Category Archives: Uncategorized

Ball’s Falls

Saturday, Dec. 31, 2016

Ball’s Falls is a quick drive down the QEW toward St. Catharines. In the mid-1800’s it was a major industrial centre and a hub for the region. By the late 1800’s most of it was gone and the commercial activity had moved off the escarpment and closer to the lake.

George and John Ball were living near Albany New York in the 1770’s with their families operating a potash business. Many settlers in that area produced potash by burning the wood on their property and then running water through the ashes repeatedly. This ash was then boiled down in a pot until a potassium rich fertilizer was created. When the American War of Independence broke out the Ball brothers fought on the side of the British. At the end of the war in 1783 they fled to Niagara and took up land as United Empire Loyalists. Their land on the Niagara Escarpment was an easy source of limestone and they operated several kilns on the property to produce lime. One of the kilns closest to the house is being preserved. A roof has been erected over the top of this draw kiln where at one time the chunks of limestone were poured into the top of the kiln. The fire was kept hot from below until the rock was broken down. The entrance to the oven is also being supported and inside the kiln the brick lining is starting to cave in.

The first job of a settler was to secure a place to spend the winter. Clearing the forest provided the logs to build the first family home. Having a permanent dwelling was also a requirement for gaining the full patent on the land. A house similar to the original Ball home is now being used to display the typical lifestyle of a settler and a spinning wheel can be seen through the window.

By 1809 a grist mill had been set up to grind flour for the local farmers. The building had four floors and George Ball was listed as the miller. During the War of 1812, the American forces made several advances into Upper Canada but had to keep retreating. When they did they would try to burn the mills along the way, as was done with John Burch’s mill at Niagara Falls. To protect the food supplies of the British Military, and the local population, the army decided to station troops at Ball’s mill to ensure that it wouldn’t be destroyed. As a result, the mill played a critical role in supporting the war effort.

The mill was expanded in the 1840’s to include another run of stones. Twenty Mile Creek was dammed above the lower falls to create a steady flow of water to operate the mill. Water was brought to the mill, in the background of the picture below, via the raceway which ran through the opening in the rock wall. The large water wheel is still in place in the mill. After turning the wheel the water poured out through the back of the mill and dropped down the ravine face to the creek below.

In 1816 they built a sawmill close the lower falls. There was plenty of timber in the area and many local bridges were made with lumber sawn at the Ball’s sawmill. In the early 1900’s the local supply of timber was exhausted and the sawmill closed. The lower falls can be seen in the cover photo and they are classified as a classic waterfall because the width and height are about equal at 27 metres. In the picture below, taken at the crest of the falls, you can see the walls of the gorge that the falls have cut over the years. This waterfall exposes the upper layers of the Niagara Escarpment. The top, darker layer, is the capstone of the escarpment known as the Lockport Formation. Below that is the softer shale layers of the grey and red sandstone known as Thorold and Grimsby respectively.

In 1824 they further expanded by adding a wool mill to their holdings. Built onto a 60 foot bluff overlooking the creek it was placed 1/4 mile upstream near the Upper Falls. The mill housed 8 looms that produced cloth and yarn. It was run by water diverted from above the falls. Due to the gradient of the land no dam was required to keep the mill operating. The archive photo below shows what the mill looked like during its years of operation.

The mill is long gone but there is still one wall and a window frame nestled into a crevice overlooking the ravine.

The upper falls are classified as a curtain falls because the width is greater than the height. The falls are 11 metres high.

To the left of the falls in the picture above is a section of rock where the water is pouring out between layers of harder dolostone and softer limestone. This is a type of karst activity that results from carbon dioxide mixing with rainwater. This creates a weak form of carbonic acid which can erode the limestone. Over time, the water has cut channels between the layers of rock where it flows out near the falls.

As the Balls became more established they built the home which still stands close to the grist mill and adjacent to the lower falls.

In the 1840’s there were several homes added to the community as well as a boarding house for the mill workers. All communities needed a place of worship and a little church was added for the spiritual welfare of the residents.

As the population grew it started to attract other tradesmen including a butcher, a cooper, a tailor, a bookmaker and a blacksmith. In 1849 George P. M. Ball, the son, had a plan drawn up for a subdivision for a community to be called Glen Elgin. However, the community had already reached its peak and the plan was never implemented. Two main factors led to the demise of Ball’s Falls. The opening of the Welland Canal helped to prosper the communities closest to it. Roads and railways ran along the strip of land between the escarpment and the lake and the area declined in importance. By 1883 when George Sr. passed away only the grist mill remained in operation. Within 5 years most of the buildings had been dismantled and sold for materials. In 1910 the grist mill closed and the town was gone. The blacksmith shop is seen below.

In 1962 The Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority purchased the property and it is currently managed as Ball’s Falls Conservation Area. Some of the buildings at Ball’s Falls have been moved there from other locations to recreate the scene of the typical community. There are three marked trails in the park as well as The Bruce Trail which runs beside the lower falls. Twenty Mile Creek is prone to drying up in the summer so plan to visit in spring or after a good rain storm or snow melt.

Google Maps Link: Ball’s Falls Conservation Area

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Mimico Branch Asylum

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December 27, 2016

In the beginning there was the Provincial Lunatic Asylum at 999 Queen Street. Built in 1850, it was designed by John George Howard who built Colborne Lodge and donated High Park to the city. When it was decided to expand the government looked for space outside the city so that they could build a hospital with natural surroundings to help calm the patients. They found Lot 5 and 6 in Etobicoke which were originally deeded to Daniel Stuart and Samuel Smith respectively. The government bought lot 5 in 1888 for use as an extension of the Provincial Lunatic Asylum in a style known as Moral Treatment. Lot 6 was bought in 1901 and used by the asylum for a farm that helped supply the kitchen at the hospital.

