History of the Port of Toronto

Toronto Harbour

By 1818 the harbourfront was becoming a jumble of wharves and a stroll along the waterfront was the last place you'd want to go. The once pristine beach was lost forever. Something had to be done to bring the waterfront back to the people. On July 14 1818 a Royal Patent was granted to the owners of these wharves and the lands surrounding them 'That a walkway be built and it should be called The Mall.' It was to stretch from Peter Street in the west to Parliament Street in the east and follow the line of Front Street. With that a public Esplanade was born. These men, the newly created merchant class who assumed a British air of aristocracy about them now had a place where they could parade with their wives and children in their finery and take in smell of fresh lake air. Trees were planted along Front Street and the drainage pipes that used to empty right onto the beach were now discharging their untreated sewage farther out into the lake. In reality The Mall was just a strip of open ground edging on the lake and remained underdeveloped for years to come, but it served its purpose well.

In 1830 when York was still a few years away from being the city of Toronto the south side of Front Street was still open land. The hotels of the time like the Steamboat (site of today's Market Square), the Wellington (Flatiron building) and Ontario House (Pizza-Pizza) all had second floor verandas that would look over the lake just steps away. Early developers constructed a few wooden buildings on stilts rising out of the water on land that now is home to C'est What, east of Church Street. The cedar posts began to gray with weather and these; the first buildings ever erected on the south side of Front didn't last very long.

In spring and fall the whole area became a muddy mess and business owners, thinking Church street was far too remote from the center of town at King and Frederick, didn't bother to venture that far. In 1830 you could have bought the entire block from Church over to Yonge for about a thousand dollars.

One of the first buildings to go up east of Church was the home of Chief Justice Thomas Scott on the north east corner of Scott (hence the name) and Front streets. Scott was the first chairman of the Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada that bestowed medals to citizens in defence of the Province. In 1842 one of the first theatres in York, Deering's Theatre, went up on that site.

In 1834 the City of Toronto was founded and in 1844 opened its new City Hall. The Harbour, like the City, was expanding with close to 30 wharves and piers lining its frontage. Evidence to that early harbour can be found today in the huge fan window of the Council Chamber Block now encased inside the St. Lawrence Market (1904) that at one time gave the Mayor and Councilmen a commanding vista of the Harbour that was just steps below.

The waterfront was once again becoming an eyesore. The merchant class, many of who had homes along the water, moved away leaving behind a dingy and drab world. Not everybody was rich enough to move away and those left behind were forced to live in cramped, deteriorating shacks that faced the backs of crumbling storehouses. Lower Jarvis Street could see 20 families jammed into a few damp rooms above a storage shed and their children compelled to scrounge for pennies in the mud below. Life for those first residents of the Esplanade, however transitory, was sheer horror.

The 1850's saw the first railway lines come to Toronto with the bulk of its tracks to be laid on the waterfront promenade. At the same time a great civic works project was also planned, the construction of the modern Esplanade as a landscaped walk and carriage drive to stretch along the harbour. The builders of the railroad, The Grand Trunk, saw it as their God given right to also construct on the waterfront. A public outcry arose and the City Council threatened to oust the railroad. The Grand Trunk was then going to build its line across Queen Street and it took an act of Legislation in 1857 to transfer the land to the railroad giving it the right of way along the harbour. Progress and the grab for cash, as always, won but the building of the Esplanade as a place for people went ahead regardless.

The sharing of the waterfront must have worked because in 1873 historian Henry Scadding so eloquently wrote in his book Old Toronto of The Esplanade "...It has done for Toronto what the Thames Embankment has done for London..."

Landfill and Industry

Over the next 80 years it was to become an industrial nightmare and it's after effects were to turn The Esplanade into, according to author Pierre Burton, the most toxic street in Canada. The Esplanade at the beginning of the 20th century was dominating by two giant coal and lumber yards owned by The Elias Rogers Company. At the foot of Market Street were its docks, pier and distribution Centre.

Ships would unload the coal and lumber, where it would sit in massive heaps (where Old York Tower and 55 The Esplanade now stand), before being placed on trains that would run the length of The Esplanade where it would then be unloaded at the refinery at Berkeley Street. This refinery yard was colossal, taking up the block bounded by Sherbourne, Front, Berkeley and The Esplanade and it shared its acreage with the Consumer Gas Company, still standing in part and is now home to The Canadian Stage Company and The Canadian Opera Company at Front and Berkeley.

