nearby “Dale” estate. Drumsnab, the other neighbour 19th century prominent estate, was also occupied by lawyers, first William Cayley and then Mr. Maunsell B. Jackson. McKenzie passed away in 1890.

Albert Edward Kemp was a very successful businessman who founded the Kemp Manufacturing Co., metal located at Gerrard Street East and River Street. In 1900, he entered federal politics, rising to prominence as Minister of Militia, a role that led to his knighting. In 1902, as a member of Toronto High Society, he built “New Castle Frank” on the site of McKenzie’s Castle Frank. Kemp died in 1929; his mansion stood until the 1960s.

Castle Frank Brook & Rosedale Valley Road

“Immediately under the site of Castle Frank, to the west, was a deep ravine containing a perennial stream known and marked on plans as ‘Castle Frank’ Brook, which entered the Don at one of the ‘Hog’s Backs’ referred to, where also was a small island form in the river…”
Henry Scadding, 1895

The Don River tributary known as Castle Frank Brook ran in a northwesterly direction to its heads near Dufferin and Lawrence. It is also known by other names: Severn Creek and Brewery Creek after the Severn Brewery, formerly located where the stream crossed Yonge Street. It also has gone by Davenport Creek, possibly because it passed through the Davenport estate.

Plans for a road and sewer through Castle Frank Brook ravine began in the late 1880s. The reasons for its transformation were twofold. First, following a general public health phenomenon in the city which called for the burial of polluted open waterways and creeks, it was decided to put Castle Frank Brook into a culvert. The creek’s state had deteriorated as the “northern district” had developed. Second, the idea of the road gained traction following a general movement towards “park drives” or “parkways.” The eventual Rosedale Valley Road married the two goals.

The Globe reported:

The plan for the Davenport Creek ravine drive provides that it shall leave the road near the Winchester street bridge, on the way to the Silver Creek drive, and descending in the ravine follow near the line of the present creek. After passing St. James Cemetery, the drive will go through the property of Mr. Walter Mackenzie. After crossing the Castle Frank road it passes through the property of John Hoskin, S James, Margaret James, H J Clark, J L Thompson, R K Burgess, Alfred Chapman, William Croft, George and James Murray and F E Hodgson.”
The Globe, March 5, 1887

In 1887, Toronto City Council approved the expropriation of “a sixty-six foot roadway through it [Rosedale Valley] on the local improvement principle and the laid the sewer in the new street.” St. James Cemetery agreed to give the city any lands without any cost to the city. In the 1890s, the area was graded and the necessary construction took place. Awards were made to property owners by the city.

But the road construction was not without controversy. The City expropriated parts of the estates listed above — or so it thought. A clerical error did not properly register the expropriation, making it and the opening of the street illegal. The by-law outlining the expropriation was sent to the Registry Office to be registered in 1888. However, it should have been accompanied by a plan by Unwin Sankey and Browne, showing the land to be expropriated so that the affected properties could be identified. The plan was not sent, and the expropriations were not registered. The error was not discovered until a decade later. Rosedale Valley Road was opened without officially expropriated the needed lands.

The affected owners protested about their requirement to pay their share to open the road. The idea seems to be that Rosedale Valley Road was to be opened as a ‘local improvement project’, meaning that affected residents of the area were supposed to fit the bill to build the road. With this error, the courts quashed residents of any obligations – effectively placing the City of Toronto and its general tax base on the hook. In early 1899, the city registered a new bylaw regarding Rosedale Valley Road, and the lawsuits continued regarding the “debentures” of the street. It is unclear how the matter was resolved.

In 1897, the road was described as “…one of the coolest, shadiest and most beautifully picturesque roads in or near this city.” It is a description that holds today.

In 1905, it was briefly proposed by Alderman McBride to make Rosedale Valley Road into a ‘speedway’ for horses from Park Road to Winchester Street. St. James Cemetery stated they would have never donated the land for the road if this would be the plan.

The Cemetery & The Park

St. James Cemetery opened in 1844 across the ravine opposite Castle Frank on donated land from the Scadding estate (previously the Simcoe estate). By 1897, a proposal existed to expand the cemetery’s grounds north of Rosedale Valley on Castle Frank Hill. The plan proved to be very controversial.

The proposal at heart looked to convert the land on Castle Frank Ridge into parkland and space for graves. The problem was the hill was subdivided with lots and owners by at least the start of the decade.

In 1897, Mayor Fleming and a contingent of politicians and ‘leading citizens’ toured Toronto by motorcar as they assessed potential park sites. They began at Queen Street and Logan Avenue. Reaching and crossing the Don, they scouted Sugar-Loaf Hill, a thickly wooded triangular hill that was said would make a picnicking area as part of the ‘Parks Plan.’ Next, they noted “the steep and wooded eastern side of Castle Frank, for the securing of which the Mayor is negotiating with owners of the St. James’ Cemetery, who have bought that whole district from Dr. Hoskin.” This latter point is important as it signaled a disputed future for Castle Frank Hill.

A NATURAL PARK

As one drives up the Ravine road on the right hand, as far east as the Don, all this territory, undesecrated by the end of man, with its three and a half acres of indescribably lovely side-hills and twenty-three acres acres of additional property on the summit, is to be virtually owned as a public park by the city of Toronto on certain conditions.

The three and a half acres is to be a gift to the city from Dr. Hoskin. The owners of the St. James’ Cemetery will control the flat at the top and provide for its beautification and maintenance. They ask that the city allow them to use the level land on the Castle Frank eminence as a burial ground, and that the city build a road from the drive to the top of the hill, so that a hearse can safely ascend the incline. This road will cost about $2,000 and a fence to enclose the whole cemetery park another $1,000. This is really the sole cost to the city for this magnificent park.
The Evening Star, July 17, 1897

In September 1897, the owners of lots 28 to 31 Castle Frank Avenue made a protest to the city about the cemetery extension, which they argued would destroy their property as it would be located adjacent against a cemetery.

Then, a Mrs. Mary Hebden, owning 10-13 Castle Frank Avenue of plan 686, filed a formal suit:

“…to restrain the city and the churchwardens of St. James’ from passing any by-law or resolution to permit burial on any of these lots, or to allow the churchwardens to enlarge the cemetery, or to perform any interments within the city limits, outside the limits of the present cemetery.

It also sought to prevent the city from amending any standing by-law as to burials within the city limits.”
The Evening Star, October 19, 1897

Mrs. Hedben’s suit against the city was heard several months later. Her lawyer, Mr. Hodgins, asked for an order to prevent the cemetery from adding more lands and for any agreement to exist between the cemetery and the city. This was denied as City Council could vote how it wanted. Hodgins then argued a statute that prevented cemeteries from being established within city limits but the law did not apply either.

In October 1897, the cemetery was anxious to have the by-law passed. Its trustees met with the City Board of Control to negotiate terms. City Council also met at the Castle Frank table to go over the boundaries of what would be park and what would be cemetery; property owners, led by Mr. Jackson of Drumsnab, were there to protest. By November, talks between the city and cemetery had broken off as the city found the trustees unreasonable in their terms. The cemetery in the meantime began to make arrangements with Dr. Hoskins to bury in the property they did own. Eventually the scheme was dropped entirely by the city. The matter was finally reopened in the following October with new negotiations.

In December 1898, the Globe reported the City had finally reached an agreement with St. James Cemetery to add forty-two acres of parkland in the Rosedale Ravine. At a special Board of Control meeting to discuss the plan, Mr. Jackson again argued his objections, stemming from a loss of taxes on would-be property, the need for a clause to compensate property owners, and a letter from medical men advocating that cemeteries should not be established within city limits. The agreement was referred to council.

By early 1899, it was advertised The McIntosh Granite and Marble Co. a mausoleum built on the Castle Frank section of the cemetery for a W.R. Brock, Esq. In July, the city and cemetery entered into an agreement for the city to lease some cemetery property for parkland in return for permission to bury in Castle Frank. It was opposed by a Mr. J. G. Ramsey who owned property at Castle Frank and Mackenzie Avenues and argued it would “render his property comparatively valueless.” A very animated Mr. Jackson also spoke against it. The plan was sent to council without recommendation as no consensus was reached.

Curiously, as the city moved into the twentieth century, the records are silent on what happened next regarding this contentious episode. It must be noted that by the end the decade and into the 1910s, houses began to sprang up on Castle Frank Avenue on the ridge and there are no references to the cemetery. The City of Toronto today lists the area south and east of the street as parkland.

The Bloor Viaduct

While the earliest mention of a bridge across the Don Valley joining Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue was in 1897, proposals on how to make it happen came about in the following decade. With the likely need to traverse Rosedale Valley as well, Castle Frank Hill would become an important part of the project. One idea involved two bridges running west and east from Castle Frank Crescent, connecting with Howard Street over Rosedale Valley and Winchester Street over the Don Valley, respectively. However, a prominent idea was put forward by City Engineer C.H. Rust which recommended a one mile-long bridge straight from Sherbourne Street to Broadview Avenue and another shorter viaduct extending from Parliament Street to meet it a “T”. Arguments over the impact it would have on Rosedale Valley by the Guild of Civic Art and Civic Improvement Committee as well as Rosedale resident concerns led to a “no” vote in referenda in 1910, 1911, and 1912.

Sources: The Toronto Daily Star, Nov 28, 1906; The Toronto Daily Star, June 6, 1917; The Globe, Dec 29, 1910; The Globe Dec 28, 1911; The Globe Jan 1, 1913

On January 1, 1913, the Toronto electorate voted to finally build the Bloor Viaduct. Construction began officially in 1915, although preliminary work was done in the years that preceded. The eventual design relied on two separate bridges to cross both ravines as well as the extension of Bloor Street between Sherbourne and Parliament Streets, which would be facilitated by landfill terraces. The bridges consisted of a ‘diagonal’ Rosedale section between Parliament to Castle Frank and a ‘straight’ Don section between Castle Frank and Broadview Avenue. Both sections were similar in aesthetic, made of concrete and steel, and highlighted by large arches. A lower level for a future streetcar line was added to both bridges. The bridge opened in sections with the entire structure – officially The Prince Edward Viaduct – being available on October 18, 1918.

