Riverdale

East of the Don

Elizabeth Gillan Muir

• Publisher: Dundurn Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781459728738
• Topic: Storia
• Subtopic: Storia sociale

Heritage Toronto Book Award — Shortlisted, Non-Fiction Book

A popular history of the Riverdale area of Toronto, including Playter Estates north of the Danforth.

In its first 50 years, the city of Toronto changed from a rough settlement to a booming city with a voracious appetite for land. The incorporated city of Toronto grew tenfold from 1834 to 1884 — partly through immigration, but also through the annexation of older communities. Among these were the former suburbs of Leslieville and Riverside, which were joined together in 1884 to become the new Toronto community of Riverdale. Later, the Playter Estates neighbourhood also became part of this community. Riverdale tells the history of the neighbourhood, starting with the Simcoe, Scadding, Playter, and Leslie families, who shaped the area throughout its early settlement, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812. It shows the waves of immigration from Britain, America, Italy, Greece, and China, that made Riverdale one of Toronto's most diverse areas. And it tells the stories written into the map of the neighbourhood, revealing the history on display in its streets and historic buildings.

Appendix 1

Notes

Chapter One

1. Growth and Development of the Wards of the City of Toronto, n.d., Toronto Reference Library, Toronto.

2. The area of Doncaster was “moveable” on city maps — generally it was north of Riverside and south of Chester, although sometimes Chester and Doncaster were interchangeable. None of these suburban areas were clearly defined.

3. Catherine Naismith, “Riverdale Heritage Conservation District Plan, Phase 1,” May 2008, 19.

4. Joan Barrett, Being a History of 124 Danforth Avenue (Toronto: History Unlimited, 1985), 17. The Act incorporating the area north of the Danforth, which included “Playter Estates,” went into effect December 15, 1909.

Chapter Two

1. Edmund Spenser, The Fairie Queen III (London: Penguin Classics, 1979), 41. First published 1590.

2. John Ross Robertson, ed., The Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe (Toronto: William Briggs, 1911).

3. Derek Hayes, Historical Atlas of Toronto (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2008).

4. John Ross Robertson, ed., The Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe (Toronto: William Briggs, 1911), December 27, 1793. The baby, Katherine, died the next spring from pneumonia; Edwin Guillet, Toronto: From Trading Post to Great City (Toronto: The Ontario Publishing Co., 1934).

5. Mary Quayle Innis, ed., Mrs. Simcoe’s Diary (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2007), 189. The Simcoes took home personal treasures from their stay in Canada including their canoe, paddles, and their snow sleigh; C.P. Mulvany believed that the “Simcoe years” were the “golden age” of Toronto. He quotes the following stanza: “Then none were for a party, They all were for the state, And the rich man helped the poor, And the poor man helped the great.”; Charles Pelham Mulvany, Past and Present, Handbook of the City (Toronto: W.E. Caiger, 1884), 11.

6. Some sources suggest that Mrs. Hunt was Elizabeth’s aunt.

7. John Ross Robertson, ed., The Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe (Toronto: William Briggs, 1911), March 14, 1975.

8. Ibid., November 1, 1793; John Mitchell, The Settlement of York County (York County, Ontario: Charters Publication, [1950]), 32.

9. John Ross Robertson, ed., The Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe (Toronto: William Briggs, 1911); Catherine Parr Traill, The Backwoods of Canada (London, England: Knight, 1835), quoting Elizabeth Simcoe’s diary entry of April 26, 1793.

10. John Ross Robertson, ed., The Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe (Toronto: William Briggs, 1911).

11. Ibid., August 11, 1793. Various artworks such as Mary Hastings Fitzgerald Meyer Hoppner’s colourful 1855 painting, Toronto from the Don River, that formerly hung at Toronto City Hall, depict some of these high hills that no longer exist. Mary painted the work from east of the Don. Mary and Mr. Hoppner were married in 1853, and had five children; “View of Toronto, 1855: A Great Work for a Lady,” History of the Distillery District, April 6, 2008.

12. John Ross Robertson, ed., The Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe (Toronto: William Briggs, 1911), September 11, 1793.

13. Ibid., November 9, 1794, January 14, 1795; Catherine Parr Traill, The Backwoods of Canada (London, England: Knight, 1835) quoting Elizabeth Simcoe’s diary entry of March 10, 1793, August 31, 1795, and December 19, 1795. Catherine Parr Traill envied Elizabeth for her stove — many pioneer housewives had to make do with only a fireplace.

14. Paul Kane, Wanderings of an Artist Among the Indians of North America (London: Dover, 1996), 58f; John Mitchell, The Settlement of York County (York County: Charters Publication, [1950]). Even by 1812, ten fifteen-pound salmon could be bought for a dollar, they were so readily available.

15. John Ross Robertson, ed., The Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe (Toronto: William Briggs, 1911), August 13, 1793; Catherine Parr Traill, The Backwoods of Canada (London, England: Knight, 1835), quoting Elizabeth Simcoe’s diary entry of August 3, 1795.

16. John Ross Robertson, ed., The Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe (Toronto: William Briggs, 1911), February 3, 1796.

17. Ibid., January 14, 1794; Mrs. Jameson, Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada, vol. 1 (London: Saunders & Otley, 1838), 267ff. Anna Brownell Murphy married younger Robert Jameson, attorney general of Upper Canada, in 1825. They had a short, unhappy marriage and Anna regularly travelled on her own. Anna was derogatory in her comments about Toronto, and Torontonians never forgave her; Charles Pelham Mulvany, Past and Present, Handbook of the City (Toronto: W.E. Caiger, 1884), 47. Mulvany recalls Murphy in his writing, “Vice Chancellor Jamieson’s [sic] clever but flighty Irish wife … never forgave Muddy Little York for splashing her dainty bottines and snow-white stockings in the first day of her arrival.” She had stepped out of her carriage into ankle-deep mud and called York, “A little ill-built town ... [with] some government offices built … in the most tasteless, vulgar style imaginable.”

18. John Ross Robertson, Landmarks of Toronto, vol. 3 (Toronto: John Ross Robertson, 1894), 194; Thomas F. McIlwraith, Looking for Old Ontario (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), 33; Cornwall to Windsor is approximately 787.5 km or 489 miles.

19. John Ross Robertson, Landmarks of Toronto, vol. 1 (Toronto: John Ross Robertson, 1894), 33; Ann Guthrie, Don Valley Legacy (Erin, Ontario: The Boston Mills Press, 1986), 9.

20. Mrs. Jameson, Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada, vol. 1 (London: Saunders & Otley, 1838), 269; Ann Guthrie, Don Valley Legacy (Erin, Ontario: The Boston Mills Press, 1986). Thomas Bright was later crushed to death between a load of potatoes and a load of stones.

21. John Ross Robertson, ed., The Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe (Toronto: William Briggs, 1911), October 24, 1793.

22. Henry Scadding, Toronto of Old, ed. Frederick H. Armstrong (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1987), 153.

23. Myer Siemiatycki, “Reputation and Representation,” Electing a Diverse Canada: The Representation of Immigrants, Minorities and Women, ed. Caroline Andrew, Joh...