Discover Toronto's history as told through its plaques

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Fort York

Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted May, 2008

Photo Source - Wikimedia Commons

In Fort York, beside the north walkway, is an Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada plaque (Note: this plaque has been removed as of April 2015). Here's what it tells us about the fort:

Coordinates: 43.639150 -79.403300

Click here for a larger map

Fort York constituted the primary defensive position in early York (Toronto). The present buildings, erected between 1813 and 1815 to replace those destroyed during the American occupations of York in 1813, are among the oldest in Toronto and are important surviving examples of British military architecture. At the turn of the 20th century, the fort was threatened with demolition. The fight to save it led to one of the first victories of the Canadian heritage movement. The fort was bought by the city in 1909 and restored between 1932 and 1934 as part of Toronto's centennial celebration.

More
Conflict

Below are 5 related plaques which can be found
in the Fort York Neighbourhood just east of the fort.

Angelique Street

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted May, 2015

In the sidewalk at the northeast corner of Fleet Street and Angelique streets can be found this 2011 Heritage Toronto plaque. Here's what it says:

Coordinates: 43.636277 -79.405322

Angelique Givins (c. 1775-1842), in her house near present-day Queen and Givins Streets, provided care to Aboriginal warriors wounded in the Battle of York. She was later forced from her home by plundering American troops.

Related Toronto plaque
Colonel James Givins

Bastion Street

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted May, 2015

Photo Source - Wikipedia

In the sidewalk at the northwest corner of Fleet and Bastion Streets can be found this 2014 Heritage Toronto plaque. Here's what it says:

Coordinates: 43.636014 -79.403604

Fort York's southwest bastion, built in 1814-15, is the projecting corner of the fort's wall that is visible beyond the north end of this street.

Related webpage
bastion

Sloping Sky Mews

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted May, 2015

In the sidewalk on the west side of Bastion Street at Sloping Sky Mews can be found this 2014 Heritage Toronto plaque. Here's what it says:

Coordinates: 43.636670 -79.403773

Nawahjegezhegwabe (1786-1863), whose Anishinaabe name means "the sloping sky," was a leading ally of the British at the Battle of York in 1813. Also named Joseph Sawyer, he was later a Chief of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation.

Grand Magazine Street

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted May, 2015

In the sidewalk at the northeast corner of Fleet and Grand Magazine Streets can be found this 2011 Heritage Toronto plaque. Here's what it says:

Coordinates: 43.636169 -79.402007

The Grand Magazine holding Fort York's gunpowder supply stood at the north end of this street. In the Battle of York, 1813, the retreating British detonated the magazine with devastating impact on the American attack.

Bruyeres Mews

Photos and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted May, 2015

Inlaid in the sidewalk at the southwest corner of Bathurst Street and Bruyeres Mews can be found this 2011 Heritage Toronto plaque. Six other Heritage Toronto plaques can been seen further down this page. All are in the same Fort York neighbourhood. Here's what this plaque says:

Coordinates: 43.639150 -79.403300

Click here for a larger map

Colonel Ralph Bruyeres (c. 1765-1814), Commanding Royal Engineers, superintended the rebuilding of Fort York after its destruction during the Battle of York on April 27, 1813.

Related webpage
Ralph Bruyeres

Here are the visitors' comments for this page.

> Posted October 20, 2016
This plaque has been removed and will likely be grouped with memorial plaques to Zebulon Pike and the battle which were installed in the 1930s and displayed in a stone wall inside the fort until 2010. Meantime, large photo reproductions of the Pike and battle plaques (but not this one) are on display upstairs in the Number 1 (East) blockhouse at the fort. -Wayne

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