In the 1880’s it was thought that building a new facility with several cottage style buildings rather than a centralized hospital structure would provide better therapy for the mental patients it housed. Construction began in 1888 using patients from the 999 Queen Street asylum as labour, all of which was supervised by local tradesmen. When the asylum opened on January 21, 1889, it was known as the Mimico Branch Asylum. It had several other names over the years and when it became independent of the Queen Street Asylum in 1894 it took on the name Mimico Insane Asylum. In 1920 it became The Ontario Hospital, Mimico and in 1934 The Ontario Hospital, New Toronto. In 1964 the final name was Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital, a name it carried until it closed on September 1, 1979. The picture below shows several of the hospital cottages facing the lake.

Cottages were built to house 50 patients each. Including the extensions on the either end, each cottage was 40 by 80 feet. The cottages were all connected by underground tunnels which are still in use. One of these tunnels contains the morgue and over the years thousands of patients died here. There is an ongoing suggestion that some of the buildings may be haunted. The picture below shows one of five the cottages on the south end which would have housed female patients. The male patients were housed in the buildings on the north side of the campus. This particular cottage, and the male counterpart, were not part of the original concept. They were added in 1892 as maximum-security wards for the criminally insane and those who were deemed to be incurable. Rooms here were single occupancy.

A power station was constructed that could burn coal for energy and provide heat for the cottages. In the early 1930’s a campaign by the Department of Public Works to eliminate fire hazards led to the closing of the congested boiler rooms in the centre building. The powerhouse originally stood beside the lake.

The building below was originally part of the earliest construction and was designated as cottage 1 and 2. It housed women and in 1931 it was expanded due to an increased need for space. An extension was put on each end and the centre between the two cottages was filled in. A similar treatment was given to cottages A and B for the men. Notice the flat grey section between the second and third story windows which only shows on the three sections that were not part of the original construction. Cottage number 2 on the south end had the inside destroyed by fire in 1905 but was quickly refurbished using patient labour.

By decreeing that the work was part of the patient’s therapy it was possible to justify not paying them. Patients worked at building and maintaining the hospital and in planting the grounds. With the addition of a farm, also operated with free patient labour, the hospital was self-sufficient. All that remains of the farm is part of the orchard which can still be found across the road from the hospital.

The Administration building was constructed in 1889 to house the resident physician and his attendants. Starting in 1910 the attic space was used as a nurse’s residence and this continued until 1932 when the Nurse’s Residence was built. As originally constructed, the administration building had an additional floor and a turret. These were removed during renovations in the early 1930’s to avoid the cost of maintaining them.

The superintendant’s house was built in 1894 in the Queen Anne style that was popular between 1880 and 1910. The late victorian era was a time of change and innovation and homes had asymmetrical towers and bays and windows of all shapes and sizes. Dr. Thomas Daily Cumberland was in charge of administration between 1936 and 1959 and was the last superintendent to live here. The house took on the name Cumberland House in the 1950’s and now serves as the Jean Tweed Centre, a place for women to get help with addictions.

The Assembly Hall was built in 1898 as a place of worship and entertainment for the patients. The second floor served as a meeting room with a church on one end and a stage on the other. The main floor held space for a storehouse, boiler room and coal storage. Today it has been renovated into the Assembly Hall Community Cultural Centre.

An oval field was created by the patients for playing cricket. Today it remains as a depression surrounded by mature pine trees. It is between the Assembly Hall and the Gatehouse.

The Gatehouse was built in 1893 and was originally known as the Entrance Lodge. Prior to its renovation in 1998 it was in very bad condition inside with most of the walls and ceilings crumbling.

Over the years many people died while they were living at the psychiatric hospital. People who had no relatives or other means of providing for their burial were taken a short distance north and buried in a graveyard that was exclusive to the hospital. Originally a road divided the graveyard down the middle. Catholics were buried on the west side and Protestants on the east. Until 1957 the graves were not marked except by a numbered row on the east side and lettered row on the west. Each row contained 25 burial plots. Between 1890 and 1974 there were 1511 burials in the cemetery with only the last 154 getting grave markers bearing their names and the year they were born and died. This graveyard can be seen as an open field on the south side of the Gardiner Expressway, just east of Kipling. The cover photo shows the sign that marks this old graveyard

In 1979 the hospital was closed because it was believed that a more community-based treatment program would be more effective. The buildings were in need of repair and the funding wasn’t made available. Over its 90-year operation, the hospital had many nameless individuals who lived, worked and died hidden away from the community. In 1991, after a dozen years of neglect Humber College signed a 99-year lease on the property and began to renovate the bildings. Colonel Samuel Smith Park will be the subject of a future post.

Google Maps link: Mimico Branch Asylum (Humber College Lakeshore Campus)

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All-Time Top Trails (So far…)

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December 31, 2016

April 2014 saw the release of the very first Hiking the GTA post. It was greeted with great enthusiasm by myself and one other person. Since that time there have been over 220 stories released to an audience that continues to grow. I would like to take this opportunity to say “Thank You” to the people who checked out the Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/hikingthegta and gave the page or a post a “like”. I’m also grateful for the people who follow the blog at http://www.hikingthegta.com. With all those stories to choose from, and limited time to explore, how do you decide where to start? To help ease that decision here is a listing of the most popular stories from 2014 – 2016. Check out the link (blue) to something that interests you and, perhaps, print the story. Then, it’s road-trip time!