The eventual changes to the geographic imprint of the area extended past just the additions of the new bridges and roads. In order to facilitate those additions, several losses had to take place. There were several residences razed for the Bloor Street extension, including the Castle Frank gatehouse at Parliament Street, its neighbour at 102 Howard Street, and other structures at Glen Road and Sherbourne Street. On the Castle Frank Hill, it appears that at least one or two residences on Castle Frank Road — such as number 87 — were lost where the new street was set to go in and parts of other lots gave way for the new street layout. In 1922, Castle Frank Road south of the Bloor Viaduct was renamed to Castle Frank Crescent (ironically, a name it once held before it was combined into Castle Frank Road).

Castle Frank, pre and post-Bloor Viaduct, 1913 & 1924.
Source: Goads Toronto

The Don Valley Parkway & The Destruction of Sugar Loaf Hill

The middle of the 20th century saw a string of major civic projects which would collectively change the local complexion of the Castle Frank Region. The first of these was a freeway through the adjacent Don Valley. Planning began in 1954. This would be a different kind than the parkway built through the Rosedale Valley nearly sixty years prior. In the lower valley, the project consisted of the main highway which would run on the east side of river and the southern extension of Bayview Avenue running parallel to it on the west side of the river beside the train tracks.

A product of the creative destruction of the Don Valley Parkway was the removal of Sugar Loaf Hill, the conical mound located north of Castle Frank that the Simcoes, E.T. Seton, and Charles Sauriol all noted and explored. It would be levelled to make way for the Bayview Extension. Several lamenting articles appeared in newspapers over the event. In 1958, during the construction of the highway, Globe writer Scott Young wrote:

“Soon it will be gone and fast bright cars on the Don Valley Parkway will stream north and south over one more vanished place where boys once roamed alone, every step an adventure, and even the crows had names.”
Scott Young, The Globe and Mail, May 8, 1958

Young also spoke to Charles Sauriol about the loss:

“As he says, nobody seriously contends that a hill that few people ever even look at, or use much (although a worn path twisting to Sugar Loaf’s top ends now suddenly in the wake of a bulldozer) should stand in the way of a needed roadway.

Yet it is an item of history. Going, going, gone.”

Young, like Ron Haggart writing for the Toronto Daily Star, referenced E.T. Seton and Silverspot. Haggart was writing on the eve of the opening of the Don Valley Parkway in August 1961:

It will be open in time for the afternoon rush hour. And, not seeing with the same eyes as Ernest Thompson Seton, we can drive over the 137,000 tons of asphalt which now lay in the Don Valley, skirting the Don River bright with the chemicals of the paper mill under the 600 towers of the fluorescent lighting standards, which never will house an old hawk’s nest known by every school boy.

‘I’ll tell you what the Don Valley was,” Frederick Gardiner said once, when someone on his Metropolitan council, mourned for the passing of the woods by Castle Frank, “the Don Valley was a place to murder little boys, that’s what it was”
Ron Haggart, The Toronto Daily Star, August 30, 1961

Frederick “Big Daddy” Gardiner was the Chairman for Metro Toronto Council and was a bold and controversial figure who was involved in several public works projects, including the Don Valley Parkway and the elevated downtown highway which would later bear his name.

The DVP’s other impact was a long offramp for the Bayview/Bloor exit that would wind its way across the valley and down to Castle Frank Road. The ramp would absorb part of the Drumsnab property (the old estate house is visible on the right as one drives south on the ramp) as well as part of Drumsnab Road.

Castle Frank area, 1963.
Source: City of Toronto Archives

A New Subway

The next time a major infrastructure project touched Castle Frank was in the 1960s, when an east-west, cross-town subway line was planned for Toronto. With the Bloor-Danforth corridor ultimately chosen for the project, decisions would need to be made about how it would cross the Don and Rosedale Valleys and a location for the station itself. Construction began in 1962.

As a cost-cutting method, the route was chosen to run under the lower deck of the existing viaduct. At least, it would be on the Don section. The turns on the Rosedale section were deemed too sharp for trains. Thus, a separate structure – a covered bridge – ran between Castle Frank Station and the infilled Bloor Street over Rosedale Valley. The elevated tunnel was encased to minimize noise concerns for the nearby Kensington Apartments (which were incidentally built on the site of John Hoskin’s Dale, demolished in the 1940s or 50s).

The station itself was built on the northwest corner of Bloor Street East and Castle Frank Road. At least four residences were removed to make space for the station and a bus station. The station opened on February 26, 1966 along with the rest of the line.

The Castle Frank School

Lady Kemp passed away in 1957, twenty-eight years after her husband, Sir Edward Kemp. Their palatial Castle Frank was put up for sale; executors of her estate put a sale price of $1.2 million. The City of Toronto, Metro Council, and the Toronto Transit Commission turned down opportunities – likely because of the price tag – to turn the site into a park, a parking garage, or a subway station. The Toronto Civic Historic Society pitched to Ontario Premier Frost to turn it into a residence for the Lieutenant-Governor. It was also proposed as a museum for York County.

The emerging proposal came from prolific Toronto developer Reuben Dennis in late 1958. His vision was to raze the mansion to erect a 21-storey, 972-unit luxury apartment building. Residents of Castle Frank Crescent, whose homes backed onto the property, opposed the rezoning of the single-family residential area. The affected residents included some of Canada’s most prominent citizens, such as former Prime Minister Arthur Meighen, Mr. Justice Gibson of the Ontario Court of Appeal, Lew Haymen, the managing director of the Toronto Argonauts, and Mrs. H..J. Cody, the wife of the late former president of the University of Toronto. The residents – who called the plan “ghastly, revolting, and a great pity” – organized into the South Rosedale Ratepayers. The battle continued in 1959 with the Toronto Planning Boarding rejecting the application and the Ontario Municipal Board being asked to change the zoning.

By July 1960, Castle Frank was back on the market. The new plan was for a vocational type school for a “lower middle group of secondary school-age pupils and others who do not plan to go university.” The Kemp estate accepted a $700,000 offer. The Globe and Mail described:

In the beginning, Castle Frank will operate with an experimental program designed to build up an approved curriculum for its 500 students. The new Boulton Avenue School could become the second of this type in Toronto.

Castle Frank and the junior vocational schools are based on the concept that slow learning or emotionally disturbed pupils have a special place in a modern society with a rapidly changing technology.

Castle Frank also takes into account that there are many intelligent students who do not want to go to university and need some educational medium other than the existing academic, technical or commercial high school
The Globe and Mail, November 17, 1960

Castle Frank School was opened in 1963. It operated until the 1990s when “an organized abandonment” led to a change in model. A rebrand in name also came with the move: Rosedale Heights Secondary School, later Rosedale Heights School For the Arts. The institution that stands today, housing a salvaged piece of the Kemps’ residence and a plaque. The principal at the time of the shift hoped to name the new school after Elizabeth Simcoe.

Remembering Castle Frank

Today, the Simcoes’ 1790s summer residence is honoured in name by Castle Frank Road, Castle Frank Crescent, and Castle Frank Subway Station. In 1954, the Don Valley Conservation Authority (of which Charles Sauriol was a member) erected a cairn dedicated to Castle Frank in Prince Edward Viaduct Parkette on the south side of Bloor Street. The monument dons the image of the home and reads:

“Castle Frank

The country home of Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada 1791-1796, stood on these heights just south of this site 1794-1829. Named after Francis Gwillim Simcoe, son of Lieutenant Governor and Mrs. Simcoe, who died in the year 1812, serving under the Duke of Wellington.”

The Ontario Heritage Trust also erected one of their iconic blue plaques in honour of Elizabeth Simcoe. It stands inside the grounds of the Rosedale Heights School, which might have bore her name at one time. The plaque says:

“ELIZABETH POSTUMA SIMCOE 1766 – 1850

The wife of the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim was born at Whitchurch, Herefordshire, England. Orphaned at birth, she lived with her uncle, Admiral Samuel Graves, and subsequently married his god-son, John Graves Simcoe. She accompanied her husband to Upper Canada where she travelled extensively. Her diaries and sketches, compiled during these years, provide a vivid description and invaluable record of the colony’s early life. In 1794, near this site, Mrs. Simcoe and her husband erected a summer house which they named “Castle Frank” in honour of their son. Returning to England in 1796, Mrs. Simcoe devoted her later years to charitable work. She is buried beside her husband at Wolford Chapel, Devon.”

Castle Frank, in its post-contact era, began as a beautiful hilltop locale, hand-picked by Toronto’s top administrator to house his residence. The layers of activity over the next two centuries continued to prove its desirability, facilitated in part by its central location and unique situation between two valleys. These commemorations mark a place and people important to the early colonial history of Toronto. The events that point in time added intriguing layers which together tell an interesting story.

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“‘Never Wanted to Do Anything Else’: Toronto Principal Marks 40+ Years at the Helm.” Toronto, CTV News, 2 May 2023, toronto.ctvnews.ca/never-wanted-to-do-anything-else-toronto-principal-marks-40-years-at-the-helm-1.6380455.

“New Homes in Toronto.” The Globe, 18 Jan. 1913, p. A1.

“The New Market.” The Globe, 13 July 1893, p. 7.

“New Plan to Bridge The River Don.” The Toronto Daily Star, 17 June 1907, p. 6.

“Now The Market.” The Globe, 14 July 1899, p. 6.

“Opposes The Park.” The Evening Star, 14 Dec. 1898, p. 1.

Osbaldeston, Mark. Unbuilt Toronto a History of the City That Might Have Been. Dundurn Press, 2008.

“The Parks Plan.” The Evening Star, 17 July 1897, p. 5.

“Parks The City Should Have.” The Toronto Star, 17 July 1897, p. 4.

“Parliament Buildings of Ontario.” The Globe, 30 May 1893, p. 4.

“Plan for the Proposed Bloor Street Viaduct.” The Globe, 1 Jan. 1913, p. 8.

“Preparation Are Made For Bloor Street Viaduct.” The Globe, 2 June 1914, p. 9.

