1.
History of Toronto
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The history of Toronto, Ontario, Canada begins several millennia ago. Archaeological finds in the area have found artifacts of First Nations settlements dating back several thousand years, the Wyandot people were likely the first group to live in the area, followed by the Iroquois. When Europeans first came to Toronto, they found a village known as Teiaiagon on the banks of the Humber River. The French first set up trading posts in the area, including Fort Rouillé in 1750, in 1786, Lord Dorchester arrived in Quebec City as Governor-in-Chief of British North America. His mission was to solve the problems of the newly landed Loyalists from the United States after the US War of Independence. At first, Dorchester suggested opening the new Canada West as districts under the Quebec government, Dorchester began organizing for the new province of Upper Canada, including a capital. Under the policy of the time, the British recognized aboriginal title to the land, a provisional Upper Canada government was set up in Newark in 1791. In 1793, Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe moved the capital of Upper Canada to Toronto, the Mississaugas set up a settlement reserve in the area of Port Credit to the west of York, and eventually moved further to the west. Simcoe only lived in York for three years, but he directed its initial settlement on a gridiron layout near the mouth of the Don River, in 1797, the garrison which became Fort York was built at the entrance to Toronto Harbour. Tensions between the British and Americans persisted and war broke out in 1812, in 1813, the garrison was attacked and overrun by the Americans forcing the British to retreat. The Americans, who lost their commanding officer in the battle, sacked the town and burned down the government buildings, peace came after only two years of the war which ended in a stalemate. During peacetime, York steadily grew in population, although its infrastructure lagged, as the village grew, tensions grew between the ruling class in York and growing merchant and worker classes who advocated for reforms. York was incorporated and renamed Toronto in 1834, leading to the first Toronto elections, Torontos first mayor William Lyon Mackenzie, a reformer, persisted in his efforts to reform Upper Canada, culminating in his organization of a rebellion in 1837. Upper Canada forces defeated the rebels, and Mackenzie and others fled to the United States, peace again returned to Toronto and the city steadily grew during the 19th century, a major port of distribution as Upper Canada was settled. Toronto businesses grew including the packing business, leading to the nickname of Hogtown. Toronto continued to grow by annexing outlying villages up until the early 1900s, after World War II, another major influx of immigrants came to the region, leading to the growth of numerous suburban villages. However, the villages did not have the tax base to build the infrastructure to support the growth in population. To support the growth, the Government of Ontario set up Metropolitan Toronto
2.
York, Upper Canada
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The Town of York was the second capital of the district of Upper Canada and the predecessor to Toronto. It was established in 1793 by Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe as a location for the capital of Upper Canada, while he made plans to build a capital near todays London. Simcoe renamed the location York after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, Simcoe gave up his plan to build a capital at London, and York became the permanent capital of Upper Canada on February 1,1796. That year Simcoe returned to Britain and was replaced by Peter Russell. The original townsite was a compact ten blocks near the mouth of the Don River, government buildings and a law court were established. Yonge Street was built, connecting York to the Holland River to the north, to the east, Kingston Road was built to the mouth of the Trent River. In 1797, the site was expanded to the west to allow for public buildings. One of the new areas public functions, a market, was started in 1803. It continues today as St. Lawrence Market, the garrison was attacked during the War of 1812. As the British Army retreated, it blew up the garrison, leading to the death of numerous American soldiers, the victorious Americans sacked the town and burned down the government buildings. The Americans chose not to occupy the town and the British eventually returned without conflict, a retribution attack was made on the American capital of Washington. After the war was over, the continued to grow, expanding to the west, leaving the original town site. A new parliament building was erected, near the location, but this burned down. A permanent fort, Fort York, was built on the site of the garrison, Dundas Street was built to connect York to towns to the west. In the 1820s, the experienced a surge of immigrants. By 1830, this led to a political conflict which would later lead to the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion. By 1701, the Iroquoian villages that had established along the north shore of Lake Ontario during the sixteenth century had been abandoned. The name Toronto is derived from indigenous sources, a portage route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron running through this point, the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail, led to widespread use of the name
3.