No. 15. The Devil’s Punch Bowl. This story includes the climb down to visit the Lower Punch Bowl and the interior of the Devil’s Punch Bowl. These two waterfalls can be quite spectacular when there is a full flow of water.

No. 14. La Grande Hermine. Jacques Cousteau explored Canada in a ship named La Grande Hermine. An abandoned replica of this ship lies burned-out near the QEW just north of St. Catherines.

No. 13. Raymore Drive. This section of The Humber River suffered the worst loss of life during Hurricane Hazel when a swing bridge came off one mooring and directed the surging river onto a residential street.

No. 12. Military Burying Grounds. Downtown Toronto is home to a small park that contains the first burial after the founding of the town of York (Toronto). Many of the soldiers and civilian militia who died in the war of 1812 are buried here as well.

No. 11. The Vandalized Memorial. A park in Oakville is home to a memorial for a Ukrainian author named Taras Shevchenko. Unfortunately, the park has been vandalized several times and the statues have been stolen and sold for scrap metal.

No. 10. Graydon Hall Graydon Hall was built in 1934 as an estate with terraced gardens fed with water pumped up from the Don River. Today the mansion and gardens remain but most of the lawns have been replaced with apartment buildings.

No. 9. Ghost Town Of Sixteen Hollow. The town of Sixteen Hollow was once a thriving industrial centre. Today the church remains as a lone testament to the community that has vanished.

No. 8. The Devil’s Pulpit. The Forks of the Credit was an early industrial community centred around several quarries. The Forks Quarries, or Devil’s Pulpit, makes for a challenging hike on the south side of town near the Hoffman Lime Kilns.

No. 7. Horseshoe Curve Rail Disaster. When the train left the tracks on route to the CNE that September day in 1907 it left 7 dead and 114 injured. The railway that ran on the horseshoe curve has been abandoned since 1932 but the curve can still be seen in this field.

No. 6. The Devil’s Well The Devil’s Well is an intact glacial pothole near Rockwood. It is the only pothole that hasn’t collapsed in a series of six and can be accessed from the bottom through a small hole in the wall.

No. 5. Bronte Creek’s Haunted House. The Spruce Lane Farmhouse is said to be haunted but it is not the only reason to visit this beautiful park.

No. 4. The Longhouse People Of Crawford Lake Crawford Lake is a meromictic lake, which means that the bottom is never disturbed. From studying this they discovered a precontact native village which has been partially recreated.

No. 3. Lotten – Cawthra Estate Mississauga. The Cawthra family built their estate in Mississauga in 1926. The property features an early swimming pool and the remains of a walled garden.

No. 2. The Gap. The open gap in the escarpment near Milton is the result of a quarry that began extraction in 1962 by blasting an opening to the pit.

No. 1 The Newmarket Ghost Canal – This post looks at the relics associated with an attempt to build a canal from Lake Simcoe to Newmarket. Three abandoned locks for the canal remain along with a complete swing bridge mechanism.

The first three years of Hiking the GTA have been an incredible journey and producing the stories has been made easier by the constant assistance of my brother Dave. His company on many of these hikes, knowledge of nature, assistance in researching and his proof-reading skills are all greatly appreciated. Thanks, as always. Okay, enough looking backwards, there are hundreds of trails out there just waiting to be explored.

Google map links for each site are included in the individual story.

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Crothers Woods

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Saturday, December 17, 2016

Crothers Woods has at least three access points, each with parking. There is one parking lot at the Don Valley Mountain Bike Trailhead on Pottery Road (map link at end) just before the bow-string bridge over the Don River. This parking lot sits on the old road allowance for Pottery Road, a section of which was abandoned when the Bayview Extension was built in 1959. From the trailhead, the path leads north following the side of Bayview Avenue until it reaches the northern tip of the park where there are a couple of parking spots. To the right along this trail is an area known as Sun Valley. It was home to a small brick making company called The Sun Brick Company which operated until the late 1930’s. The property had been home to the Taylor Family who built their homestead here in 1826. The family owned the Don Valley Brick Works and Todmorden Mills where they ran one of their three paper mills. When the clay for the bricks was nearly exhausted the town of Leaside purchased the pit for a landfill. Over the next few decades, they dumped garbage up to 25 metres deep in the pit. It has now been capped with clean fill and is being restored as a meadow at this time. The Taylor Family home has been moved to Todmorden Mills where it is being preserved. The picture below shows the home, that once stood in today’s Crothers Woods, as it appeared in the summer of 2014.

Following the trail into the woods leads to a slight diversion, the abandoned CPR tracks. The first train to roll across the tracks here was a freight train in 1891. That train continued south along the Don Valley and into downtown Toronto. Along the way, it passed over the Half-Mile bridge. The first good snowfall of the season sits largely undisturbed on the tracks in the picture below. Due to the fact that the snow had fallen without much drifting the rails and ties can be clearly seen in spite of the fact that there is about a foot of fresh snow. This is one of the few local abandoned railways that still has the rails and ties intact. It is likely that Metrolinx, who owns the railway corridor, will incorporate it into some future passenger line.