“Ravine Bridge Scored.” The Globe, 22 Dec. 1909, p. 5.

“The Ravine Drives.” The Globe, 5 Mar. 1887, p. 16.

READ, D. B. Life and Times of Gen. John Graves Simcoe: Commander of the “Queen’s Ranger’s” during the… Revolutionary War, and First Governor of Upper Can. FORGOTTEN BOOKS, 2018.

“Real Estate Now Is Satisfactory.” The Toronto Daily Star, 19 Jan. 1901, p. 7.

“Revised Subway Plan Approved by Board.” The Globe, 29 Oct. 1960, p. 3.

Robertson, J. Ross. Landmarks of Toronto: A Collection of Historical Sketches of the Old Town of York from 1792 until 1833, and of Toronto from 1834 to 1898. Mika, 1974.

“Rosedale and the Cemetery.” The Globe, 18 Sept. 1897, p. 20.

“Rosedale and The Cemetery.” The Globe, 25 Sept. 1897, p. 6.

“Rosedale Valley Drive.” The Globe, 11 Nov. 1898, p. 4.

Sauriol, Charles, and Vivian Webb. Tales of the Don. Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc., 2016.

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Scadding, Henry. Supplement to Rev. Dr. Scadding’s Story of Castle Frank, Toronto. 1896.

“Seeking A Route For The Viaduct.” The Globe, 29 Jan. 1912, p. 9.

Senter, James. “Vocational-Type School Planned for Castle Frank Site: Estate Accepts $700,000 Offer.” The Globe and Mail, 10 Nov. 1960, p. 5.

Seton, Ernest Thompson. Wild Animals I Have Known. Gibbs Smith, 2020.

Simcoe, Elizabeth, and Mary Quayle Innis. Mrs. Simcoe’s Diary. Dundurn, 2007.

Smith, Anne. “‘Let’s Keep What’s Left of Rosedale.’” The Globe and Mail, 24 Dec. 1958, p. 6.

“Special Committee Approves: Replacement Planned for Boulton.” The Globe and Mail, 17 Nov. 1960, p. 5.

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“That New Hotel.” The Globe, 1 July 1899, p. 32.

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“Two Contracts For Subway Are Awarded.” The Globe and Mail, 16 Jan. 1963, p. 4.

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Westall, Stanley. “Metropolitan Toronto: A Castle on Bloor St.” The Globe and Mail, 28 July 1960, p. 7.

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YEIGH, FRANK. Ontario’s Parliament Buildings: Or a Century of Legislation, 1792-1892. FORGOTTEN BOOKS, 2018.

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Finding Old Castle Frank, Toronto

Note: This is the first article in a series which aims to describe the 230-year evolution of the Castle Frank area. The second part is available here.

Castle Frank is a name steeped in the early beginnings of colonial Toronto. The focus is naturally on the destroyed landmark, which is rightly associated with one of the city’s most important figures. However, the general area surrounding the lost site contains some of the unique topographies in Toronto and holds some of the most interesting histories and geographies the city has to offer, including some of the city’s oldest — and hidden — roads.

Castle Frank Hill & Region

The Castle Frank region is located in the northeast corner of the Old City of Toronto of 1834. It is part of the upscale Rosedale neighbourhood of Toronto and is positioned in its most southeastern corner. Early Toronto historian Reverend Dr. Henry Scadding, who wrote a lot about Castle Frank, set the following borders for the region:

“…Bounded on the east by the River Don, on the west by Parliament-street, on the north by Bloor, and on the south by Wellesley street.”
Rev. Henry Scadding, The Story of Castle Frank, 1895

Geographically, the Castle Frank region forms an interesting landscape, which is highlighted by a table of land that narrows as it moves southeast. The hillsides leading up to this plateau are steep and cut from millions of years of history dating back to the last ice age. Together, they form some of the most pronounced topography in Toronto. At the centre of the region is Rosedale Valley, a picturesque path sandwiched between two deep ravine walls.

It must be noted that Scadding’s definition of the Castle Frank region included St. James Cemetery. While this is perhaps peculiar to think of in modern terms, the landforms on either side of the ravine were certainly connected, both physically and historically. Scadding also omitted an important area north of the imagined Bloor Street line (the street was not extended from Sherbourne Street until the 1910s), which in modern times also bear the Castle Frank name in its streets and also factor into the history of the area.

Simcoe’s Castle

“The Gov. having determined to take a Lot of 200 acres upon the River Don for Francis, & the law obliges persons having Lots of Land to build a House upon them within a year, we went today to fix upon the spot for building his House. We went 6 miles by water & landed, climbed up an exceeding steep hill or rather a series of sugar loafed Hills & approved of the highest spot from where we looked down on the tops of large trees. There are large pine plains around it which being without underwood & can ride or walk The height of the situation will secure us from mosquitoes.”
Elizabeth Simcoe, The Diary of Elizabeth Simcoe, October 29, 1794

In 1793, Upper Canada Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe granted Park Lots 1 and 2 — the area east of today’s Parliament Street to the Don River, and north of today’s Carlton Street to Bloor Street — to Francis Simcoe. The lots were originally under different patentees, but Simcoe, in seeing the beauty of the land overlooking the river, shifted its ownership. Rather than naming himself in the patent, he chose his two year old son.

To fulfill a legal requirement that patentees must build a house on their plot to retain its rights, the Simcoes selected a spot atop a narrow ridge which overlooked the Don River to the east and a deep ravine and brook to the south and west. Elizabeth Simcoe, the city’s first historian and a wonderful source of knowledge on Castle Frank and early colonial York in general, wrote:

“We walked on the Ice to the House which is building on Francis’ 200 acre Lot of land. It is called Castle Frank built on the plan of a Grecian Temple, totally out of wood the Logs squared & so grooved together that in case of decay any log may be taken out. The large Pine trees make pillars for the Porticos which are at each 16 feet high.
Elizabeth Simcoe, The Diary of Elizabeth Simcoe, November 23, 1795

The naming of Castle Frank itself came after the young Simcoe — Francis — although the usage of ‘Castle’ might be curious for some. While the cottage was designed and built to invoke the grandeur of an ancient Greek temple, the structure itself was likely thirty by fifty to sixty feet — not an insignificant living space for the 1790s, but not what one would call ‘a castle’ in the European conceptualizing. Rather, Reverend Scadding explained that although there was some intended humour behind it, ‘Castle’ was meant to be synonymous with the French ‘Chateau’.

The Simcoes left York in the summer of 1796, never returning to the settlement or the chateau again. Peter Russell and others used the residence for picnics and balls on occasion until 1807. During the Battle of York of 1813, it is said victorious American soldiers ventured up the Don Valley to the home, lured by the description of a castle on a map. They arrived to find a decrepit structure. By 1829, Castle Frank was abandoned, scarcely used by hunters and fishermen in the decade. Simcoe’s Chateau is said to have met its end in that same year when fisherman accidentally burned the structure to the ground.

Reverend Scadding and others visited the site of Castle Frank later in the century after its destruction. The location was seemingly marked with a depression in the land and some debris. He identified lot 8 or 9 on Castle Frank Crescent in the 1890 Goads Map as the possible location of Castle Frank. It must be noted that other maps identify the location slightly southeast of this place on the ridge, so it faces the Don River rather than Castle Frank Brook and St. James Cemetery. This seems to place it closer to lot 15 at the end of the street.

Dr. Henry Scadding showing the location of ‘Castle Frank.’, 1880.

Then and Now: 1924 Goads Fire Insurance Map and 2023 Google Map.
Castle Frank was located on or south(east) of lot 15 on Castle Frank Crescent.
Source: Goads Toronto & Google Maps

The Road to Castle Frank

The Simcoes reached their summer retreat by canoeing up the Don in the summer (and by sled over its frozen surface in the winter) and then hiking up the hill. As for a land route, the Queen’s Rangers cleared a path north from near the Upper Canada Parliament Buildings on Front Street, an understandably frequented locale by the Lieutenant Governor. We know this route as Parliament Street today.

Parliament Street followed a relatively straight course for much of its march north. Eventually hitting an escarpment near today’s Howard Street, the route split off in two directions. One part moved north and west towards Yonge Street, meeting the main road near present-day Yorkville. As Yonge Street was impassable north of Lot (Queen) Street, Parliament Street was the preferred way one traveled to and from the Village of York.

The second path led east down the ridge where it followed a winding path up to Castle Frank. This was the Old Castle Frank Road.

Dr. Reverend Henry Scadding, speaking to the York Pioneer and Historical Society in February 1870, described the road as an engineering feat:

All the way from the site of the town of York to the front of this building [Castle Frank] a narrow carriage road and convenient bridle-path had been cut out by the soldiers, and carefully graded. Remains of this ancient engineering achievement are still to be traced along the base of the hill below the Necropolis and elsewhere. The brook (“Castle Frank Brook”), a little way from where it enters the Don, was spanned by a wooded bridge. Advantage being taken of a narrow ridge that opportunely had its commencing point close by the north side, the roadway here began the ascent of the adjoining height. It then ran slantingly up the hill-side along a cutting that is still to be seen. The table land at the summit finally gained by utilizing another narrow ridge. It then proceeded along the level at the top for some distance through a forest of lofty pines, until the chateau itself was reached.”
The Globe, Feb 1, 1870

Reverend Scadding looks to have been referring to the path travelling east from the top of Parliament Street, which ran through and along the side of the present St. James Cemetery (which may be confused with the Toronto Necropolis in the article).

The two images below appear to be different views of Rosedale Valley Road as it intersects with a portion of The Old Castle Frank Road, possibly where it passed through the Cemetery (although it may also be the same path as the image depicted further down.)

The table of land on which Castle Frank was situated narrows as it moves towards its most southern and eastern point — and this seems to be where the ascend towards the cottage began.