Toronto Island

Visitors to the Toronto Islands have enjoyed their lakeside charm for centuries. Although the peninsula and surrounding sand-bars were first surveyed in 1792 by Lieutenant Bouchette of the British Navy, they were well-known by native people, who considered them a place of leisure and relaxation. The main peninsula became known to European settlers as the "Island of Hiawatha". D.W. Smith's Gazetteer recorded in 1813 that "the long beach or peninsula, which affords a most delightful ride, is considered so healthy by the Indians that they resort to it whenever indisposed". Many Indian encampments were located between the peninsula's base and the Don River. The sand-bars were also important to birds and other wildlife. During migration periods vast numbers of birds frequently stopped at the sand-bars and marshlands of the Don River and Ashbridge's Bay.

A carriage path from York which led to Gibraltar Point at the western tip of the peninsula, and also followed the shoreline east to Scarborough Bluffs, was very popular during the early 1800's. It later became known as Lake Shore Avenue. Part of the boardwalk on Centre Island traces this same route. A bridge across the Don River that was constructed to enable people from the city to reach Lake Shore Avenue also aided settlement east of the river. In 1850, the young engineer Sanford Fleming studied the sand-bar movement and calculated that twelve hectares had been added to the western section of the sand-bars over the previous fifty years. During that decade, a number of severe storms and their strong wave action worked to erode the peninsula, requiring frequent repair to small gaps until finally, in 1858, an island was created when a storm completely separated the peninsula from the mainland and the gap was not repaired. The Eastern Gap has since become an important shipping route into the Toronto Harbour.

Dredging projects have been undertaken to stabilize shorelines, reduce sand-bar movement, create deeper boating channels, or raise land levels generally. During 1904-6, a channel was cut north of the Island Filtration Plant, alongside Hiawatha Avenue. In 1909, Long Pond was dredged to replace the regatta course previously located at Hanlan's Point. The resulting material was used to enlarge Mugg's Island. Similar projects created Olympic Island. High lake levels continually damaged island properties and, on January 1, 1956, the City of Toronto transferred responsibility for the Toronto Islands to The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto (Metro) to be developed as a regional park. Many projects were undertaken by Metro Parks and Culture including fully accessible washrooms, a public marina, an amusement area and petting zoo, and the establishment of naturalized areas and wildlife reserves. In 1998, Metro and six municipalities were amalgamated to become the new City of Toronto.

The Island Lighthouse is the oldest landmark in Toronto. From its site on Gibraltar Point, it has watched most of Toronto's history unfold; its light beam has, for more than 150 years, been a welcome guide for the mariner into the Harbour of Toronto.

At a very early date, it was realized that a lighthouse on the peninsula (now Toronto Island) was essential to the safety of the vessels sailing Lake Ontario. In March, 1803, the following Act was passed: Section 7 - "and whereas it will be necessary and essential to the safety of vessels, boats, rafts and other craft passing from Lake Ontario into the River Niagara and passing by the island called Isle Forest and likewise into the port of York that there should be a lighthouse erected near each of the said last mentioned places.... One to be erected and build upon the.... and the other upon Gibraltar Point."

There appears to be no direct evidence of the actual date when the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse was started but in 1808 the Upper Canada Gazette printed the following: "It is a pleasure to inform the public that the dangers to vessels navigating Lake Ontario will in a great measure be avoided by the erection of a lighthouse on Gibraltar Point which is to be completed in compliance with an address in the House of Assembly to the Lieutenant Governor." The address referred to above was dated March 9, 1808, and on April 6th the Lieutenant Governor visited the peninsula and chose a site for the lighthouse.

The original structure was 16m high including a lantern and built of Queenstown stone. The building and its base, which is packed with stone to keep it in place, are hexagonal. The diameter of the base is 6.7m and the circumference is 20.7m. The walls at the base are 1.8m thick, gradually decreasing in size to 1.2m thick at the top. The structure was heightened by 3.6m in 1832 using Kingston stone. The total height of the stonework today is 19.5m the height from the stonework to vane is 5.5m and the overall height from ground to the vane of the lantern is 25m.