An active set of tracks belonging to Canadian National Railway runs parallel to the abandoned CPR ones as the Don Valley made a suitable access to the city. Two freight trains passed along the other tracks while the lower ones were being briefly explored.

Crothers Woods is one of the most bike friendly parks in the city. Bikers are encouraged to use the trails although pedestrians still have the right-of-way. Winter biking has its challenges and a bike is normally fitted out especially for the season. Fat tires and wider frames are matched with enclosed gears that prevent freeze up. The tires may be inflated to as low as 5 pounds pressure. A group of winter bike enthusiasts was using the park to get some exercise and enjoy their custom cycles. It is always nice to see others who find a way to enjoy the winter weather.

Crothers Caterpillar had a manufacturing plant in Crothers Woods until 1979. Built by George W. Crothers it produced heavy equipment, primarily for the mining industry. The plant backed onto the railway and the factory buildings on the site were removed by 1991. The site has recently been partially repurposed as a Loblaws store and parking lot. There is a trail head here as well that was the starting site of the group of fatbikes we had seen earlier. There is also lots of parking available in the back of the parking lot near the trailhead.

The loading ramp from the former Crothers Caterpillar plant still stands along the abandoned railway track.

A lone hydro pole stands in the woods where it once was part of the Crothers Caterpillar plant. What was an open field 30 years ago has grown back in quite well!

In 1929 the city built the North Toronto Sewage Treatment Plant on the edge of Crothers Woods. It processes the effluent from North Toronto and Leaside. Personal experience indicated that the sewage system covers in North Toronto are mainly dated 1928 with a few from 1929. The cover photo shows another view of the treatment plant.

Crothers Woods was a farm for about 100 years before it spent the next century as an industrial site. Today it still retains some areas of Carolinian Forest consisting of beech, maple and oak. There are also a few butternut trees which are locally rare. Crothers Woods has been designated as an Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) because it is a home to some rare undergrowth plants. It is also a good place to see common spring flowers like trout lilies and trilliums. The east ravine wall contains some climax forest which is the historical normal vegetation that exists in a stable condition in this part of the country. New growth forest has taken over much of the rest of the 52-hectare park.

An extensive set of stairs leads from the corner of Redwood Road and Millway Road down to the sewage plant.

There are plenty of remnants from old land usage in the ravine. A lengthy penstock runs down the hill behind the treatment plant while these concrete structures stand a little farther along. They say that old relics from the Crothers Caterpillar plant are still dug up on occasion in the woods.

Crothers Woods also includes the Beechgrove Wetland which is a successful restoration project. The wetlands, Sun Valley and an abandoned road await a visit in the spring when the wetlands will be teeming with life.

Google Maps link: Crothers Woods

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Morningside Park

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Saturday, December 10, 2016

Morningside Park is one of a series of parks that are interconnected along Highland Creek in Scarborough. In spite of its name, Highland Creek is actually a river. It flows through a wide valley, often 100-metres wide, that was crossed only by Military Trail until the 1930’s. Before longer span bridges were constructed, travellers had to make the climb down into the valley and back out again. It provided a natural barrier to the expansion of the city eastward. The river flows along the east end of the Scarborough Bluffs and the picture below shows the sand that makes up the bluffs also forms the banks of the river.

Morningside Park, at almost 600 acres, is the largest park in Toronto and has a large herd of white-tailed deer that call it home. A wetland filled with invasive phragmites separates the second parking lot from a woodland behind. Along the side of the woodland, there were three deer who kept their distance but were otherwise not afraid of the human presence. Over the crest of the little hill behind the deer was a tent that looks like it may be lived in at the moment. Perhaps the deer have more human company than usual.

The University of Toronto Scarborough is recognized as a Global Climate Change leader. They have over 200 faculty members on their three campuses that are researching various areas of climate change. Bill Gough’s Climate Lab at the Scarborough campus, for instance, is researching how atmospheric conditions during thunderstorms can be used as predictors for tornadoes. A research program has been set up in the park in a small dell that has been fenced and posted. There is a sign with a phone number “for more information” but it connects to a message about a summer camp program that finished in August. I wanted to find out why they had placed half coconut shells onto posts and then fenced it off to keep people out.

In the 1850’s Highland Creek was the largest residential and commercial centre in Scarborough Township. It got its post office in 1852 and soon was home to several hotels, general stores and blacksmith shops. The town also featured Methodist, Presbyterian and Catholic churches. The land grant that Morningside Park sits on was owned by John Wilson in the 1870’s and he operated a saw mill using the river for water power. As the local timber supply dwindled the mill was closed and the property eventually sold for an estate. The original mill is gone but the remnants of a more recent concrete dam provide some flood control on the river.

Erosion is a continual problem on Highland Creek and the picture below shows the extent that it can take. The river bank behind the storm drain has been washed back two full sections, one of which now lies in the creek.

Highland Creek had two grist mills on the historic atlas of 1877. Today there is a modern flood and erosion control dam in the creek near the Miller Lash house. The creek has flooded behind the dam and removed vast quantities of soil so that the metal plates are falling into the creek.

The foundations for an earlier bridge can be seen on either side of the creek.

In 1913 Miller Lash purchased the Highland Creek valley lot because he loved the fields with the river flowing through them. He was also in love with the local forests that provided ample opportunities to observe the abundant wildlife. He hired a Buffalo architect firm to design his estate in the popular Arts and Crafts style. The one story building was made of poured concrete faced with fieldstone collected from the nearby creek. Squared pine timbers support the cathedral ceilings on this seventeen-room mansion. The main house, along with several matching smaller buildings, is topped with natural clay tiles.

