Discover Toronto's history as told through its plaques

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The First Ten Blocks of York

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted December 2017

This 2016 Heritage Toronto plaque, located on the northwest corner of Front Street East and George Street, has this to say:

Coordinates: 43.649959 -79.370417

Click here for a larger map

In 1793, John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, established a fort and chose the site for a small town at a natural harbour on the north shore of Lake Ontario. The location was strategic, near major Indigenous trails to the northern Great Lakes, and considered defensible from naval attack. Simcoe named the town "York," after Frederick Augustus, Duke of York, second son of King George III, who had recently won a military victory against the French.

That same summer, Simcoe ordered his regiment, the Queen's Rangers, to begin clearing the site of trees. Surveyor Alexander Aitken mapped out a ten-block townsite bounded by present-day George, Adelaide, Berkeley, and Front Streets.

Areas immediately east and west of the town became government and military reserves. Parcels of land on the edge of the town were granted to government officials, military officers, and settlers.

By 1804, York and its surrounding area had a population of 1,013. The town included 75 wooden houses and a market near the present-day intersection of King and Jarvis Streets. Two red-brick Parliament Buildings stood south of present-day Front Street, between Berkeley and Parliament Streets. The Town of York was incorporated as the City of Toronto in 1834.

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