Scadding’s description is corroborated by a later account by a ‘Historicus’ writing into The Globe:

“A road from this entrance [from Parliament and Howard Streets] passed in winding fashion down into the ravine and along the bottom of it to the east for several hundred yards, then veered to the left up a long incline made by cutting down the side of the hill to a point opposite the eastern end of St. James’s Cemetery, where it turned in a sharp curve to the top of the hill overlooking the Don Valley and thence on to Castle Frank.”
The Globe, March 28, 1928

In 1871, a Colonel John Clark wrote in The Globe that he visited Castle Frank in 1829 — before its destruction — and noted “it was through a delightful road, and was in a most desirable spot for the humming mosquito”.

In 1930, an Elmes Henderson, recalling his childhood memories of the year 1849, wrote in the Ontario Historical Society Journal:

“The original cottage “Castle Frank”…remained vacant…and all that remained of it when I first saw the spot were a pile of ashes in a small depression (perhaps the cellar) and the outlines of the little garden beds in front of it, in which were some straggling remains of shrubs. There was also a bridle path to Castle Frank up the valley of the Don, traces of which still existed in my day, particularly that piece of it up the high sloping bank, and which as boys we used when going to bathe in the Don.”
Elmes Henderson, “Bloor Street, Toronto, and the Village of Yorkville in 1849”, 1930

Today, the road to Castle Frank still exists in some part in the path layout of St. James Cemetery, specifically in the name of a ‘Castle Frank Road’. It is unclear whether any more of the road still exists as it moves into the ravine and up the hill to the plateau. Furthermore, it is questionable whether the plateau where the chateau once stood is formerly accessible (the area is marked on parkland by the City of Toronto).

Then and Now: Castle Frank via 1858 Bolton Atlas and 2023 Google Maps
Source: Old Toronto Maps and Google Maps

The Old Castle Frank Road to…Drumsnab?

In addition to the road to Castle Frank described above, there was a second path which travelled north from the head of Parliament Street. It curved down the steep hill until it crossed the ravine floor before ascending the equally steep ravine wall on the other side. It emerged near the modern intersection of Castle Frank Road and Mackenzie Avenue, north of Castle Frank Subway Station. This road was located north and west of the old road through the cemetery and up to Castle Frank Hill. Although the endpoint was still located on the Castle Frank plateau, this road emerged some 300 metres north of the cottage — a short distance to be sure, but further away than its southern counterpart. This road was also the ‘Old Castle Frank Road’, although it was not built as a driveway to Castle Frank itself.

In 1818, George Playter constructed a gatehouse or lodge at the corner of today’s Parliament Street and Howard Street. The house “guarded” a path which led to his land holdings to the north in today’s Rosedale where he built a residence. Playter later sold his land to Francis Cayley, who built his own home, ‘Drumsnab’ in 1834 — an estate house that still stands today. Historian Liz Lundell wrote in her book The Estates of Old Toronto that the structure at the head of Parliament Street was Cayley’s studio. The name Drumsnab meant ‘Sugar-Loaf Hill’, a nod to the raise in elevation located east of the estate.

Jackon and kin on Jackson Estate at Castle Frank lodge, 1912.
Source: City of Toronto Archives

102 Howard Street, from the east side, 1913.
Source: City of Toronto Archives

From the gatehouse, the path did a ‘switchback’ of sorts, presumably to navigate down the profound contours of the ravine wall.

Old Castle Frank Road descending from Parliament Street, 1912.
Source: City of Toronto Archives

From here, the Castle Frank Road crossed Rosedale Valley. The configuration of this crossing seems unclear. The photo below from 1912 indicates a level crossing on the ravine floor, but there is evidence of an elevated bridge over Rosedale Valley Road. This bridge is named as the Parliament Street bridge over Rosedale Valley in a couple of archival image sources, so it likely was part of this same path, but its age and fate are unclear.

The road then curved up the other ravine wall and emerged near Castle Frank Avenue and McKenzie Avenue, behind 75 Castle Frank Road.

Mr. Henderson also recalled his experience with the house and the road:

“John Cayley owned the Lodge and gate at the head of Parliament Street, and the road at this date (1849) was a strictly private one leading up only to “Drumsnab” and permission to use it had to be obtained at the Lodge. This Castle Frank Road was for many years the only approach to “Drumsnab”, and when Walter McKenzie bough a large acrage near “Drumsnab” and, to his surprise, built a house and lived there in what was then thought a wilderness, his only means of access then was by this steep, winding and unlighted road passing through thick bush and crossing the little Creek by a frail bridge. Traces of this old road are still in existence.”
Elmes Henderson, “Bloor Street, Toronto, and the Village of Yorkville in 1849”, 1930

Lost Rivers Toronto also mention the road also accessed John Hoskins’ estate, The Dale, as well as Walter McKenzie’s grand home, and the milkman’s cottage of Edward Nanton, who lived near today’s Nanton Avenue. They all jointly maintained the gatekeeper’s cottage.

Drumsnab and the cottage passed to the Jackson estate in the 19th century where it looks to have remained until its demolition in 1914 for the Bloor Viaduct construction. Photos of the cottage in the final years identify the Jacksons standing in front of it. Famed Toronto artist Owen Staples also painted the lodge in its final year.

Although the construction of Rosedale Valley Road, the Bloor Viaduct, and Bloor-Danforth Subway have altered this Old Castle Frank Road, there are very tangible and navigable remnants of the path. There is a marked trail entrance north of Castle Frank Subway Station which forms a Discover Walk path down to Rosedale Valley Road, which is most certainly the 19th century road.

The path is also marked where it meets Rosedale Valley Road.
Source: Google Maps

On the ascend up to Parliament Street, one passes under the Rosedale section of the viaduct. This is an unmarked, unofficial path that might still have connections to the 19th century road. One emerges at a parkette at the north east corner of Parliament and Bloor Streets, steps from where the gatehouse once stood.

Looking down from north of the Bloor Viaduct.
Source: Crystal Eve via Google Maps

Rekai Family Parkette leads down into the valley where the Old Castle Frank Road once stood.
Source: Google Maps

Below is a Google Map created by me which overlays some historical landmarks with the modern geography:

‘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.

Scenes From Deerlick Creek

Deerlick Creek is located in the post-war Parkwoods-Donalda neighbourhood of North York. The stream runs roughly 3 kilometres from its northern point its mouth at the Don River, making it a tributary to the larger river and part of its watershed. Deerlick Creek passes through a couple of parks — Brookbanks Park and Lynedock Park — and crosses several streets. It is an interesting stroll through nature and suburbia, and through the layers of pre-contact, colonial, and post-war Toronto.

Deerlick Creek was given its name in the 19th century (as early as 1841) by farmers of the area, when deer and salmon could be found in the ravine. Unlike other colonial-era waterways in Toronto, there does not appear to have been mills or industry built on the stream, which suggests it was not a forceful current.

The current headwaters of the creek are in Lynedock Park, a locale which also has a middle school. The neighbourhood north of York Mills Road around the creek dates mostly from the early 1960s and is dotted with mostly post-war bungalows.

Deerlick Creek and community, north of York Mills Road, 1992.
Source: City of Toronto Archives

Curiously, these houses were not the first to be built here. In the 1950s, there were at least six houses built before the current neighborhood. Driveways curled up from York Mills Road, branching off to the houses. Deerlick Creek ran in the middle of them. In 1965, most of the houses were integrated in the neighbourhood. Beginning in the 1970s, more of the houses were razed for other homes and apartment buildings. Possibly two houses remain today — one house for certain and a potentially altered house. Both homes are identifiable through through their odd orientations compared to the street. Their garages face away from the street, pointing to the repositioning of their driveways, as well as a front door placed to the side in one.

Deerlick Creek and community, north of York Mills Road, 1956 & 1965.
Source: City of Toronto Archives

Deerlick Creek was channelized and straightened beginning around 1960 when the neighbourhood was under construction. At its most northern point, the stream disappears into a culvert at Roywood Drive. A footbridge connects the park and schoolyard to the neighboorhood. There are improvements happening along the creek to combat area basement flooding.

Deerlick Creek ventures south under Lynedock Crescent. It is not clear how wide and powerful it might have been historically, but today, it is a narrow, shallow, and murky-looking waterway. Then, it disappears briefly under York Mills Drive.

On the other side, the ravine is part of Brookbanks Park. Deerlick Creek snakes around the park with paved and unpaved paths on either side of it and bridges crossing the creek. The stream is narrow here too and not fast flowing. Evidence of erosion is visible with some retaining walls. While a ‘wild’ element remains on a small level, sections have likely been straightened

Brookbanks Park is the physical heart of the Parkwoods-Donalda neighbourhood. It has multiple entry points and is a well used and valuable greenspace for the surrounding community. This interconnectedness is also present when one looks up from the ravine to see the backs of houses. The neighbourhood was built beginning in the 1960s. A by-product of the development was a lot of of the tree canopy in the ravine was lost. One would think its bio-diversity was also negatively impacted too.

Deerlick Creek and community, south of York Mills Road, 1956 & 1965.
Source: City of Toronto Archives

Deerlick Creek passes under Brookbanks Drive. Like its similarly named park, the street also slinks through the neighbourhood. There is a great vista of the Brookbanks Ravine on the south side of the street which highlights its contours and the tree canopy.

Interestingly, this area has some tangible pre-contact history. Dr. Mima Kapches conducted digs in Deerlick Creek ravine in the 1980s and 1990s. The digs resulted in the discovery of a Meadowood cache blade from 1000 BCE and a small pebble containing a human face in effigy believed to be from 4700 BCE. Jason-Ramsey Brown writes that the discoveries have some archeologists believing the area of Deerlick Creek may have a season pottery production and firing campsite.

In the 1970s, the Toronto Field Naturalists surveyed Brookbanks Ravine and Deerlick Creek and noted 105 species of birds and 167 species of trees could be found in the valley. It also noted that while deer may have roamed freely a century ago, now the largest animal groups were squirrels and skunks. The Naturalists also noted the ravine was threatened by “tidying by the parks department and construction on the edge of the ravine by homeowners.”

Brookbanks Park ends at Cassandra Drive where a narrow path leads one to and from the park. Deerlick Creek veers southwest, under the highway, and flowing into the Don River at a golf course. An unpaved path seems to run next to its course, although it is unclear how far it stretches.