The estate was purchased in 1963 by the University of Toronto to create Scarborough College. When the campus opened in 1965 the house was occupied by the principal. From 1978 until 1998 the property was empty but then it received a historic designation. This led to the restoration that brought the buildings back to their 100-year old glory. They are now used for conferences, events and weddings.

The town of Highland Creek and several other parts of the park remain to be explored at some future date.

Google Maps Link: Morningside Park

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Taylor Massey Creek – Underwriters Reach

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Sunday, December 4, 2016

Taylor-Massey Creek is a tributary of the Don River. It supplies just 5 percent of the water volume in the Don River but up to 80 percent of it’s contaminants in some conditions. The Don River has the poorest water quality of any river in Ontario and it is thought that Talor-Massey Creek may be the most polluted watercourse in Canada. To see what this section looked like today I parked at the end of Underwriters Road where the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) are. You wouldn’t have to check too many electric devices to find their logo, meaning the product was subjected to a set of safety tests.

A watercourse is normally described in sections that are known as a reach. It is usual for a reach to extend between two tributaries. In the case of Taylor-Massey Creek many of the tributaries have been lost or combined with storm water drains and so the reaches have been established based on major roads and the neighbourhoods through which it flows. This little hike looks at the section known as Reach 8 – Underwriters. The reach extends from Lawrence Avenue (green) south to Eglinton Avenue (purple) and runs through a mainly industrial area. I’ve marked the historical county atlas to show the original course of Taylor-Massey Creek in blue. The new channel that was cut in the 1950’s when the area was developed is shown in red. The “PM” on the map at the top of this reach is the Wexford Primitive Methodist church on Lawrence. Warden Avenue is grey to give a modern context to the map.

The creek flows between two banks that are about 10 meters apart and 3 meters deep. The slope ranges between 45 degrees and 80 degrees.

There are 30-35 species of wild apples, otherwise known as crabapples. Apples are members of the rose family and some crabapples are not much larger than rosehips. The cover photo shows one of several crabapple trees that give colour to the late fall along the side of Taylor-Massey Creek. Crabapples can be eaten but are often sour.

The trail along the side of the creek follows an old rail alignment. The industrial spur line entered many of the factories along Underwriter’s Road. In the 1990’s the city purchased the right of way and removed the rails. There are still a few sleepers or ties remaining to remind us of the former use of this strip of land.

Historically the Taylor Massey Creek used to drain into post-glacial Lake Iroquois just north of the parking lot in Warden Woods. The creek has lost all of its original wetlands and the surrounding lands are highly developed. To be healthy a waterway should have at least 10 % of its area in wetlands. Water conditions along the creek are aggravated by the pollution which is leeching out of 24 old landfill sites along its course. A lone alder tree grows along the side of the trail with its male and female catkins. Alder trees have cones like a conifer but leaves like a deciduous tree. Over 1,400 trees and shrubs have been planted in this area by local groups and businesses.

The Taylor Massey Project (TMP)prepared a document calling for a plan for each of ten reaches along the creek. The idea was to get the city to commit to fixing the top five priorities over a five year period. A budget of $1 million dollars per year was estimated to be required. The first priority was in reach 10 where the creek originates. Terraview and Willowfield parks were identified as priority one and that restoration has been completed. One objective of the Taylor Massey Project is to create conditions where the creeks e-coli levels are in compliance 95% of the time. This reach was to be renaturalized like the two parks above and have it’s wetlands restored.

In 1842 the Primitive Methodist congregation purchased a quarter of an acre of lands from Anthony Twaddle to construct a log chapel. The chapel was known as Twaddles chapel until 1857 when the name was changed to The Parsonage Church. The present brick building was constructed in 1876-1877. When the Primitive Methodists united with the Wesleyan Methodists in 1883 they refused to join and became a Presbyterian church. In 1925 the Presbyterians and Methodists joined in forming the United Church of Canada and they ended up with their Weslyan brothers after all. There is a newer addition on the back which was added in 1955 and the narthex on the older part of the church was added at some point in between.

There is a pioneer cemetery beside the church where the first burial took place in 1837. The former rail line continues north of Lawrence running beside the cemetery. Turning back I made my way past the car and continued south along the creek. The trail crosses a green space that contains the Gatineau Hydro line and an east-west trail. The creek flows through two perched culverts where the old hydro corridor access road passes. Perched culverts have the outflow end elevated above the stream bed which creates an obstacle for migrating fish. At the present time this isn’t much of a concern because the creek is dead. Just beyond the culverts, there is a section of the creek bank that has been badly eroded by the flash floods that the creek is subject to.

The picture below shows the creek as it flows through a concrete channel in this section of the reach.

One of the reasons the Taylor-Massey Creek is so polluted is the 252 storm outfalls that carry untreated waste into the creek. Sewer pipes run along both sides of the creek through this reach and they are not fully separated from the storm water outfalls. Whenever there is a severe storm the water floods through the system and it carries raw sewage into the creek and from there into the Don River and then to Lake Ontario. This, along with illegal hookups at local industries, serves to foul the creek on a continual basis. The picture below shows the colour of the waste water that is being emptied into the creek.

When the creek reaches Bertrand Avenue it becomes inaccessible. It has a very deep, narrow channel. This channel is considered dangerous and has been completely fenced off to prevent people from getting into the area in case of a flash flood that could be deadly.