Old Toronto
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Old Toronto is the retronym of the original city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, from 1834 to 1998. It was first incorporated as a city in 1834, after being known as the Town of York, in 1954, it became the administrative headquarters for Metropolitan Toronto. It expanded in size by annexation of surrounding municipalities, reaching its final boundaries in 1967, finally, in 1998, it was amalgamated into the present-day megacity of Toronto. Post-amalgamation, the area within the boundaries of the city is variously referred to as the former city of Toronto or Old Toronto. Historically, Old Toronto has referred to Torontos boundaries before the Great Toronto Fire of 1904, the term downtown core is also sometimes used to refer to the district, which actually refers to the central business district of Toronto, which is located within the former city. Old Toronto has the highest population density in the Golden Horseshoe, the population was recorded in June 1834 at 9,252. In 1834, Toronto was incorporated with the boundaries of Bathurst Street to the west,400 yards north of Lot Street to the north, outside this formal boundary were the liberties, land pre-destined to be used for new wards. The liberties formally became part of the city in 1859 and the wards were remapped, the earliest Toronto neighbourhoods were the five municipal wards that the city was split into in 1834. The wards were named for the saints of the four nations of the British Isles and St. Lawrence. Today, only St. Lawrence remains a well-known neighbourhood name, the others have attached their names to a variety of still-existing landmarks, including three subway stations. As Toronto grew, more wards were created, still named after prominent saints, St. James Ward is preserved in the modern St. James Town neighbourhood, while the northern ward of St. Pauls has continued to the present as a federal and provincial electoral district. In 1833, several prominent reformers had petitioned the House of Assembly to have the town incorporated, the Tory-controlled House struggled to find a means of creating a legitimate electoral system that might nonetheless minimize the chances of reformers being elected. The bill passed on 6 March 1834 and proposed two different property qualifications for voting, there was a higher qualification for the election of aldermen and a lower one for common councillors. Two aldermen and two councilmen would be elected from each city ward, the mayor was elected by the aldermen from among their number, and a clear barrier was erected between those of property who served as full magistrates and the rest. Only 230 of the citys 2,929 adult men met this stringent property qualification, the second market building replaced the original wooden market building in 1831 and ran from King Street to Front Street. It was selected by the first mayor, William Lyon Mackenzie and his newspaper, the Colonial Advocate, rented space in the rear. This building, along much of the surrounding Market Block, was destroyed by fire in the 1849 Cathedral Fire. The site was rebuilt as St. Lawrence Hall in 1850, the second city hall, built in 1845 and renovated in 1850, was known as the New Market House
4.
Metropolitan Toronto
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The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was a senior level of municipal government in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada area from 1954 to 1998. It was created out of old town Toronto, York Township, Scarborough Township and it was commonly referred to as Metro Toronto or Metro to avoid confusion with the original city of Toronto, which was its administrative headquarters. Passage of the 1997 City of Toronto Act caused the 1998 amalgamation of Metro Toronto, prior to the formation of Metro, the municipalities surrounding the central City of Toronto were all independent towns and villages. All were members of either York Township, Scarborough Township or Etobicoke Township, after 1912, the city no longer annexed suburbs from York Township. At times the suburbs asked to be annexed into Toronto, in 1924, Ontario cabinet minister George S. Henry, was the first to propose a metropolitan district with its own council from the city and the county to administer shared services. He wrote a bill, but the government chose not to act on it. The Great Depression saw almost all of the towns and villages of the County go insolvent, when that happened they were, financially, taken over by the province. In 1933, Henry, now the premier, appointed an inquiry into forming a metropolitan district. A proposal was made for Toronto to provide several of its services to the suburbs as well, the inquiry died with the defeat of Henry in 1934. In the 1930s, a Liberal Ontario government named the first minister of municipal affairs, David A. Croll, and introduced a bill to amalgamate the City. The draft bill faced strong opposition in Toronto and was withdrawn, the government then started its own inquiry into issues of the suburbs surrounding Toronto. Through consensus, it came to the conclusion that a municipality was the best solution. The inquiry reported in September 1939, and its conclusions put aside for the duration of World War II, two factors changed in the 1940s. A Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario government was elected in 1943, with a changed policy, also in 1943, the first Master Plan was adopted in Toronto. It recognized that future growth would place in the vacant land of adjacent suburbs. Planning would have to take account the whole metropolitan area. In 1946, the province passed the Planning Act required each urban municipality to have its own Planning Board, a Toronto and Suburban Planning Board was founded, under the chairmanship of James P. Maher, and the vice-chairmanship of Fred Gardiner. The Board promoted specific projects, and promoted a green belt, a unified system of arterial roads
5.