North from Brookbanks Drive, Valley Woods Drive is an interesting street sandwiched between the Don Valley Parkway and the ravine. Valley Woods itself was laid out beginning in 1965, much like the rest of the neighbourhood. At the foot of the street is Citadel Village, which at the time of its construction was a representation of idyllic, post-war, suburban living.

Citadel Village was designed by Tampold & Wells and was completed in 1967. It is a collection of townhouses surrounding a circular apartment — presumably the “citadel”. A 1966 promotional advertisement described Citadel Village as a “southern European village on a mountaintop with a thickly wooded ravine on the east and a panoramic view of the city to the west.” Other selling points in ads in the following years highlight the family-friendly development particularly in its spaciousness and lack of traffic, comfort, and proximity to local amenities and downtown (15 minutes by the new Don Valley Parkway!). Citadel Village is listed as Toronto heritage property.

Citadel Village, 1968. 1 Source: Toronto Public Library

Valley Woods Road slinks up the side of the ravine with connections to the park. It also has a bus serving the street. At the top of the street at York Mills Road, a new condominium and planned community are under construction, named “The Ravine”. The development will consist of several towers and homes, and replaces rental townhouses previously on the site. It is the next layer in the history of Deerlick Creek and its surrounding communities.

Works Consulted

“The Biggest Townhouses In Town.” The Toronto Daily Star, 9 Nov. 1968, p. 59.

“Brookbanks Park and Deerlick Creek.” Greck, https://www.greck.ca/Projects/Brookbanks-Park-and-Deerlick-Creek.

“Citadel Village.” The Toronto Daily Star, 22 Aug. 1966, p. 31.

Donvalleygirls. “The History of Brookbanks Park and Deerlick Creek.” Exploring Toronto’s Don Valley, Lake Ontario, and Green Spaces in between., 29 Feb. 2016, https://donvalleygirls.wordpress.com/2014/02/15/the-history-of-brookbanks-and-deerlick-park/.

“The Easy Life of Citadel Village.” The Toronto Daily Star, 20 July 1968, p. A50.

“Friendly People.” The Toronto Daily Star, 31 Dec. 1971, p. 40.

L, Mishy. Brookbanks Park and Deerlick Creek, https://mishylainescorneroftheworld.blogspot.com/2013/04/brookbanks-park-and-deerlick-creek.html.

Lakey, Jack. “Brookbanks Park Still Plagued by Damage from 2005 Flash Flood.” Thestar.com, Toronto Star, 1 Sept. 2014, https://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/the_fixer/2014/09/01/brookbanks_park_still_plagued_by_damage_from_2005_flash_flood.html.

Little, Olivia. “Brookbanks Park in Toronto Comes with Plenty of Natural Beauty and a Rich History.” BlogTO, BlogTO, 14 Jan. 2021, https://www.blogto.com/city/2021/01/brookbanks-park-toronto-comes-plenty-natural-beauty-and-rich-history/.

“Metro Naturalists Set Plans to Preserve Area Ravines.” The Toronto Star, 26 Feb. 1975, p. C15.

“Parkwoods Donalda.” StrollTO, https://www.strollto.com/stroll/parkwoods-donalda/.

Quinter, David. “Toronto Butterfly Habitat Urged.” The Toronto Star, 6 July 1976, p. B1.

Ramsay-Brown, Jason. Toronto’s Ravines and Urban Forests: Their Natural Heritage and Local History. James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers, 2020.

“The Warmest Townhouses in Town.” The Toronto Daily Star, 1 Feb. 1969, p. 25.

Yu, Sydnia. “Master-Planned Community in the Middle of Mother Nature.” The Globe and Mail, 2015 May 1AD, p. G2.

2022: A Year in Review

2022 marks ten years for Scenes From Toronto. This year, I committed to a goal of two articles a month when possible. Out of 24 possible articles in the month, I published 17. Although I did not match my goal, I am proud of that output.

2022 also followed the momentum of the previous year in creating original, research-based articles, drawing on primary and secondary sources, as well as the work of great historians and writers. I hope they have added to Toronto’s rich local heritage scene and telling the city’s lesser known (hi)stories.

The Stats

The Best of 2022

To mark the year, I have compiled my favourite ten articles.

1. “Old” Toronto Streets: An exploration of a peculiarity in Toronto’s geography and streets. This is a multi-parter.

2. A Quick Early History of Toronto’s First Traffic Signals and The ‘Right on Red’ Rule: Toronto’s early rules about automobile travel offer some interesting insights about why modern traffic laws are the way they are, including the origins of the allowance of a right turn against a red light.

3. “Know Agincourt, but Their Maps Ignore Toronto”: A Quick History of The Agincourt Magnetic Observatory: The story of a lost Scarborough landmark which brought on discovery and innovation at a global level.

4. A Quick History Of The Iconic Guild Inn in Scarborough: The Guild of All Arts is a famed landmark is the east end of Scarborough with an interesting evolution.

5. The ‘Commercial Slum’ That Once Stood Across Toronto City Hall: This is a layered story of the creative destruction and revitalization which marked an intriguing transitional period in Toronto. The first of two parts.

6. The Rise of The Hill District, Toronto: The origin of one of Toronto’s exclusive neighbourhoods is an interesting tale of the who’s who in Toronto history and a period in which Old Toronto’s street grid began to fill up.

7. Was this the first Chinese restaurant in Toronto’s Junction?: A century ago, there was a Chinese eatery in The Junction. The story explores some history of one of Toronto’s largest communities.

8. The Curious History of Riverdale Avenue, Toronto: The east ends street is a fine reminder of how old lot lines have impacted the look of the city.

9. A Quick History of Controversial Toronto Street Name Changes: In a topical subject, this explores some lesser known street name changes and some overall in themes in why streets are historically altered.

10. The Notorious Brooks’ Bush Gang: A feared group of trouble-makers terrorized 19th century Toronto. A second part to this story is coming.

Thanks to all that have read, engaged with, and supported Scenes From TO! Happy 2023!

The Curious Evolution of Riverdale Avenue, Toronto

Riverdale Avenue is located in the namesake neighbourhood of Riverdale, an area in the east end of the old city of Toronto. Found a short distance north of Gerrard Street East, the street runs about a kilometre between Broadview Avenue and Kiswick Street (between Pape Avenue and Jones Street). Riverdale Avenue is layered in its development with lost and gained extensions, buried waterways, and disappearing transit lines.

Origins

Riverdale Avenue was historically located on lot 14, a 200-acre parcel granted by John Graves Simcoe to John Cox in 1796. It was situated roughly between Broadview Avenue to just west of Logan Avenue, south of Danforth Avenue to the lake. The John Cox cottage, built before 1807 and currently the oldest home in Toronto still used as a residence, sits on the property.

By 1815, the lot passed on to William Smith, which was then subdivided to his heirs in 1839. The 1860 Tremaine’s Map shows the property attributed to Thomas S. Smith. By 1878, the Illustrated Atlas of York County shows the property was divided further: the bottom two-thirds went to B. Langley (possibly for the namesake street currently on the street) and a road with smaller lots. The atlas shows the community around the lots was Don Mount and a post office was located at today’s Queen and Broadview.

In the 1884 Goad’s Map, the street in 1878 had a name: Smith. It is also labelled as Plan 373. The street stopped at the lot line, roughly two thirds to Logan Avenue. Also in 1884, Don Mount, now going by Riverside, and the lands east to Greenwood Avenue were annexed by the City of Toronto.

By the 1890s, Smith Street was extended into Lot 13. Between Logan Avenue and Carlaw Avenue, only the north side of the street was built as the south side constituted part of the William Harris Estate. The property also had a part of Holly Brook, also known as Heward Creek, running through it, which may or may not have impacted its later development.

Smith was also interrupted at Carlaw by another section of the Harris Property. A house now with a street address of 450 Pape Avenue was built on the lot in 1902, now known as the William Harris/Cranfield House. On the other end of the property at Pape, Smith Street continued in a separate section until MacDonald Street, now Kiswick Street.

The Lost Riverdale Avenue

In August 1887, the Board of Works recommended the opening of new street, free of cost to the city opposite Smith Street on the other side of Broadview Avenue; this was the first Riverdale Avenue.

The new street was proposed to run “…from Broadview Avenue to a connection with a street leading westerly through Riverdale Park to a new 50 feet street on the east side of the new line of the Don River, giving a connection with Winchester street at the bridge…”. In September, the motion to open the street was passed. It was surveyed with lots and appeared on maps in the 1880s and 90s. The 1895 City of Toronto Directory shows “a lane”, possibly referring to Riverdale Avenue, listed under 380 Broadview Avenue. The address also hosted six residents, Riverside Park (seemingly used interchangibly with Riverdale Park), Isolation Hospital, and Vacant Lots.

In 1903, a by-law was inexplicably passed to close the street. Interestingly, in April 1904, Riverdale residents complained “bitterly of the odors” in Riverdale Park from the burning of garbage in the park’s dump “on the extension of Smith Street”. It is unclear if this was Riverdale Avenue, but the street did not appear on maps for much longer after 1903. Riverdale Park was a garbage dump from around the turn on the century to the 1920s; green pipes found today on the property are exhaust tubes for methane.

A New Riverdale Avenue

In the first decade of the 1900s, ‘Riverdale’ came into common use to refer to the neighbourhood. Riverdale Park itself was used since the late 1870s and the park was officially opened 1880, so the neighbourhood was seemingly named after the park, rather than the more obvious reverse. In 1905, Smith Street from Broadview Avenue to Carlaw Avenue was renamed to Riverdale Avenue, taking over the name of the closed street it was once connected to. East of Pape, the road was still Smith Street. A confused rider of the streetcar on Broadview wrote to The Star in 1906 asking about the renaming as some trolley drivers still referred to the street as Smith, while other drivers used the new name. The newspaper set the record straight: west of the intervening Harris property, the street was Riverdale; east of it was Smith Street.

