RCAF Station Downsview

Sunday, May 26, 2019

The intersection of Keele Street and Wilson Avenue was home to the community of Downsview although most of the original settlement has been erased through road widening and urban sprawl. The name has become attached to the de Havilland Aircraft plant and later the Downsview Air Force Base that came to the northern edge of town in 1928. The 1878 county atlas below shows the five remaining points that we set out to visit. Starting at the bottom with John Perkins Bull who named his home Downs View because it was on the high point of some flat land, leading to the name of the community. The local flat land would attract the aircraft industry to the area.

John Perkins Bull was born in Toronto on April 30, 1822 and when he turned twenty he received Lot 8, Concession 4 from his father as a coming of age gift. He immediately started clearing some of his 200 acres and in 1844 built the house that he named Downs View. Bull took on the nick name Squire after he served as Justice of the Peace, served as Deputy-Reeve, was prominent in promoting the agricultural welfare of the area. He was also an active and influential member of the Wesleyan Methodist Church which originally met in his home. Squire Bull didn’t like the commute on those early roads which were either a muddy disaster or were plank roads with tolls on them. See the upper right corner of the map for the Dufferin and Sheppard toll gate and click on this link for more information. Squire Bull decided to work from home and often had to lock up the guilty in the basement of the house. He married twice and was father to three boys and three girls who grew up in this house.

This picture of the house is from the Toronto Library and is dated 1955. This is before rapid development took the house out of the country and planted it in the middle of a subdivision. Before long it would become a retirement home as it remains today.

The Downsview United Church began as a Wesleyan Methodist Church around 1830. By 1844 services were being held in the home above where they continued until the first frame church was constructed around 1850. It was replaced with the current brick Gothic Revival church in 1870. A small addition was made on the chancel in 1882. From the side you can see the other major additions. A Sunday School was added in 1937 where you can see the section with the lower roof. A Christian Education Wing was added at the back in 1955 and the original spire was replaced after it was damaged in a storm. The building has just completed a restoration and is the most recognizable building in the former community.

The George Jackson House was built some time after 1885 when he inherited the property from his father. The Jackson family owned the property from 1830 until 1967. The house was briefly used as a nursing home before being converted to professional offices in 1981.

This is one of only three heritage buildings left from the community with the other two presented above. The Jackson house was designated, in part, because of the basket weave brickwork pattern under the steep gables. This mixing of Queen Anne with Romanesque styles was popular in the late 1880’s.

This 1976 aerial photograph of Downsview Airforce Base shows the Edward Boake House before it was demolished. It was built in 1860 by Edward and Sarah Boakes who called it Locust Lodge. It remained in the family for generations until it was expropriated by the Air Force who already owned the family farm surrounding it. On the left side of the picture you can also see the officer’s housing known as William Baker Park. It has also been demolished. In front of the Boake house is a double row of trees which are the only mature trees in the immediate area.

These are the trees that the Boake family looked out upon from their windows. Today they stand in an area known as Boakes Grove where no grove has stood for 150 years.

Downsview Park has done a great job of planting trees that will one day form a mature forest in this part of the park. This trail runs roughly along the former fence line that separated the house from the fields of the family farm. The park has also installed a new multi panel interpretive centre near this site to explain the history of the area. Unfortunately they chose to etch the information into stainless steel plates that were quite hard to read with the sun on them. They do contain a wealth of information that is worth the time to read on a cloudy day.

In 1954 a local group decided that a synagogue and Jewish school were needed in the area and before long had a potential congregation of 200 families signed up. The property that belonged to Fred Mowatt at the time of the county atlas had now become the Ness Estate and it was purchased for $35,000 to serve as their synagogue. The picture below shows the home in 1956 as the Conservative Beth Am Synagogue.

The farmhouse was integrated into a new building and the congregation made several further expansions including the large front building in 1965. By the mid-1970’s the congregation was shrinking as the area of Bathurst Street became a larger Jewish community. In 1977 the last 228 families decided to close the synagogue and merge with the Beth David B’nai Israel congregation on Bathurst. The ceremonial transfer of the Torah from Beth Am Synagogue took place on January 28, 1978. The Rameses Shriners used the building next and it appears that during 1984 or so the original house was either demolished or reduced to a single floor. Today the building serves as a sales centre for a 12-story condo development called The Keeley that will soon replace it. There was a brief attempt to designate the building as an example of modernist architecture, mainly because of the front entrance to the 1965 addition. A 45-foot mural had remained across the front of the building that was specifically created for the synagogue but this was moved to the Beth David Synagogue in 2013.

That effort failed and this week a sod turning ceremony was held in front of the building. Which means that as soon as the developers get the demolition permit the building will be gone. What I’d like to know, based on reviewing a couple dozen annual aerial photos of the site is this. What lies behind this door and is it a Shiner addition or was it put on the original house by the synagogue? Is there still part of the original farmhouse inside the building? As I work close by, I hope to see for myself if I can.

