Archived Article: Colonel Samuel Smith Park

COLONEL SAMUEL SMITH PARK

In 1793, Colonel Samuel Bois Smith of Queen's Rangers was granted 1680 hectares of Crown land by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe. The land extended from Lake Ontario to Bloor Street and from Kipling Avenue to Etobicoke Creek. Colonel Smith was one of Etobicoke's first settlers and played a role in the public administration of Upper Canada.

Except for a mill built about 1820 and a trail which crossed through the property roughly following today's Lake Shore Boulevard West, Col. Samuel's large estate remained undeveloped, impeding local settlement and east-west transportation during the colony's early years. The south eastern most portion of his land is now part of this waterfront park.

The park includes lands associated with the former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital which was established and operated by the province from 1888 to 1979. The former hospital farms and gardens are now a significant public greenspace and heritage resource.

An additional 21.5 ha landfill area created by the Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (M.T.R.C.A.) brings the park to its present size of 78,756 hectares. Naturalization and habitat restoration projects have been undertaken including the creation of a wetland and Carolinian tree and shrub plantings.

The area was known to support small population of smallmouth and largemouth bass and was an important migratory stopover for waterfowl, shorebirds and songbirds. Significant opportunities were identified to enhance habitats for fish, resident and migrating bird species, amphibians, reptiles and small mammals.

In 1993 the Waterfront Trail through Col. Samuel Smith Park was completed and a 3.6 ha wetland creation project was initiated. The wetland was expanded to include a second complex adjacent to the boat basin. The two areas were connected in 1995 by a wet meadow. Another wetland complex was created in 1996 along the south shore of the bat basin. Habitat improvements have included mud flats, seasonal flooded areas, underwater and shoreline fish habitat, turtle nesting and basking locations, snake hibernating areas and amphibian ponds.

Colonel Samuel Smith Park is located at the foot of Kipling Avenue at Lake Shore Boulevard West. Public transit includes the Kipling South 44 bus and the Queen Street 501 streetcar. Vehicles should enter the park at the Lake Shore Boulevard/Kipling Avenue entrance. Pedestrians and cyclists can also enter the park along the Waterfront Trail at Lake Promenade to the west or the Lake Shore Drive to the east.

Archived Article: Montgomery's Meadow Native Wildflower Planting Project

MONTGOMERY'S MEADOW NATIVE WILDFLOWER PLANTING PROJECT

Building on the City of Etobicoke's success of the 1996 Communities in Bloom competition whereby the city was recognized nationally for its Community Involvement and Environmental awareness, the Montgomery's Meadow wildflower planting was intended to be an experimental and learning site for future naturalized native meadow plantings. The plan was to plant approximately 12,000 wildflower plugs of a variety of suitable indigenous native species encompassing an area of nearly 2,000 square metres. This planting was to be performed by organized groups of volunteers including the Etobicoke Horticultural Society, the Montgomery Rate Payers Association, Girl Guides, Etobicoke Collegiate Institute, Our Lady of Sorrows School and the community. The success of Phase One surpassed our expectations and has led to great enthusiasm to move forward with Phase Two.

Our local government budgets are being cut each year. We, as citizens, can be proactive by becoming involved in environmental initiatives. Etobicoke is fortunate in our parks and forestry department is encouraging and supportive, and give of their own time to assist with the many projects that the community has undertaken.

Montgomery's Meadow is situated within Central Park, just south of Montgomery's Inn (Dundas Street West and Islington Ave.). The site was difficult to manage from a Parks Operations perspective and was identified as a desirable area to be naturalized. As well as Montgomery's Inn, the site is also contiguous to a well-used section of the City bicycle/pedestrian path system. Although the site is located within the valley lands of the Mimico Creek, the recessed exposure of the site affords great learning opportunities for area school children, local citizens, as well as habitat creation for wildlife within the valley.

Replacing the turf with native vegetation would permit the Mimico Creek to act as an ecological link with other habitat restoration projects. In this way we could provide some meadow habitat for rabbits and voles and song birds at all seasons. We also hoped to keep overwintering butterfly chrysalises and other insects.

Native plant selection is in keeping with the historical context of the site and describes a typical meadow in this area at time of settlement. All of the plants we used were native to Southern Ontario and most reflect local genetic adaptations. In this way we hoped to preserve locally specific species of wildflowers.

The project also provided an opportunity to promote the values of natural communities to the public. Familiarity with the native plant communities in our neighbourhoods encourages an appreciation of the inherent beauty and diversity. It encourages an accommodation of these native plants in places where we live.

The goals of the project therefore were to:

1.        Enhance the natural environment through the planting of native wildflowers.

2.        Promote community stewardship. Protecting and nurturing our natural areas provides the community with a sense of place and ownership, resulting in pride and satisfaction.