By 1913, the south side of Riverdale between Logan and Pape, part of the Harris Estate, was subdivided under plan 445E. The move allowed for the extensions of Langley Avenue, Victor Avenue, and Simpson Avenue across to Carlaw. The circumstances surrounding this development are unclear, but the branch of Heward Creek/Holly Brook which ran diagonally through the lot stopped appearing on Toronto maps around this time according to Lost Rivers Toronto. Leslieville Creek, which ran through Smith Street, was also potentially buried in the 1910s.

In 1922, Riverdale Avenue was finally extended into the remaining Harris Estate east of Carlaw. The property was subdivided into lots under Plan 587E; some of it became the yard for Pape Avenue School. It was also one of the few remaining tracts left in Riverdale as most of the district by then had been subdivided and redeveloped. Growth in North Riverdale was aided by the opening of The Prince Edward Viaduct in 1918.

The extension was instrumental in Toronto’s transit expansion: it provided a key east-west link for a streetcar line on Pape and Carlaw in an growing, under-served part of the city. Langley Avenue was considered in the role in during World War I, but the idea was rejected by residents as it passed by the school; it even got as far as putting up trolley poles before the plan was nixed. The Globe reported in December 1922 that even with the line, development had yet to come to street. Even though water and sewer lines were passed on the street, there were no sidewalks and only pavement for the tracks. In effect, the corridor was a streetcar right of way. This sparse development would be rectified in short time as the 1924 Goad’s Map shows a very built-on Riverdale Avenue.

The tram line was eventually absorbed into the Harbord car and followed a winding route through Toronto’s west, central, and east areas. The line closed in 1966 and its tracks were removed. Finally, Riverdale Avenue was completed with the disconnected section of Smith Street from Pape to Kiswick being absorbed by and renamed to Riverdale around 1926. Ahead of its renaming, The Daily Star provided some funny commentary.

Toronto Daily Star, April 28, 1924. Source: Toronto Star Archives

The Three Riverdale Avenues

Today, Riverdale Avenue can be thought of in three sections based on their histories and geographies: Broadview-Carlaw, Carlaw-Pape, and Pape-Kiswick. Each have distinct visual differences and vibes which point to their layered development.

The western and oldest part of the street between Broadview and Carlaw is narrow, accommodating only eastbound, local traffic. Trees hang over the road in several spots making for a quaint stroll. It boasts houses mostly dating from the 1880s to the 1910s with oldest homes located on its north side near Broadview — the old Lot 14 — including two heritage homes: 1885 William Jefferies House and 1890-91 John Vick House. The south side between Logan and Carlaw as the ‘youngest’ with mostly 1910s constructions.

Riverdale between Carlaw and Pape makes up the avenue’s ‘newest’ and busiest section. The houses lining the street are semi-detached bungalows built in the 1920s. Whereas Broadview-Carlaw is a local road, this central section is more of a through street with four lanes at its widest to accommodate parking, heavier traffic, and public transit, such as the Pape bus and its predecessor Harbord streetcar. Travellers coming from Broadview or Logan might note how Riverdale ‘opens up’ at Carlaw with its larger road surface and fewer trees. They would also see how this middle section is slightly misaligned with the rest of the avenue because of its width.

Finally, from Pape to Kiswick, the street mixes the qualities of the other two sections. It offers two-way traffic like the Carlaw-Pape section to the west, but is narrow like Broadview to Carlaw. The residences themselves are mostly Edwardian detached and semi-detached homes from the 1910s and 1920s, offering a middle ground in age in the three sections.

Works Consulted

“The Harbord Streetcar (Deceased)” Transit Toronto. https://transittoronto.ca/streetcar/4118.shtml.

Heritage Property Research and Evaluation Report – Toronto. https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2015/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-80237.pdf.

Leslieville Historical Society. “19th Century East End Villages: Donmount, Riverside, Leslieville, Norway.” Leslieville Historical Society, 13 Nov. 2017, https://leslievillehistory.com/2017/11/13/19th-century-east-end-villages-donmount-riverside-leslieville-norway/.

Lost Rivers of Toronto Map, https://www.lostrivers.ca/disappearing.html.

Marshall, Sean. “Hallam Street and the Harbord Streetcar.” Sean Marshall, 4 Feb. 2017, https://seanmarshall.ca/2017/02/03/hallam-street-and-the-harbord-streetcar/.

Muir, Elizabeth Gillan. Riverdale: East of the Don. Dundurn, 2014.

“Riverdale Heritage Conservation District Plan Phase 1.” Toronto. https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2008/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-14121.pdf.

ward14bikes. “Lost Rivers of East Toronto Mark Possible Canals on the Port Lands; Connect the City to the Lake.” Ward 14 Bikes, 8 Dec. 2019, https://ward14bikes.home.blog/2015/04/14/lost-rivers-of-east-toronto-mark-possible-canals-on-the-port-lands-connect-the-city-to-the-lake/.

Wilson, John. “The Lost Rivers Project: The Case of Holly Brook” Geohistory-Géohistoire Canada, 20 Mar. 2017, http://geohist.ca/2017/03/lost-rivers-holly-brook/.

Was this the first Chinese restaurant in Toronto’s Junction?

On November 17, 1919, The Globe ran an odd article about a scuffle in a Junction restaurant. The event highlighted how a restaurant worker, potentially an owner, asked some patrons to stop smoking in his establishment. The customers disagreed and threw his own plates at the man before fleeing.

While the events are bizarre, the article features several notable details that, taken with other sources and context, paint an interesting picture of historic Toronto. First, it informs of one of the first Chinese-operated restaurants outside the central core of Toronto and perhaps the first restaurant in The Junction neighbourhood. It references the Chinese population and restaurants of the city in the early 20th century. Finally, it alludes to the general depiction and treatment of the Chinese community at the time.

The first significant detail in The Globe article is the “restaurant at 2,904 Dundas Street West”. The name of the cafe is not given, but the potential proprietor is listed as a “Ying Buck”, who is unfortunately described as a ‘Chinaman’ and ‘Celestial’ with ‘Manchurian blood’.

The name of the restaurant in 1919 is tricky to identify. The City of Toronto Directory for the year 1919 lists a “Chinese Restaurant” at 2904 Dundas Street West. In the year prior, the address previously hosted a “Gus Freeman, restaurant.” The early City Directories did not explicitly name Chinese entreprises or their proprietors, which makes their identification through this source challenging. Eateries were simply listed as “Chinese restaurant.”

The actual name of the Chinese restaurant can be somewhat identified through other sources. The City of Toronto Archives displays a “Amo Cafe” in an image of Dundas Street West looking west of Mavety Street in 1923, which is consistent with the address 2904 Dundas West.

References to “The Amo Cafe” are scarce in other sources, but the next appearance of the restaurant were in October 1929. The Globe and Toronto Daily Star outlined another bizarre scenario in which the cafe’s owner, this time a Charlie Chong, was held up in front of patrons by two youths after midnight on October 28.

Several wanted ads connected to 2904 Dundas Street West pointed to the address as a Chinese restaurant. In May 1919, a restaurant at 2904 Dundas published a wanted ad for an ‘experienced waitress’, possibly at a time when the restaurant was recently open or about to open. In 1925, a chef at 2904 Dundas placed an ad looking for work, seeming self-identifying as ‘Chinese’ and ‘experienced.’

By the 1930s, the restaurant at 2904 Dundas Street West was finally named in the directories. First, it appeared as “Ging Ing restaurant” in 1931. Then by the middle of the decade, “Amo Cafe” is named with proprietor “Bing Ing” (possibly the same individual as Ging Ing). It is not clear whether what the restaurant was called between 1919 and 1922, but it was almost certainly a Chinese restaurant. The Amo Cafe is listed in the City Directories until 1969, the last year of digitized directories in the Toronto Public Library’s collection. It may have been open longer. Unfortunately, there are not many other details identifiable about the cafe, such as the menu, employees, or what it looked liked beyond some descriptions of the kitchen being located in the rear.

The other addresses and names outlined in the article also tell us a bit more about the world around The Amo Cafe in the Junction. While Ying Buck, the owner of the Amo Cafe, does not appear in any other sources, C. Ham – or at least his address – shows up in the 1919 City Directory. At 21 Hook Avenue, a Mrs. Margaret Ham is listed, which may be a relative of Ham. The surname appears to be of Chinese origin.

Detective Hazelwood and Police Station No. 9 are also in the sources. Hazelwood is named in several crime-related news items. The police station was also known as Keele Street Station. Dundas Street West was complete with many everyday establishments: eateries, butchers, banks, candy shops, bicycle shops, grocers, and more. The restaurant, the police station, and Ham’s potential residence could all be found in a kilometre radius.

The existence of the Amo Cafe within this Junction neighbourhood is particularly curious as it was not an obvious location for Chinese restaurants for the time. The 1919 City Directory had a subsection for Chinese establishments under its category of restaurants. In this subsection, 2904 Dundas West is the only restaurant listed on its street, and the only one listed outside of the core of Toronto. The majority of restaurants were listed under Queen Street, Yonge Street, and York Street. The early Chinese community settled in Toronto in The Ward on Elizabeth Street near Queen Street. It is not clear if there was a notable Chinese population in the Junction in the 1920s and beyond.

Restaurant staff and customers gather at soda fountain and in booths, ca 1937. The window displays ‘restaurant’. The business is unknown.
Source: City of Toronto Archives.

The diction and content of The Globe article is also worth mentioning, because it is unfortunately representative of media characterizations of the Chinese community of Toronto at the time. ‘Chinaman’ and ‘Celestial’, now racial slurs, were common descriptors. For example, there are 3,639 results for searches of ‘Chinaman’ in the The Globe’s newspaper archive for 1900 to 1929. Ying Buck’s “Manchurian blood”, although perhaps not a common racist phrase, is also a questionable choice of words as Manchuria is a region within China, but there are not enough details to know if The Globe knew of the man’s origin.

News articles about Chinese restaurants in Toronto in the early 20th century also seemed to lean towards unfortunate events, like the 1919 scuffle and 1929 robberies of The Amo Cafe. Even the headline “Chinaman Pelted With His Crockery” highlights a level of violence and sensationalism. Robberies, gambling and drug raids, mobs, fines, and explosions make up some of the topics of newsworthy events. There also seems to be a general sentiment of distrust of and mystery about Chinese establishments and the Chinese quarter.