Toronto
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Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. With a population of 2,731,571, it is the fourth most populous city in North America after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles. A global city, Toronto is a centre of business, finance, arts, and culture. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited the area now known as Toronto for thousands of years, the city itself is situated on the southern terminus of an ancient Aboriginal trail leading north to Lake Simcoe, used by the Wyandot, Iroquois, and the Mississauga. Permanent European settlement began in the 1790s, after the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase of 1787, the British established the town of York, and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York, York was renamed and incorporated as the city of Toronto in 1834, and became the capital of the province of Ontario during the Canadian Confederation in 1867. The city proper has since expanded past its original borders through amalgamation with surrounding municipalities at various times in its history to its current area of 630.2 km2. While the majority of Torontonians speak English as their primary language, Toronto is a prominent centre for music, theatre, motion picture production, and television production, and is home to the headquarters of Canadas major national broadcast networks and media outlets. Toronto is known for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere. The name Toronto is likely derived from the Iroquois word tkaronto and this refers to the northern end of what is now Lake Simcoe, where the Huron had planted tree saplings to corral fish. A portage route from Lake Ontario to Lake Huron running through this point, in the 1660s, the Iroquois established two villages within what is today Toronto, Ganatsekwyagon on the banks of the Rouge River and Teiaiagonon the banks of the Humber River. By 1701, the Mississauga had displaced the Iroquois, who abandoned the Toronto area at the end of the Beaver Wars, French traders founded Fort Rouillé on the current Exhibition grounds in 1750, but abandoned it in 1759. During the American Revolutionary War, the region saw an influx of British settlers as United Empire Loyalists fled for the British-controlled lands north of Lake Ontario, the new province of Upper Canada was in the process of creation and needed a capital. Dorchester intended the location to be named Toronto, in 1793, Governor John Graves Simcoe established the town of York on the Toronto Purchase lands, instead naming it after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. Simcoe decided to move the Upper Canada capital from Newark to York, the York garrison was constructed at the entrance of the towns natural harbour, sheltered by a long sandbar peninsula. The towns settlement formed at the end of the harbour behind the peninsula, near the present-day intersection of Parliament Street. In 1813, as part of the War of 1812, the Battle of York ended in the towns capture, the surrender of the town was negotiated by John Strachan. US soldiers destroyed much of the garrison and set fire to the parliament buildings during their five-day occupation, the sacking of York was a primary motivation for the Burning of Washington by British troops later in the war
6.
