Discover Toronto's history as told through its plaques

2004 - Now in our 14th Year - 2018

To see what's new on this site, you can visit the Home Page

Looking at this page on a smartphone?
For best viewing, hold your phone in Landscape mode (Horizontal)

The King's Mill

Photos by Alan L Brown - Posted August, 2011

This Story Circle, the tenth of 13 story circles on the "Discovery Walks - The Shared Path", can be found in King's Mill Park on the west side of the westside parking lot. Here's what the plaques say:

Coordinates: 43.650060 -79.492473

For thousands of years, the Humber River served as a corridor for Aboriginal settlement and trade. In late 1793, only a few months after British officials founded the Town of York (now Toronto), the river began to be converted into a corridor for water-powered industry. Here, within sight of the remains of Aboriginal villages and a French fur-trading post, the British government constructed Toronto's first industrial building - a rough, low shed with a water-powered saw - to supply lumber for government purposes. It became known as "King's Mill".

Poorly managed and badly maintained, the first King's Mill burned in 1803. Other water-powered sawmills and gristmills (for grinding grains into flour) followed on this site. The last and grandest of them all was constructed circa 1848 as a key part of merchant William Gamble's expanding milling enterprise.

Burned in 1881, its stone ruins would become one of Toronto's most romantic landmarks, known as "the Old Mill" and a rare visible reminder in the late-20th century of the days of water power. The ruins were dismantled in 2000 and replaced by a hotel, loosely modelled after the mill and partly clad with its stones.

Shared Path Story Circles Information and Map
Discovery Walks - The Shared Path

Other plaques that mention William Gamble
The Lost Village of Milton Mills
The Old Mill
St. George's On-The-Hill

Other Toronto plaques about mills
Early Don Mills
Early Mill Site
Gray Mill and Donalda Cattle Barn
Highland Creek Mills
The Old Mill
Silverthorn Family and Mill Farm
This Millstone
Todmorden Mills
York Mills

Links to all the other Story Circles
  #1 Discover the Humber River's Ancient Past
  #2 Toronto Carrying Place
  #3 Railways Over the Humber
  #4 Roads over the Humber River
  #5 Boating on the Humber River
  #6-1 The Beginnings of French Toronto
  #6-2 The Rousseaux Family and Early Toronto
  #6-3 Jean-Baptiste Rousseaux 1758-1812
  #7 Humber River Marshes and Oak Savannah
  #8 Huron-Wendat Villages on the Humber River
  #9 Hurricane Hazel
#11 Teiaiagon and the Aboriginal Occupation of Baby Point
#12 Dundas Street Crossing and Lambton Mills
#13 Mississauga Settlements on the Humber River

Here are the visitors' comments for this page.

(none yet)

Here's where you can send me a comment for this page.

Note: Your email address will be posted at the end of your comment so others can respond to you unless you request otherwise.

Note: Comments are moderated. Yours will appear on this page within 24 hours (usually much sooner).

Note: As soon as I have posted your comment, a reply to your email will be sent informing you.

To send me your comment, click [email protected].

Thanks
Webmaster

Note: If you wish to send me a personal email, click here.