3.        Become a model demonstration site of different techniques of clearing, planting and maintenance.

Canada Trust through their AFriends of the Environment Foundation gives organizations grants for environmental projects. The Etobicoke Horticultural Society, as a non profit organization and lead partner offered to apply to Canada Trust for a grant of $5,000.00 for the native plant Aplugs. These were purchased from Otter Valley Native Plants and included Swamp Milkweed, Butterfly Milkweed, Monarda fistulosa, Penstemon digitalis, Columbine, Purple Stemmed Aster, Great Blue Lobelia, Geranium, Woodland Sunflower, Carex pensylvanica, Switch Grass, and Rudbeckia hirta to name a few. Native plant seed had previously been collected by others and given to the Humber College School of Horticulture and the Etobicoke Parks Department Greenhouses where seedlings were also grown. Jack in the Pulpits, May Flowers and other native plants were donated. The Etobicoke Parks & Forestry Division also provided forestry staff to assist in preparing the site.

The Meadow was divided into two areas:

1.        An area for late summer-blooming prairie-type flowers which would stand through the winter and be mown in mid-spring.

2.        An area of spring blooming flowers which would be mown in late summer. A yearly mowing is necessary to maintain the meadow-nature of the site.

In late April 1997 the turf was removed by a combination of processes including black plastic and wood chips. Within eight weeks the turf under the plastic was dead and we were ready to get started. In early June, a teacher from Etobicoke Collegiate Institute used the project to involve his students in environmental studies and the students spent one to two hours each day for a week helping to prepare the site, plant shrubs and wildflower plugs (in grids of six plants, 10 inches apart.) The horticultural society organized two evening community planting events where members and the public were invited to bring a trowel and gloves and help plant. The press were invited and even local councillors came down. Approximately 36 volunteers showed up each evening and worked in teams. At the end of each evening the plants were watered and for the next few weeks the watering was done by the parks department staff. Our Lady of Sorrows School also came to help. In some areas mulch was used to keep unwanted weeds out while the young plants became established.

By September, three months after planting, many of the plants were in flower and most plants had survived our dry summer. The plant growth was beyond our expectations. Some knowledgeable local residents would even weed where necessary while strolling in the park. A bench was donated by Etobicoke Hort. Society so residents might rest awhile under the trees.

Planting for Phase Two has already started. A second grant was approved by Canada Trust for another $5,000 to extend our naturalized planting area; to install a protective split rail fencing around the area most liable to damage from foot traffic; build a Achipmunk wall to provide habitat to encourage an increase in the remnant chipmunk population of the area and erect interpretive signage. In September a community planting was organized one Saturday morning when twenty-eight adults and children planted another 1,400 plants. The chipmunk habitat was completed in November and more shrubs planted. The spilt rail fence was install in December.

Anyone who wishes to start another similar project and would like more information may contact Murray Cameron, Barbara Clarke, Cathy Faber, Debby Morton or Trish Murphy.

Archived Article: Nations in Bloom 2000 Qualification for the City of Toronto

TORONTO GOES TO THE NATIONS IN BLOOM CONTEST IN JAPAN

The City of Toronto has been advised by letter that the city has qualified as a finalist in the Nations in Bloom contest being held February 10-14 2000 in Hamamatsu, Japan . Toronto competes with Novgorod in Russia, Salvador in Brazil, and Quingg Dao City in China. It promises to be a very exciting contest as each of these cities has tackled major problems with a great deal of ingenuity, and competition is fierce. 


There will be a 35 minute presentation to the judges which will include a video and up to 20 overhead slides. The written portion has already been reviewed by the judges: it provided the basis for being selected as a finalist. Toronto's elegant presentation was prepared by Leslie Coates of the Parks and Recreation Division and featured on the cover gorgeous photographs of the High Park black oak savannah and the glorious wild lupine colony that has been re-established there. Inside the booklet-format presentation was an introduction that gave a general overview of the city, paying particular attention to the beauty of the ravines that flank our six rivers. Topics covered included heritage building management, the details of environmentally sensitive practices used in Metro, the different sorts of community involvement, landscape enhancements (special usage parks etc) and the long range planning for the future. These five elements of the judging criteria carry even marks. At the final presentation, the community as a whole is considered-not just particular and exceptional projects within the municipality. 
These contests are important because the liveable city is the future for most of humanity. Sharing technology and motivation will help us to develop cities that are healthy and satisfying places to live. 


written by Fiona Campbell, for Barbara Clark, Parks and Forestry Advisory Board Chairperson: 232-2243 for details. 