Today, there are plethora of Chinese restaurants in Toronto. Its community is large and vibrant. Gains have been imperfect and disgusting societal biases still remain, but one can hope the world of today is a step up from the attitudes of the time of the Amo Cafe. In an interesting turn of events, 2904 Dundas Street West is a Chinese restaurant in 2022, resuming a century-old legacy for the historic property.

More “Old” Streets of Toronto

In January, I looked at the origins of “Old” Streets of Toronto — that is, main Toronto roads that have the moniker “old” preceding their names. In many cases, these stories involved the re-routing of streets to create a more direct path for travellers. In doing so, the old paths were sometimes not eliminated.

Here are six (and a half) more “Old” Streets of Toronto and their quick histories:

Old Dundas Street

Year rerouted: ~1929

Historically, the main crossing over the Humber River on Dundas Street was located about two hundred metres south of the current bridge. This section of Dundas made up the old community of Lambton Mills and served as a main entrance into Toronto from the west on the Dundas highway. There were several versions of Dundas Street bridges here over the years — some made of wood, some iron, but all narrow for traffic and susceptible to the flooding waters of the Humber.

In 1929, a new high-level bridge was completed over the Humber. This altered the main course of Dundas Street to the north. The old course became “Old Dundas Street”. For nearly thirty years, the two Dundas Street bridges existed alongside each other. In 1954, the devastating effects of Hurricane Hazel left the Old Dundas Street bridge in a dilapidated state; it was finally demolished several years later. Today, Old Dundas Street exists on both sides of the Humber River mostly as a quiet residential street. Lambton House, a historic inn turned museum, is a leftover of Old Dundas Street and Lambton Mills’ prominence.

Old Weston Road

Year rerouted: ~1948

Weston Road takes an interesting route through northwest Toronto, running diagonally through its street grid from the historic town of Weston (makes sense, eh?) and creating some unconventional intersections. North of St. Clair Avenue, the route of Weston Road was historically located east of the present road on the other side of the train tracks. It made up the historic village of Carlton with St. Clair and Weston as its nexus. It is highlighted by the still standing, yet altered Heydon House Hotel, built 1890. Weston then ran south to join with Dundas Street.

Around the 1890s, another “branch” of the street was built north from Keele Street running parallel to the railway on its west side. This street took on the name “Weston Road South”. In the 1910s, the street was completed to join with the main Weston Road.

Perhaps because Weston Road South offered a more direct route south into the city, it formally became the more prominent road in the 1940s. First, an “Old Weston Road” began to refer to the section of Weston Road between the railway and Hillary Avenue. This meant that at one time a person could stand at the intersection of Weston Road, Old Weston Road, and Weston Road South. In 1948, Weston Road South became just Weston Road. Also, the entirety of the older eastern section of Weston Road was renamed Old Weston Road, save for the section between the tracks and Hillary which was added to Rogers Road. As the tracks to the south grew, the section of Old Weston near Dundas became severed from the rest of the road. Today, Old Weston Road is a mostly residential street.

Old Eglinton Avenue

Year rerouted: ~1957

For an east-west street that has become so vital to Toronto’s street grid and home to many neighbourhoods, it is difficult to imagine that Eglinton Avenue did not always exist in one harmonious stretch of road. However, it took some doing to make it into the street of today. Until the 1950s in the eastern half of Toronto, Eglinton Avenue terminated near Brentcliffe Road in Leaside and did not resume again until Victoria Park Avenue in Scarborough. The area in between them was about a five-kilometre stretch of farmland and two ravines — that is, both the east and west branches of the Don River. In the mid-1950s, a massive project was undertaken to join the two sections.

While an “Old Eglinton Avenue” seems to come out of the events of the 1950s, it seems a little unclear why. The street runs parallel to the “new” road for about half a kilometre west from Bermondsey Road. Like the surrounding area, it mostly houses industrial buildings. As Eglinton did not seem to exist between Leaside and Scarborough (at least not in any formal sense), the story of Old Eglinton is a bit of a mystery. Hiking The GTA has located an old roadbed for an “Old Eglinton Road“. This may have been a farm road or a line that divided farm lots. It is also notable how Old Eglinton Avenue aligns with a “pencilled in” Eglinton Avenue between Victoria Park and Leaside, so a theory may lay in that idea.

Old York Mills Road

Year rerouted: ~1972

The valley near Hogg’s Hollow has proven to be an obstacle to road transportation several times in its history. As I previously noted, Yonge Street was realigned in 1835 after skirting east to better tackle the West Don ravine’s topography. Because of this same geography, Wilson Avenue terminated at Mason Boulevard, meaning there was no direct east-west crossing at Yonge Street as we know it today. In 1972, a project was undertaken to extend Wilson to meet with Yonge and York Mills Road.

To make this extension happen, a curved road was constructed from Wilson Avenue which then crossed Yonge Street and joined York Mills Road between Campbell Crescent and York Ridge Road. This meant the straight section of York Mills near Yonge Street was effectively separated from the main route, becoming “Old York Mills Road”. Today, Old York Mills houses a trailhead, a passenger pickup zone for York Mills Station, a condominium, and a church.

Old Kennedy Road

Year rerouted: ~1987

Kennedy Road just north of Toronto is a prime example of how of a noticeable curve in a street sometimes denotes a street was re-engineered. Kennedy existed in two separate sections north and south of Steeles Avenue, the Scarborough-Markham town line. The roads were about six hundred metres apart, meaning a northbound traveller from Scarborough had to jog east and then north again to continue into Markham. The area as a whole is and was known as Milliken, a historic community with the uncommon characteristic of existing within both municipalities.

In 1987, the two sections of Kennedy Road were connected by a curving road running north from Steeles which veered east to meet the Markham section of Kennedy just north of the newly created Denison Street. The circumstances behind the re-alignment were unclear, but given Kennedy Road’s history as a ‘highway’ in Scarborough and the tendency in and around Toronto to harmonize streets within bordering jurisdictions, it is easily conceived why the jog was removed.

The eastern section of Kennedy became “orphaned” and was renamed Old Kennedy. Old Kennedy stops at Denison and continues on as Fresno Court, which in turn ends at a cul de sac. A fence separates it and Kennedy Road. Old Kennedy Road is an interesting mix of industrial and residential, with several older-looking houses near Steeles, perhaps lending back to the days when it was a hub in the village of Milliken.

Old Finch Avenue

Year rerouted: ~1993

Finch Avenue in Scarborough is relatively straight for much of its course from the North York town line to the Pickering town line — except in its most eastern part. Where Finch passed through Staines Road, the street at one time did a triangular job around the CPR tracks (the detour seems to have been created in the 20th century).

Further along, Finch did another jog up Sewell’s Road before meandering across the Rouge River and around its valley. It continued straight toward Kirkham’s Road (today’s Meadowvale Road). As there is today, there was an uncleared section of land across to Beare Road, thus one would have to jog up again to Plug Hat Road and back down to reach Finch again. The street resumed once more on its way to the Pickering Border. This stretch of Finch between Sewells and Kirkham’s made up the historic community of Hillside which had a church, school, and mill. The village made up much of the Rouge lands today from Sheppard Avenue/Twyn Rivers to Steeles Avenue.

By the 1980s, changes came to Finch Avenue. Morningside Avenue curved from the south to meet Finch. Then, in or around 1993, the street was extended further north of Finch. This changed the alignment of the Finch/Staines intersection and effectively split Finch Avenue. Travellers moving east on Finch had to now follow the curving street north to Morningside Avenue and then curve back south via the same street. The east-west street on the other side was “Old Finch Avenue”, following the older, winding alignment. Because of this, the street bunks the trend of “old” streets which were leftover sections of the re-routed street; there is/was not ever a “newer” Finch Avenue that existed alongside the street. Old Finch terminates at Meadowvale Avenue; after Beare Road, it becomes Finch again and continues into Pickering for another eight kilometres.

“Star Trek Run” Toronto Star, June 3, 1978.
Source: Toronto Star Archives

Today, Old Finch is mostly known for its ‘haunted’ Bailey bridge and being the northern border of the Toronto Zoo, whose postal address is 361A Old Finch Avenue. The reconfiguration at Staines also facilitated the Morningside Heights neighbourhood.

The Older Finch Avenue

Year rerouted: 1977

Old Finch Avenue in the Rouge Valley was not the first Old Finch in the city. There was once a severed section of the street near Victoria Park in the old community of L’Amoreaux when the street was realigned directly across the Scarborough-North York border. This curved realignment eliminated a jog along the town line for east-west travellers. This Old Finch Avenue was closed in 1977; Pawnee Avenue roughly follows its old right of way.

For a Google map of “Old” Toronto Streets, click here.

If you have any information to add or have any stories from any of these locations, leave a comment below or email bob@scenesto.com!

A Quick History of Controversial Toronto Street Name Changes

Toronto’s street grid is over 200 years old by colonial standards and even older with its Aboriginal trails. There have been additions and extensions, widenings and improvements. They have also been named to reflect the city’s past and present and it values (by those who do the naming, that is) – and to help the postal service.

The city is not a static object and neither are street names. Revisions and renamings have been an understated part of Toronto’s history. However, not all street renamings — proposed and actual — have gone over well. What is the mainly reason for this opposition? Simply put: History and Tradition. Whether successful or not, these episodes in Toronto’s history inform us how the city operated and why Toronto’s geography is as it is today.

Here are seven examples of controversial street name changes:

Old and New St. Patrick Street

In 1917, modern Dundas Street was created by amalgamating and connecting several smaller streets. One of these roads was St. Patrick Street, which ran between McCaul Street and Bathurst Street.

One group opposed to changing St. Patrick to Dundas was the St. Patrick’s Old Boys’ Association, which attended the old St. Patrick’s School on William Street. The group deputed to City Council, but was unsuccessful. The story was not all bad as William Street was later renamed to St. Patrick Street to keep the tradition.