Google maps link: Underwriter’s Road.

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Inglewood

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Saturday, December 3, 2016

By the time that Inglewood was getting started a lot of small communities in Ontario had already faded from prominence, including nearby Sligo. Inglewood got started directly from the arrival of two railways. To investigate this area, we left one car on Chingaucousy Road just north of Boston Mills Road where the Caledon Trailway (yellow below) crosses. A second car was taken to Ken Whillans Resource Management Area where there is free Trailway parking and access. The hike took roughly the green trail including wandering around in what would become Inglewood.

A short trail connects the resource area with the former Hamilton & North Western Railway (H&NW) that was built through here in 1877. The Trailway crosses the Credit River on the same bridge that the railway once used.

A close look at the H&NW crossing reveals several railway construction methods. Wood pilings can still be seen in the river from the earliest crossing. Cut limestone has been used for the abutments and a central pier that supports the current steel bridge. The upstream side of the central pier has been given a newer concrete facing and point to act as a spring ice breaker to reduce damage to the bridge.

The Trailway heads west from here toward Inglewood. The railway junction was created when the Credit Valley Railway (CVR) arrived in 1878. The historical atlas above shows the junction as well as the woolen mills but the town was yet to get started. Early names for the community were Sligo and Sligo Junction but these names didn’t last because it had already been used in the area. The original Sligo had a post office which was located on Thomas Bell’s property a couple of concessions north. I’ve indicated the location on the map with an arrow. There was also a switchback on Centre Street (marked on the map) where a community named Sligo had once housed a population of 50. The name was changed to Riverdale but when the post office was opened a new name was needed and Inglewood was chosen.

The two railway lines crossed on the west side of the street where you will also see the old General Store. Built in 1886 by George Merry it has an interesting and highly decorative chimney. The rear of the store housed a bake oven that outgrew the location and, after moving, supplied bread to the local towns until it was destroyed by fire in 1940.

South of the railway junction is the railway hotel which now serves as a general store. It was built around 1881. The original industry predates the town and is still to be found on Maple Lane in the form of several stone buildings. A short laneway, lined with mature trees, leads to the mill. In 1834 the property was purchased by Thomas Corbett who built a dam, mill race and a small frame woolen mill known as Riverside Woolen Mills. A larger mill was built downstream a few years later so that the work of fulling and spinning the wool could be done in the mill instead of in the local farmer’s homes by their wives. In 1871 the mill was rebuilt in stone by Corbett’s son-in-law, David Graham. That building is seen in the photo below.

Just four years later the building was gutted by fire and leased to Ward and Algie who rebuilt the mill. It grew and in 1890 the Grahams returned to running the mill. The building seen below was added by them in 1896.

The head race carried water from the river to the mill to power the machinery. The Riverwood Mill raceway is an obvious trench that the local farmer now cuts for a crop of hay. The cover photo shows the raceway with the farmer’s old steel bridge allowing him access to his property on the other side.

At the upper end of the raceway is a section of the river that has been protected with gabion baskets filled with rock. There are at least two phases of the gabion as a lower one is badly corroded. There are no signs of any original dam construction here.

Inglewood is a good place for a short walk through town to observe some of its architectural heritage. The house below is in the correct place to be the David Graham house on the historical atlas above. The Cultural Heritage Landscapes Inventory suggests that it could be his home. If so, it predates the building of the village. This five-bay, one and a half story Regency Cottage has the elaborate doorway and large ceiling to floor windows that were popular between 1810 and 1840. If this is the original Graham house, as it appears to be, then it contains a mystery. It faces Louise Street and not 1st line west (McLaughlin Road) as one would expect.

This house is also on David Graham’s property and dates to around 1870 making it contemporary with the mill and not the town. There is a stone building behind this house that was most likely used by workers at the mill.

The Methodist Church was built in 1889 with a grand opening in 1890. The Graham family was a key employer in the town and was also instrumental in the construction of this church building. In 1925 the Methodist Church merged into the United Church. This building is interesting in that it has a weathervane instead of a cross.

The Trailway continues west out of Inglewood to where it crosses Old Base Line. Continuing, it passes through The Caledon Golf and Country Club. Near Chingaucousy Road you will see a series of decaying chalets that used to belong to the country club. They have been described in greater detail in a post called Caledon Country Club Chalets.

The historic town of Inglewood and the Caledon Trailway make a great place to explore.

Google Maps Link: Inglewood

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Caledon Country Club Chalets

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Saturday, Dec. 3, 2016

Bruce McLaughlan had a vision of a country resort for the entire family. In the late 1950’s he purchased an 180-acre farm known as Wynn Standing Farm. The property is shown as the Estate of John Standing on the 1877 county atlas. The farm was on the northern edge of Chinguacousy Township and so the original name for the club was Chinguacousy Country Club. Today, the club extends from Mclaughlan Road to Chinguacousy Road. The cover photo shows one of the abandoned chalets that remain on the property. It, along with the one below, can be seen from the parking area beside the Caledon Trailway on Chinguacousy Road.

McLaughlan hired Rene Muylaert to design the course even though Rene had never designed a golf course before. Apparently, Muylaert did a good job as he went on to design over 50 other golf courses in Ontario. Among these were the Inglewood and Glen Eagle courses. As can be seen in the pictures presented here, entry to these buildings is very dangerous. Floors and ceilings have already collapsed and more can go at any time.