The former town of Downsview still has a few traces left in spite of the rapid development of the area in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Google Maps Link: Downsview

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Sunday, November 4, 2018

This blog looks at the former military base in Downsview and is part one of a two part story which included an exploration of our new urban park. The site of Downsview Park has a long history including being home of the first aircraft manufacturing plant in Canada. In April of 1929 de Haviland Aircraft of Canada purchased 70 acres of land along Sheppard Avenue and moved their operations from Mount Dennis. The property was chosen because it was flat and sat at a high elevation. de Havilland erected a 20,000 square foot building and hired a staff of 35 to start production of airplanes. The original building still stands at 65 Carl Hall Road. The section of old Sheppard Avenue that runs through the base is now known as Carl Hall Road. Many of the roads on the base were named after World War One heroes and Carl Hall served and died at the river Seine on October 10, 1916. The original manufacturing plant is one of a collection of twelve properties on the site that are collectively being considered for historic designation.

Between 1936 and 1938 de Havilland added a new main building (75 Carl Hall), paint shop and hanger.

Additional land along Sheppard was purchased and production facilities were expanded during the Second World War when the facility began producing war planes. Their staff grew to 2,400 and in 1942 they produced 550 Tiger Moths and another 362 Ansons. That year they also developed the Mosquito fighter bomber at their Downsview plant. When the war was over de Havilland went back to making commercial airplanes. The Canadian Military maintained an interest in the runway at de Havilland and in 1947 bought up 270 of the surrounding properties to form RCAF Station Downsview. The expanded runway is still in use to the east of the hanger where a small plane readies for take-off.

After the war the air force moved the 400 Squadron to Downsview and reformed the 401 Squadron there. These two Auxiliary Squadrons became the heart of a new Air Material Base. In 1952 the Department of National Defense was given control of the lands and they granted de Havilland a long term lease on some land to the south of the base. With de Havilland moved out, the air force soon built maintenance buildings, headquarters and housing. They expanded the runways and in 1962 expropriated the section of Sheppard Avenue that crossed the base. In exchange, the military granted 86 feet of land along the north end of the runway for the construction of a new Sheppard Avenue. It is good to see that several of the maintenance buildings at 60 Carl Hall have been re-purposed and Wildlife Rescue occupies at least one of them. The portion with the curved roof was built in 1928 as a hangar at de Havilland’s airstrip at Mount Dennis. It features a rare wooden bow truss structure and is the oldest building on the grounds.

In 1954 the RCAF built No. 1 Supply Depot. This massive building covers 18.5 acres and was designed to survive the largest non-nuclear bomb of 1951. It was also built with a one-million gallon storage tank beneath it. Storm water was collected here for use as fire suppression. It was also pumped onto the roof at times to reflect the sunshine and control the temperature inside. Today it is 40 Carl Hall Road and among may other uses it houses a weekend flea market where one can buy some amazing shortbread cookies.

Plant Complex Number 3 was built by de Havilland at 35 Carl Hall in 1952 and consists of three buildings. The rear of the complex includes two sets of concrete ventilation towers and chambers. These were used in the development and testing of advancements in the testing and repair of jet engines. The building was still rented by de Havilland after they moved into their new home later in 1952.

A central heating plant was used to supply heat to over 2 million square feet of buildings on the site. The concrete construction uses fireproof cladding on the outside. Four chimneys on the south side of the building mark the huge boilers inside.

Most of the historic buildings on site have been put into service with new tenants. A notable exception is the old fire hall at 10 Carl Hall Road. There are several older fire halls in the city that display fine architecture and ornate styles but by the 1950’s a more utilitarian style took over and buildings became purely functional. The 1953 fire hall at Downsview had two bays on the east side, one of which could be driven straight through and out the west end. As a result of the style few fire halls from this period survive once they are decommissioned as it is hard to find new tenants. This shuttered fire hall is one of the very few that remain from this era that are not still in active service.

On the base the housing was divided into two sections. At the north end of the base the Officers lived in William Baker Park where 81 detached and semi-detached houses were constructed. The historic county atlas shows the area of William Baker as virgin trees in 1877, one of the rare spots on the map. Today those houses have been removed and William Baker Park stands as a ghost town where the streetlights preside over empty streets and the houses have been demolished. In the south end of the base a grouping of barracks known as Stanley Greene were constructed for the enlisted men. These were damaged in the Sunrise Propane Explosion on Aug. 10, 2008 and were demolished in 2009. They have since been replaced by a great number of stacked townhouses.

Although the base closed in April 1996 the military has not completely moved out. Defense Research Development Canada operates DRDC Toronto along Sheppard Avenue near Dufferin Street. They have a display of military equipment in front of their building including the CF-5 Freedom Fighter jet seen on the cover and in this picture. An M113 APC is on display adjacent to the jet. The display also incorporates two Sherman Firefly tanks, a floating pontoon bridge and several other pieces of military equipment.

The pictures and story of our exploration of Downsview Park will be featured in an upcoming post.

Google Maps Link: Downsview Airforce Base

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