Toronto Purchase
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The Toronto Purchase was the surrender of lands in the Toronto area from the Mississaugas of New Credit to the British crown. An initial, disputed, agreement was made in 1787, in exchange for various items, the agreement was revisited in 1805, intended to clarify the area purchased. Under the Treaty of Paris which ended the conflict between Great Britain and its colonies, the boundary of British North America was set in the middle of the Great Lakes. This made the north of the border more important, strategically. In 1781, the Mississaugas surrendered a strip of land along the Niagara River, between 1783 and 1785,10,000 Loyalists arrived and were settling on land the Crown had recognized as Indian Land. In 1784, the Mississaugas surrendered more land in the Niagara peninsula, in 1786, Lord Dorchester arrived in Quebec City as Governor-in-Chief of British North America. His mission was to solve the problems of the newly landed Loyalists, at first, Dorchester suggested opening the new Canada West as districts under the Quebec government, but the British Government made known its intention to split Canada into Upper and Lower Canada. Dorchester began organizing for the new province of Upper Canada, including a capital, under the policy of the time, the British recognized aboriginal title to the land and Dorchester arranged to purchase the lands from the Mississaugas. The 1787 purchase, according to British records, was conducted on September 23,1787, the British crown and the Mississaugas of New Credit met to arrange for the surrender of lands along Lake Ontario. In 1788, surveyor Alexander Aitken was assigned to conduct a survey of the Toronto site, the Mississaugas blocked him for surveying west of the Humber, saying the lands to the west had not been ceded. Aitken was only allowed to survey the land after British authorities interceded with the Mississaugas, Aitken surveyed west to Etobicoke Creek, but did not survey more than a few miles from the lake before stopping to avoid further confrontation. An Indenture of the deal was made on August 1,1805, both the 1787 Purchase and its 1805 Indenture were registered as Crown Treaty No.13. The Purchased was signed by Sir John Johnson, William Claus, the Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation also claimed the Toronto Islands, which was not part of the purchase as the agreement only went to the Lake Ontario shoreline. In 2010, Canada agreed to pay million for the lands, based on the ancient value of the land. The money was distributed to the government, with each of the 1,700 present day Mississaugas receiving $20,000. Crawford Purchase Lord Dorchester Bibliography Bellegarde, Daniel J. Mississaugas of The New Credit First Nation Inquiry Toronto Purchase Claim, Toronto, Ontario, University of Toronto Press. Toronto Purchase Land Claims of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation
7.
Battle of York
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The Battle of York was fought on April 27,1813, in York, the capital of the province of Upper Canada, during the Anglo-American War of 1812. Sheaffes forces were defeated and Sheaffe retreated with his regulars to Kingston, abandoning the militia. The Americans captured the fort, town and dockyard and they themselves suffered heavy casualties, including force leader Brigadier General Zebulon Pike and others killed when the retreating British blew up the forts magazine. The American forces subsequently carried out acts of arson and looting in the town before withdrawing. York, the capital of Upper Canada, stood on the north shore of Lake Ontario. At the start of the war, the British had a naval force, the Provincial Marine, with which they seized control of the lake. The United States Navy appointed Commodore Isaac Chauncey to regain control of the lakes and he created a squadron of fighting ships at Sacketts Harbor, New York by purchasing and arming several lake schooners and laying down new purpose-built fighting vessels. However, no action was possible before the onset of winter. To match Chaunceys ships, the British laid down a sloop of war at Kingston and this vessel was named Sir Isaac Brock after the general, who had been killed at the Battle of Queenston Heights the previous October. On January 13,1813, John Armstrong, Jr. was appointed United States Secretary of War. Having been a soldier, he quickly appreciated the situation on Lake Ontario. Working together with Chaunceys squadron, this force would capture Kingston before the Saint Lawrence River thawed, after Kingston was captured, the Americans would then capture the British positions at York and Fort George, at the mouth of the Niagara River. Armstrong conferred with Major General Henry Dearborn, commander of the American Army of the North, at Albany, both Dearborn and Chauncey agreed with Armstrongs plan at this point, but they subsequently had second thoughts. That month, Lieutenant General Sir George Prevost, the British Governor General of Canada and this visit was made necessary because Major General Roger Hale Sheaffe, who had succeeded Brock as Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, was ill and unable to perform his various duties. Prevost was accompanied only by a few detachments of reinforcements. During March, Chauncey and Dearborn recommended to Armstrong that when the ice on the lake thawed, after capturing York, they would then attack Fort George. Although York was the Provincial capital of Upper Canada, it was far less important than Kingston as a military objective, Armstrong, by now back in Washington, nevertheless acquiesced in this change of plan as Dearborn might well have better local information. Historians such as John R. Elting have pointed out that this effectively reversed Armstrongs original strategy
8.