Mimico Mixups

In 1929, a dispute over the renaming of 54 Mimico streets spanned several council meetings. At issue, Toronto’s postal service requested the changes after Mimico and Long Branch were placed in the Toronto postal region. The difficulty was the added municipalities added duplicate street names to the region and potential confusion for postal workers. An ex-mayor attended a September 1929 council meeting arguing why the inclusion of ‘Mimico’ in the mailing addresses would not be sufficient enough for postal workers. Matters got heated in an October meeting when Mimico Mayor and Liberal candidate W.A. Edwards accused Minister of Health and Conservative candidate Dr. Godfrey of “insincerity” when Dr. Godfrey opposed the name changes when the mayor rejected Dr. Godfrey’s wish to have Stanley Avenue changed to Godfrey Crescent.

It is unclear whether the by-law change went through, but in the October council meeting, it was moved and seconded that a second reading for the proposed by-law change be conducted. The Mimico street grid remains generally intact since the 1920s, albeit with notable changes: Church Street is now Royal York Road, Salisbury Avenue is now Park Lawn Road, Brant Street is now Dalesford Avenue, and Winslow Avenue is now Douglas Avenue.

Long Branch Street Changes & Disappearances

In 1952, a ratepayers association in Etobicoke protested the changing of part of Lake Promenade Road to Island Road in Long Branch. Lake Promenade existed in two sections on either side of the main branch of Etobicoke Creek, running all the way to Applewood Creek. To eliminate confusion for postal workers, it was proposed for the western section of Lake Promenade be added to Island Rd, which it already connected to.

*1953 Aerial Image*
*Source: City of Toronto Archives*

Residents of Island Road did not like the idea as a recent storm severely damaged and condemned several homes on Lake Promenade and the association with that event to their properties was unwanted. The change ultimately took place by 1955, although it ultimately did not matter as the fallout of Hurricane Hazel caused the expropriation of homes on Island and Lake Promenade near Lake Ontario and Etobicoke Creek, as well as the complete removal of Lake Promenade west of Forty Second Street, James Street west of Forty Second Street, all of Forty Third Street, and Island Road parellel to the lake. Today, much of the area is parkland.

The Pioneers of Scarborough

In 1957, Scarborough Council was tasked with submitting a list of alternate names for 210 streets duplicated elsewhere in the City. Metropolitan Toronto was standardizing operations and services across the city in the decade, including eliminating duplicates of street names.

Confusion over postal delivery was again at issue, but names on the list included Brumwell St, Cornell Avenue, Harris Avenue, Kennedy Road, Little’s Road, Lennox Avenue, Muir Drive, and Paterson Avenue — streets named for Scarborough pioneers. Most streets seem to exist today, save for Lennox Avenue and Agincourt’s Paterson Avenue, which became Reidmount Avenue.

The Many Orioles

In 1958, duplication was at issue again in midtown Toronto with a proposal to rename the similarly named Oriole Crescent, Oriole Gardens, and Oriole Road. The names were to become Holmfield Crescent, Lower Canada Gardens, and Campus College Road, respectively.

Fifteen “angry” women of the three streets united to protest the move, even going as far as saying they’d be willing to go to jail for taking down the new signs if they ever went up. They cited the beauty, history, and fame of the “Oriole” name and the inconvenience it’d cause for people living on those streets to having to change addresses on documents. Ultimately, the names remained as they were and as they are today.

A Mega-Maxome Avenue

In 1962, Willowdale residents protested the renaming and merger of Halstead and Maxome Avenue to Harkness Street. The three streets were disjointed and together would “form a mile long thoroughfare north of Finch Avenue.”

A resident of Maxome, representing 37 others on the street, argued the historical naming of the street, which was honouring a surveyor who laid out the original blocks of the area. Ultimately, the proposal did not go through. Curiously, Halstead and Harkness have disappeared from the map, having the name Maxome Avenue instead. Today, Maxome has a windy course, like it was strung together from a few different streets, creating a mega-street of sorts.

North York Pioneers

In 1979, Scrace Hill Drive in North York was renamed to Skymark Drive, prompting the opposition of the Scrace family. The Scarces had historical roots in the Finch Avenue and Leslie Street area formerly known as L’Amoreaux, donating land for a church and cemetery, still standing today as Zion Church.

The family wrote North York Council a letter, outlining the connection and how several Scraces were even on North York Council. The street was renamed to Skymark after the development on the street, as the old street had a confusing spelling and was not easy to find. North York Controller Esther Shiner said the new name was “such a pretty name” and she would find something else to name after the Scraces. Of irony, Esther Shiner would later become the subject of a street herself.

Sources Cited

“Citizens Protest Against Change In Street Name.” The Globe, 9 Oct. 1952, p. 12.

“’Godfrey Crescent’ Causes Verbal Tilt At Mimico Council.” The Globe, 15 Oct. 1929, p. 16.

“Keep Traditions: Opposes Renaming Traditions.” The Globe, 6 Mar. 1957, p. 4.

“Petty Politics Involved In Changing Street Names.” The Toronto Daily Star, 15 Oct. 1929, p. 5.

“Sees Lakeshore Trustees ‘Trying to Hoodwink Us’.” The Toronto Daily Star, 9 Oct. 1952, p. 26.

“St. Patrick Old Boys Form Strong Body.” The Globe, 7 Apr. 1917, p. 21.

“Street Name Change Bruises Family Pride.” The Globe and Mail, 10 Dec. 1979, p. 4.

“Street Name Change Fought By Residents.” The Globe, 8 Feb. 1962, p. 4.

“Would Go To Jail: 15 Angry Women Save Their Street Names.” The Globe, 5 June 1958, p. 23.

A geographic history of a North York neighbourhood

Note: This article is written without any prior affiliation to or contextual knowledge of the history of the Highland Memory Gardens or the family farms of North York. Their inclusion is as a reference tool to show change.

This is Highland Memory Gardens. It is located near the intersection of Don Mills and Steeles Avenues, in Toronto’s north end. The development of this cemetery and its surrounding area is an interesting look into the creation and evolution of this inner suburbs.

This is the area around Highland Memory Gardens in 1860. Historically, the area consisted of lot 21 (at today’s Finch Avenue) to lot 25 (at Steeles Avenue) of the Third Concession East of Yonge Street (Leslie Street), which were generally 200-acre lots extending to the Fourth Concession East (Woodbine Avenue/Highway 404). Notably absent is a middle road (now Don Mills Road) between the two concession roads. The cemetery itself is located along the east side of the top half lot 23 and the bottom half of lot 24.

As seen this 1878 map, the area was part of the larger community of L’Amoreaux (also spelled L’Amaroux). The village crossed both sides of the North York-Scaborough townline, with its spine running along Finch Avenue and lots extending to Steeles and Sheppard Avenue.

The L’Amoreaux Post Office stood just west of Victoria Park Avenue on the south side of a lost section of Finch Avenue (it would be re-aligned through the townline in the 1970s). Further west, a Methodist Church and cemetery, a Temperance Hall, and School House stood near Leslie Street.

Cutting diagonally through the large block was a creek, now named Duncan Creek. It ran from near Leslie and Steeles (where its namesake’s farming lots stood) to its terminus near Victoria Park and Finch. It does not to seem to have been a major source of industry, compared to the adjacent Don River which hosted a number of mills. In the 1916 map below, the creek slinks its away across lots, although its course is a bit off compared to the earlier maps and later aerial photographs.

This 1954 aerial photograph is a visual of the area and tells us that even by this decade, the area still maintained its largely rural character. A more precise view of the creek is visible along with the greenery running along its course.

For the area plot that would become the Highland Memory Gardens, 1953 was last year it existed as farm fields. A key reference point is the small roadway leading from Woodbine Avenue to a farm near the banks of Duncan Creek. This roadway was the divisor between lots 23 and 24.

The cemetery found a home to the west of Woodbine Avenue, with an entrance leading off the street. The initial layout of the cemetery is a circular path. Some “offshooting” paths seem to laid out as well.

By 1956, an “arm” shoots off the southern half of the main circle, looping west to connect to the main roadway.

By the close of the decade, the layout of the cemetery increased more with off shoots on the north of the main circle.

In 1962, more acreage is added westward and a pond on the north east corner of the plot seems to be more completed. The lawns of the ground look to be landscaped. A tiny building, potentially the administrative centre, appears at the top of the lot.

The midpoint of the decade saw few geographic changes, but the notable start of residential development to the west of the creek.

By 1968, the cemetery expands again to the west. It would be its last major territorial expansion. The subdivision to the west of the creek appears complete, clearly stopping at the property line midway between Woodbine and Leslie.

By the start of the 1970s, development starts to grow to the south of the cemetery, replacing the longtime farm buildings. An early Don Mills Road begins to curl in from the the south as well as an early McNiccol Avenue slinks from west to east.

By 1973, the farm buildings near the creek are razed as the land is about to be filled in by housing. The creek itself disappears under the subdivision to the south of the cemetery. The land north of the cemetery also sees new subdivisions.

By 1976, Don Mills Road is completed, seemingly bending through the area to provide a second access point to the cemetery. Townhouses are built between the creek and Don Mills Road.

By the 1980s, Highland Memory Gardens took on the form seen today. Highway 404 was completed in the late 1970s replacing the former Woodbine Avenue right of way. With that, the main entrance to the cemetery shifted to Don Mills Road with the old entrance off Woodbine being built over. Several other buildings would later fill the northeast corner.

Today, Highland Memory Gardens is part of the Hillcrest Village neighbourhood of Toronto, an area roughly encompassed by Steeles Avenue, Finch Avenue, Leslie Street, and Victoria Park Avenue.

The Zion Church and Schoolhouse still stand today as 19th century reminders, but references to the area as L’Amoreaux are non-existent today. The post office and its street are gone, with the Old Finch Avenue closed in 1977 and Pawnee Avenue roughly replacing it as the two Finches were connected. (The L’Amoreaux name does live on in Scarborough, of course.)

There is a trail and parkland which follows Duncan Creek; the Seneca Newnham Campus, founded in the late 1960s, now runs over a buried portion of the creek. The property lines of the 40-acre Highland Memory Gardens reference the old concession lots, offering a forgotten link to the past.