Archived Article: Communities in Bloom 1998 Win for Etobicoke-York Region

Etobicoke-York Region won the prestigious Communities in Bloom contest in 1998 for the most beautiful city in Canada with a population over 300,000. The first prize in the National Contest qualifies the City to enter the Nations in Bloom contest - an international forum for Toronto to showcase some of the good reasons for living here.

In an address to Council in December 1998, Mayor Lastman and Communities in Bloom directors soundly endorsed Toronto's bid to enter the contest. Council supported the motion and we now have our go-ahead. Great plans are afoot for a video presentation and a written submission that will demonstrate the exceptional people from every walk of life who have gone out and improved a little piece of their city using sound organic farming or state of the art forestry practices, new engineering technology, imagination, historical relevance and ingenuity. The best part of the presentation to the international judges is that tens of thousands of tax dollars were NOT diverted from general revenue for "beautification" projects. The funding for waterfront restoration, native shrubs and trees in parks , highway plantings and school yard naturalizations were generated from ordinary citizens and clubs, and organizations such as Canada Trusts Friends of the Environment, the Toronto Atmospheric Fund, Greenstreets Canada and Shell Canada to name but a few. The good work continues: 10,000 trees and shrubs for Highway 427 are now paid for and needing you to plant them this spring: please call now (232-2243) to sign up for planting days in April and early May. We will meet at Etobicoke Civic Centre and bus over to the areas where the trees are to be put in. Bring a car full of friends and shovels if you own them, gloves etc and plant a tree for the next century in the new millenium. You'll never drive up the 427 again without checking out how your special tree is doing…

Keep our city clean. Pick up other people's litter. Recycle diligently, plant more flowers, vines and shrubs and compost some more of that lawn. Plant the roadsides with tough native species that don't need chemicals. Hang up bird feeders and bat boxes. Ours is a glorious city intersected with great ravines, gorges of ancient rock veiled with glittering waterfalls, stately stands of trees, grasslands, a lake that stretches to the horizon . To win the International Competition, all we have to do is look after it and preserve the natural richness we so take for granted. Volunteer.

written by Fiona Campbell, Communities in Bloom & Highway 427

A Brief History of Etobicoke

By Paul Willoughby, President of the York Pioneer and Historical Society

On early maps of Canada the area we know as Etobicoke is shown as an insignificant part of a vast forest covered tract of land known as 'Indian Hunting Grounds'. The river flowing along its eastern boundary appears on Champlain maps as early as 1632. Originally called The Toronto River, it was renamed Humber by John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada.

The east bank of the Humber river, near its mouth, gave access to the Toronto Carrying Place, a 28 mile Indian foot path as old as human life in North America. Etienne Brulé, a young French protégé of Champlain, who traversed The Toronto Carrying Place in the early 1600's was probably the first white man to set foot in Etobicoke. Rene-Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle, the great pathfinder in the New World, passed over The Toronto Carrying Place at least four times and often sheltered his boats in the Humber.

The first white settler in the area was Jean Baptiste Rosseau, a French trader. He was trading at the mouth of the Humber by 1791 and had a log home at the foot of The Carrying Place by 1798.

After the defeat of the French of the Plains of Abraham in 1759, the area came under British rule. On December 26, 1791 the British Parliament passed The Canada Act, providing for the establishment of Upper and Lower Canada, each with an Executive Council and Elected Assembly. Colonel John Graves Simcoe, a veteran of the American War of Independence was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. He soon recruited a new corps of Queen's Rangers, of which he had been a commander, for the colonization and defence of the Province. The corps was made up of half-pay officers and skilled artisans such as carpenters and blacksmiths. In 1793 Simcoe chose the site of Toronto, which he called York, as his capital.

In the fall of 1793 the Lieutenant Governor established on the west side of the Humber River the King's Saw Mill which has been recognized as Etobicoke's first industry. The location of this historic mill was a little south of the site of the Old Mill, the present ruins of William Gambles Stone Grist Mill.

In 1794 a road was surveyed west of York across Etobicoke. Built between 1795 and 1798, it parallelled an old Indian trail from the King's Saw Mill west to Etobicoke Creek. Almost a decade later this original Dundas Street was moved north to its present location.

In 1787 Lord Dorchester, the first Governor General of Canada executed the Toronto Purchase with the Mississauga Indians. This involved all the land from the Scarborough Bluffs to Etobicoke Creek and northerly for 28 miles. This encompassed all of present day Etobicoke. There was a dispute over whether the Humber River or Etobicoke Creek was the western boundary of the Toronto Purchase. Finally the Indians allowed Surveyor Alexander Atkins to survey as far west as Etobicoke Creek but insisted that the river be the eastern boundary. The government paid the Indians 10 Shillings to settle the dispute over ownership of the land from the Humber to Etobicoke Creek. All of this gives rise to the story that Etobicoke was once sold for 10 Shillings.