Battle of Montgomery's Tavern
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The Battle of Montgomerys Tavern was an incident in the Upper Canada Rebellion. The abortive revolutionary insurrection inspired by William Lyon Mackenzie was crushed by British authorities and Canadian volunteer units near a tavern on Yonge Street, the site of Montgomerys Tavern was designated a National Historic Site in 1925. When the Lower Canada Rebellion broke out in the fall of 1837, with the regular troops gone, William Lyon Mackenzie and his followers seized a Toronto armoury and organized an armed march down Yonge Street, beginning at Montgomerys Tavern on December 4,1837. Colonel Robert Moodie attempted to lead a force of loyalists through the roadblock to warn Governor Bond Head in Toronto. Moodie fired his pistol, apparently in an attempt to clear the way, a number of the rebels returned fire, killing him. On the same day, December 5, Mackenzies approximately 500 rebels marched upon Torontos city hall in an effort to seize the arms and they were met by a truce party, to whom Mackenzie explained the rebels demands. Later that afternoon, Mackenzie led his troops farther down Yonge Street towards the city, when the front rank of the rebels dropped to the ground to reload, their comrades thought the loyalist volunteers had killed them all. Horrified, the rebels turned and ran and that night, reinforcements for the loyalists arrived from Hamilton. By the next day, these forces were 1,500 strong, the rebels, now under the command of Napoleonic Wars veteran Anthony Van Egmond, had regrouped at Montgomerys Tavern. One hundred and fifty were posted in the woods behind the tavern, the majority of Mackenzies supporters, numbering about 300, were gathered around the tavern proper. These were largely unarmed and would offer little resistance when pressed, when Fitzgibbon advanced his infantry, both parties of rebels abandoned their posts and retreated in disarray to the tavern, causing those assembled there to panic and flee. Within 20 minutes, the rebels were gone, loyalist forces then looted the tavern and burned it to the ground, before marching back to York. Following the rebellion, the site of the tavern was used to build a hotel, in 1858 it was sold to hotelier Charles McBride of Willowdale, who renamed the tavern Prospect House. The tavern would serve as Masonic Lodge and North Toronto township council office, McBride sold the hotel in 1873 to build another hotel, Bedford Park Hotel, on Yonge Street. Prospect House burned down in 1881, the vacant land was sold to proprietor John Oulcott of Toronto, Oulcott sold out in 1912 and the hotel went to various owners. In 1913, the government purchased the hotel and remodelled the old hotel as a post office for the North Toronto postal district. It was finally torn down in the 1930s to be replaced by the current structure, the site of the tavern is now occupied by a two-storey Art Deco post office designed by Murray Brown and built in 1936. The building, Postal Station K, bears the cypher EviiiR, for Edward VIII, King of Canada for eleven months in 1936, it is one of a few buildings to bear this mark in Toronto
9.