In the summer of 1961 the first nine holes were opened for golfing. An equestrian riding academy was added and tennis courts were being built. New for 1961 was a small model farm for children and a supervised playground. The picture below shows one of the old chalets that is folding in on itself.

Memberships were coming in at twice the rate anticipated and another 70 acres were added to the site in 1962. Ongoing improvements led to a new club house near the Credit River which was opened in 1963. Chalets that have weathered better than the others have still been broken into and exposed to the elements so that all of them are destroyed.

Next, a series of chalets were added with the intention of providing year-round attractions. Cross country skiing, skating, outdoor curling and horse-drawn sleigh rides were provided as winter activities. The Chinguacousy Country Club also expanded to 27 holes, with nine of them being for juniors. Although the chalets were intended for all season usage there is no evidence of any insulation in the walls or ceilings.

In the 1980’s the riding academy was closed and the junior 9 holes were also removed. The swimming pool had already been closed by this time. In 1988 the club went from private to a fully public one and took on the new name of Caledon Country Club. Around this time the rental of the chalets was discontinued as well. They have been in the process of decaying ever since. The local coyote has moved into this cottage as can be seen from the coyote scat that is left at the door to mark this chalet as occupied.

Like many of the buildings, this chalet has given a new meaning to the term “sky light”.

This is another of the 8 chalets that are falling down in the old resort.

The last of the buildings headed east, this one visible from the Caledon Trailway. The trailway has been created on the former Hamilton Northwestern Railway line. The Canadian National Railway operated on this line from 1878 until 1967.

The Caledon Trailway runs through the Golf Club property and can be hiked from here to Inglewood and then on to the Ken Whillans Resource Management Area.

Google Maps Link: Caledon Country Club

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Melville

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Saturday, November 26, 2016

Caledon Township was surveyed between 1819 and 1820 with settlements beginning shortly after. The town of Melville was founded in 1831 but was originally known as West Caledon after the church that was located on the southwest corner of Highpoint Sideroad (25th s.r.) and Willoughby Road (1st line west).

Jesse Ketchum Jr. saw the possibility for a mill and a town was born. He built a dam on his property creating the mill pond that still exists today. The concrete dam in the cover photo replaces an earlier wood structure that would have required constant maintenance. His father, Jesse Ketchum, had been a tanner in Toronto and had gotten rich selling leather to the government, whom he silently opposed in the rebellion of 1837. In 1831 he had donated property for a school and a park in Yorkville, both named in his honour. Jesse Jr. laid out the north part of Orangeville on lands owned by the family in 1856. Then in 1859 he laid out an ambitious town plan for Melville on his property there. Soon there was a tannery, possibly connected to the Ketchums, as well as a saw mill and an oat mill. The town never grew the way Ketchum Jr. envisioned and eventually the tannery and mills all closed.

There is an Upper Credit Conservation Parking lot on Porterfield Road (2nd line west) south of town, near the train tracks. From here a trail leads east following the Credit River. A footbridge is provided to cross the river and then the trail divides but we followed it to the north, toward Melville. As we made our way along the trail we could hear the approach of the Credit Valley Explorer as it was making a short run through Melville. The picture below shows the engine as it is emerging from behind a small ridge. The Explorer runs on the old Credit Valley Railway (CVR) right of way south of town.

To the early settlers a fence had no practical value. Pigs and cows were left to forage all summer and were slaughtered in the fall. By the middle of the 19th century farms were opened up enough that property lines needed to be marked and cedar rails were used, often in a zig-zag pattern. These snaking fence lines wasted a lot of productive land and eventually they were replaced with straight fences. Fence wire was introduced in the 1890’s and steel poles came after WWII. Snaking fences had one major advantage that kept them in use even after more advanced methods became available. They were the only truly portable fences and farmers could move them to reconfigure their fields to meet changing needs.

Following the trail east along the river, you will come to a new fence where the trail loops back around. This fence is running along the top of a berm in the field. This berm is the former right of way for the Toronto Grey & Bruce Railway (TG&B) that ran through Melville starting in 1871. This section of the line has been closed for nearly a century but the berm is still visible from Google Earth. There isn’t much to see other than an obviously man-made hill in the field. There are interpretive signs in the park but none about the railway. Yet, one can stand here and almost see the steam engines rolling into town. The farmer has created a stone fence along the edge of his field where he sold a strip of land for the railway. Every spring the frost lifts a new crop of stones to the surface of the fields so that the farmers have to clear the rocks before planting. Stone fence lines across Ontario are the result of needing to dispose of these stones.

The CVR came into town in 1879 and it intersected with the TG&B just south of Highpoint Sideroad. Known as Melville Junction it contained the station and freight buildings. Today the junction has reverted to a farmer’s field and the old right of way for the TG&B is being kept open by a lawn mower.

In 1932 the CPR closed the section of TG&B line from Bolton to Melville. A little south of Melville is the site of the Horseshoe Curve Rail Disaster where a train left the tracks in 1907 killing 7 and injuring 114. From there the line passed through Cardwell Junction. The portion of track between Melville Junction and Orangeville is still in use as part of the CPR line through town. Between Highpoint Sideroad and Willoughby Road the tracks cross the Credit River on a bridge that replaced the original trestle.

This one and a half story cottage is the oldest remaining home in the village. It was built around 1850 in what is known as the Georgian Style. The 2 over 2 windows are likely replacements as most of the homes in this era had 6 over 6 windows. The smaller panes of glass were easier to produce and transport without breakage.

