OLD TOWN TORONTO - STAMPING
GROUND OF ENOCH TURNER
In these fast-changing times, one challenge our area faces is educating the public and decision makers about Old Town's rich heritage and its importance to today's Toronto. People can see the buildings but they don't know what went on in them. (See Enoch Turner Schoolhouse history). Part of the Enoch Turner Schoolhouse mandate is to provide a learning resource centre about local history, so the Schoolhouse staff has created an Old Town travelling exhibit to celebrate our heritage and educate others about its importance.
First of all, there was Toronto until Governor John Graves Simcoe changed it to York, a town with a population of 1,700, huddling by the lake.
Today we consider Old Town to stretch from Yonge Street to the Don River and from Queen St. E. to just south of The Esplanade. It incorporated the oldest part of Toronto-the first 10 blocks of the town. It was a time when Toronto was gradually beginning to understand what it could be.
The exhibit, titled "Old Town Toronto: Images of Past and Presen" is comprised of two-dimensional material such as photographs, prints, maps, architectural renderings and quotations. The display covers the period from the late 18th century to the present day, because history isn't just the distant past but also encompasses recent events.
Gradually, in 1899, as Toronto moved west and north - even George Gooderham's great King Edward Hotel could not stop it - it needed its new imposing City Hall at Queen and Bay.
Today we consider Old Town to stretch from Yonge Street to the Don River and from Queen St. E. to just south of The Esplanade. It incorporated the oldest part of Toronto- the first 10 blocks of the town. It was a time when Toronto was gradually beginning to understand what it could be.
Then, as the 19th gave way to the 20th century, Old Town carried on quietly and was largely overlooked in the periods of major development.
Other buildings were not as fortunate. Large areas were torn down and replaced by parking lots. But by some miracle many early buildings did survive, either through total neglect or because insightful individuals realized their importance.
Prominent buildings such as the St. Lawrence Hall and lesser-known commercial and industrial buildings.Individuals who represent various groups or events.Streetscapes Activities.Comparisons of then and now.
This Toronto was brewer Enoch Turner's stamping ground - where things happened during the late 18th and the 19th centuries - the first Parliament buildings, the earliest churches, schools and grand houses, as well as the city's commercial centre.
Some buildings such as Enoch Turner Schoolhouse, survived through luck and citizen involvement. However, by the 1960s it, like many others, was decrepit, unloved and in danger of being torn down. Actually, the schoolhouse was very lucky because architect Eric Arthur found it and local citizens loved it. Together they restored it ready for Governor General Roland Michener to open officially as an historic site and museum in 1972.
In addition to the exhibit, our project includes a booklet on Old Town history, a display on the Enoch Turner Schoolhouse website. We are also setting up files of photographs and historical information, so if you are looking for Old Town material the Schoolhouse will be the place to start.
The city not only grew to 20,000 in the first half of the 19th century, many of them Loyalists from the American colonies, English soldiers and their families and some incoming Irish Protestants and slaves fleeing the southern United States, but in 1847 it opened its arms to an overwhelming 38,000 refugees from Ireland's potato famine. The city adjusted. Protestants and Catholics rubbed along together with many of the newcomers settling in Corktown where Enoch Turner built his schoolhouse and had his brewery. (Corktown gets its name from County Cork, the embarkation point for many Irish immigrants.) 2007 marked the 160th anniversary of the initial arrival of Irish famine immigrants.
Other buildings were not as fortunate. Large areas were torn down and replaced by parking lots. But by some miracle many early buildings did survive, either through total neglect or because insightful individuals realized their importance.
Old Town has a fascinating and important history. And once again its built heritage is in danger not from neglect this time but from developers who seem to put up new buildings virtually every day.
The Old Town Toronto Project is made possible by a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Culture.
The heritage community is not opposed to development per se, but wants to have input to ensure that it is heritage friendly. This sentiment works both ways - for us and for developers. We love and respect our old buildings for giving our city texture and reminding us of our history and developers' buildings become successful because they gain inhabitants who feel the same way.