Great Fire of Toronto (1849)
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The Great Fire of Toronto of 1849, April 7,1849, also known as the Cathedral Fire, was the first major fire in the history of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Much of the Market Block, the core of the city, was wiped out. The 1831 building of the Toronto City Hall and St. Lawrence Market south of King was damaged and was torn down. The fire was discovered at 1 a. m. in the rear of Grahams Tavern on the north-east side of King Street and Nelson Street at George, the fire consumed Posts Tavern then burned through the outbuildings north to Duke Street. The fire spread through the block, destroying the Home District Saving Bank. At this point, a south-easterly wind had come up, at 3 a. m. the spire of the first St. James Cathedral at Church Street caught fire and the cathedral was soon destroyed. The fire spread to the side of King Street and the old Toronto City Hall. It damaged most buildings on the east side of Nelson, at its height, the fire was visible from across Lake Ontario in St. Catharines. The fire could have further, but Toronto west of Church Street was saved by a rain shower at about 3,30 a. m. This wet down the roofs of buildings to the west, making it harder for flying brands to ignite them, the wind was from the north-east, pushing the fire away from the court house, fire hall and St. Andrews Church west of Church Street. At 4 a. m. troops arrived to assist the firefighters, according to The Globe, the fire was mostly extinguished by 5 a. m. The damages were estimated at CA$500,000 to $700,000, the loss to insurance companies was $239,724. The Upper Canada Gazette, the first newspaper in Ontario, would not resume publication, while the buildings on the main streets were brick, the inner buildings along laneways were made of wood and likely fuelled the fire. The early firefighting companies of the time, mostly made up of volunteers, had limited firefighting capability, Fire hydrants and water tanks or barrels had been added in 1842 by the Metropolitan Water Company, but these were not enough. Before the fire, Torontos fire-fighting capabilities were limited to six companies operating in one fire hall at Court Street. Manual pumpers and tankers involved far too much manpower and would prove to be no match for the speed of a major fire. The fire halls existing in Toronto in 1849 were, Firemans Hall on Church Street south of Adelaide Street East - Built 1826 and renumbered as Fire Hall Number 5 in 1861, it was closed in 1874. Fire Hall Number 1 at 139-141 Bay Street - Built 1841, engine Number 4 at St. Patricks Market on Queen Street West - Built 1842 and closed 1861
10.
Hurricane Hazel
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Hurricane Hazel was the deadliest and costliest hurricane of the 1954 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm killed at least 400 people in Haiti before striking the United States near the border between North and South Carolina, as a Category 4 hurricane. After causing 95 fatalities in the US, Hazel struck Canada as a storm, raising the death toll by 81 people. As a result of the death toll and the damage caused by Hazel. In Haiti, Hazel destroyed 40% of the trees and 50% of the cacao crop. The hurricane made landfall in the Carolinas, and destroyed most waterfront dwellings near its point of impact, from North Carolina, it traveled north along the Atlantic coast. Hazel affected Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, when it was over Pennsylvania, Hazel consolidated with a cold front, and turned northwest towards Canada. When it hit Ontario as a storm, rivers and streams in and around Toronto overflowed their banks. As a result, many areas located in the local floodplains. In Canada alone, over C$135 million of damage was incurred, Hazel had traveled 1,100 km over land, but while approaching Canada, it had merged with an existing powerful cold front. The storm stalled over the Greater Toronto Area, and although it was now extratropical, to help with the cleanup,800 members of the military were summoned, and a Hurricane Relief Fund was established that distributed $5.1 million in aid. On October 5, a wave with tropical-storm force winds was approaching the Lesser Antilles. Due to the potential for storm formation, a Hurricane Hunters plane flew from San Juan. When the plane reached the system, they observed a tropical cyclone about 30 mi east of the island of Grenada with winds estimated at 100 mph, the United States Weather Bureau promptly classified the system as Hurricane Hazel. The Atlantic hurricane reanalysis later assessed that Hazel developed at 06,00 UTC on October 5 about 220 mi east of Grenada. Although the Hurricane Hunters observed hurricane-force winds, the storm had a small eye 5 mi in diameter and a central barometric pressure of 1,002 mbar. The 100 mph winds were therefore revised downward to 65 mph late on October 5, at the same time, Hazel made landfall on Grenada with winds of 75 mph. After entering the Caribbean Sea, Hazel continued to present a small eye, the winds gradually increased as the storm moved westward, parallel to the northern Venezuela coast
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