Like all small towns, Melville had at least one hotel. The large building on the northeast corner of town was also the post office.

According to the date stone, Caledon School Section 12 in Melville got a new building in 1871. Melville’s saw mill was doing a good business in decorative brackets for eaves and the local tradesmen liked to use them in pairs.

Italianate architecture was popular in Ontario between 1840 and 1890. This style also tends to have the round headed windows and doors that can be seen in this example below from 1875. Like many Italianate houses, George Hillock’s home has heavy bracketing under the eaves with the ornamentation being paired. Another interesting feature of the style is the Widow’s Walk. This platform on the rooftop was often railed with highly detailed wrought iron. The name comes from their frequent location on homes built near water and the suggestion that women would walk there looking out for their husbands to return from sea. The fact that they often didn’t return made them widows. It is, in fact, a variation on the cupola which is common to the Italianate style.

At the intersection of highway 10 and Highpoint Sideroad stands an abandoned house (red arrow on map). The preceding two buildings from the 1870’s were made of red brick with buff trim. Typical of many homes in the 1850’s, this one is buff with red trim. This farmhouse was built in 1859 by David Watson and has been covered in greater detail in a separate post which can be found here.

Google Maps link: Melville

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Terraview & Willowfield Gardens Parks

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Sunday, November 20, 2016

The headwaters of Taylor-Massey Creek were originally found in the area of Sheppard and Victoria Park Avenues. The area of the headwaters was approximately 150 hectares until the construction of the Toronto Bypass (401) was completed in 1964. In order to reduce complications with the widening of the highway in the 1980’s, it was decided to divert the headwaters into Highland Creek. As a consequence, the creek developed a new smaller source. Now 18 hectares of natural springs mix with the polluted runoff of the sixteen lanes of highway that passes overhead.

When this area of Scarborough, known as Maryvale, was developed in the early-1950’s it was common to take the watersheds and re-route them through concrete channels. Taylor-Massey Creek begins in a collection of pipes and emerges from a headwall in the top of Terraview Park. From there it used to proceed south in a curved concrete channel all the way to Ellesmere Road and beyond. The parkland around these concrete channels was underused and the water in the channel often ran with ten times the city’s allowable levels of E-coli. The picture below shows the concrete channel that the creek still flows through in the Warden Power Corridor south of the two parks.

In 1992 the Metropolitan Toronto and Regional Conservation Authority created the Don Watershed Task Force to develop an ecosystem approach to managing the entire watershed. At the time The Don River was one of the most polluted in Canada. When 40 Steps To A New Don was published in 1994 it identified Terraview and Willowfield Parks as a concept site to prove the plan for regeneration. Any benefits to water quality that could be made at this end of the watershed would benefit the entire system. The aerial photo below shows the concrete channel as it passes through Terraview Park and under Penworth Road where it continues through Willowfields Gardens Park. This picture was taken from the 40 Steps To A New Don final report.

The plan called for the removal of the channel and renaturalization of the creek bed. Wetlands were developed because they act as a natural filter for suspended particles and contaminants.

The soccer field at Terraview Park has an underground filtration system designed into it. Now that it has been in operation for nearly 20 years there is some data and a cost/benefit analysis is being conducted to see if other such systems should be constructed. Oil and water separators and sediment pools are used along with French drains and storm water retention facilities are all part of the design. Today, the water is still not as clean as the city bylaws require and a sediment pool at the headwall where the water enters the park needs to be expanded or replaced.

When a concrete channel passed through the mowed lawns of the former parks there was little wildlife to be seen. Today the two contiguous parks provide a welcome habitat in this part of the city.

Tamarack is a species of Larch tree that is native to Canada. Although they have needles and cones like an evergreen they lose their needles every fall. The needles take on a beautiful shade of yellow before they fall off the tree.

Along with the usual sets of swings and slides, the park also has a splash pad. Water from the pad is filtered before it is let into the pond on its way out towards Warden Woods.

After leaving Terraview Pond the creek flows through a section of new growth as it heads south. The sides of the new creek channel have armour stone on them in places where erosion is likely but there has been no attempt to keep the new shrubs and trees from growing in the channel.

South of Penworth Road Taylor-Massey Creek flows through a natural channel and into the newly created Willowfield Pond. Where a lifeless concrete channel once existed a new aquatic habitat has been created. Herons can be seen here in the summer hunting for lunch while ducks and geese find food among the marshes on the shore. Muskrats have also been seen in the pond.

Northern Red Oak, along with thousands of other trees and shrubs, have been planted in the two parks.

Willowfield Pond has been designed with the local schools in mind. There are observation stations where outdoor lessons are taught. Students also monitor the water quality and help with planting programs.

Water flows from Willowfield pond into a peat bog which also acts as a final filter to remove contaminants before the water makes it’s way toward the Don River.

Water is still discharged directly into the creek but the local residents have removed their downspouts from the collection system. By allowing the water to flow onto the lawn more of it is absorbed and slowly released into the creek which reduces flash flooding.

There is plenty of work left to be done at these two parks. Sections of the parks that were intended to be planted with Carolinian Forest have yet to be started. Phase III of the project was never implemented. It called for the hydro corridor to be naturalized as well. The concrete channel was to be removed and the area around the new stream was set to be densely planted.

The renaturalization of these two parks won an award in 2002 from the Canadian Society of Landscaping Architects.

Google Maps link: Terraview Park and Willowfield Gardens Park

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