The Canada Act of 1791 allowed for the establishment of counties, towns and townships. York County was one of 19 counties. The area in the south-west corner of York County was surveyed into a Township. The boundaries were the Humber River, Lake Ontario, Etobicoke Creek, Toronto Township, the Gore of Toronto, and Vaughan Township. The area covered approximately 44 square miles. It had many names, the original "Wah-do-ge-kaug' being Ojibway for "Where the Black Alders Grow". Several interpretations of this were used including 'Ato-be-cooke' A-doo-be-keg, and Toby Creek'. Finally in 1795 Simcoe gave his blessing to the name Etobicoke.

In 1805 a census showed 84 persons residing in the Township. By the second census in 1809 this had risen to 137.

In 1793 the militia lands comprising 4,150 acres were laid out in Etobicoke. Of this number 1,530 acres were granted to Samuel Bois Smith, Major in Command of the Second Corps of the Queen's Rangers. Smith was a veteran of the Revolutionary War. This tract of land encompassed all the lake frontage from the Centre Road (Kipling Avenue) to the Etobicoke Creek and all the land along the east band almost to what is now Bloor Street. Samuel Bois Smith and Jane Isabella Gamble, daughter of Dr. John Gamble, Surgeon of the Queen's Rangers, were married in 1799. They built a substantial home south of the Lakeshore Road which although greatly altered over the years remained until 1955. This large almost undeveloped tract of land proved itself to be a hindrance in the early development of the Township.

The Lakeshore Road was first opened through the Township in 1804 but because of the few settlers and the large land grants, was poorly maintained.

Also around 1795 Simcoe granted land to half-pay officers and government officials. These 200 acre parcels were located along the lake and further north in the Township. Many of these people did not settle on the land so development was slow. Many soon sold this land. Some United Empire Loyalists came to Canada as well as some American citizens who came as a result of the promise of free land. This ended with the War of 1812. After the War of 1812 with the United States, discharged soldiers once again came to Etobicoke receiving their grants of land.

The Army Bill Act of 1812 enabled paper money to circulate in the province. This was needed for the payment of taxes. An 1821 memorandum shows taxes in Etobicoke were: 4 cents per annum per acre of usable land; 1 cent per acre of bushland; 32 cents for a horse; 16 cents for an ox; and 4 cents per head of livestock. A tax of 42 cents was levied on a vehicle kept for pleasure. Buildings were taxed based on the number of fireplaces and windows.

The early 1820's saw Britain experiencing very high unemployment. Within the first half of the the 19th Century, eight million people left Britain for Canada. Newcomers to Etobicoke who were entitled to grants of land from the Crown were given 'Tickets of Location' which authorized them to seek out and take possession of the land allocated to them. A Crown Deed was granted only after prescribed settlement duties had been performed. Being a small township the few land grants were soon taken up and many people had to buy their lands.

As early as 1806 William Cooper built grist and saw mills on the west side of the Humber just below Dundas Street. Settlers in Etobicoke on the west side soon began petitioning for a bridge over the Humber to reach these mills. The Dundas Street bridge was finally built in 1816.

The Silverthorn Family who were United Empire Loyalists came to Etobicoke just after the 1805 census and settled on the west side of the Township. They built large saw and grist mills on the east side of the upper reaches of Etobicoke Creek in 1807. They laid out a road from Dundas Street to Burnhamthorpe Road providing easy access to the mills. The old throughfare is still called Mill Road.

At first all local authorities was in the hands of the Justices of the Peace for each of Upper Canada's four judicial districts. Etobicoke was located in the Home District. In 1841, with the passage of the District Council Act, ratepayers were able to elect members of council. The Warden and Treasurer were still appointed by the Governor-in-Council. The Baldwin or Municipal Corporations Act of 1849 increased the authority of municipal councils making all positions elected. Etobiocke Township was divided into five wards and the first elections were held. The first council meeting was held at noon on Monday,January 21,1850. From this time on Etobicoke started to grow more rapidly.

At one time the Township of Etobicoke contained 18 communities ranging from small crossroads to villages and towns. Mimico, New Toronto, Long Branch, Humber Bay, Alderwood, The Queensway, Lambton Mills, Kingsway Park, Sunny Lea, Islington, Summerville, Eatonville, Richview, Westmount, Highfield, Thistletown, Smithfield & Claireville. As the township grew other communities evolved such as Rexdale and Markland Wood. In 1953 the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was formed (which included the Township of Etobicoke to the west and Scarborough to the east with York, North York, East York and Toronto in between.) In 1967 all the small communities which were previously separate within the Township of Etobicoke were amalgamated to form the Borough of Etobicoke within Metropolitan Toronto. In June 1983, the Borough of Etobicoke became a city.