Snippets of History

05/25/2026

Many people wonder about the relationship in Toronto between the old Don Jail and Bridgepoint Health Hospital (formerly Riverview Hospital). Why were a jail and a hospital sharing a site?!

In fact, the history of these two institutions dates back to the mid-1800s when Toronto was becoming aware that it needed to provide social supports for many of its marginalized citizens. And so came about the plans for both a “reform jail” that would help rehabilitate, rather than punish, criminals who convicted relatively minor crimes, and a House of Refuge for, in the words of the time, “the vagrant, the dissolute, and idiots”. At this time in Toronto social supports were not managed by the government, but rather provided by individuals and charitable organizations - often with a religious affiliation; the idea that the city should have some responsibility for these citizens was a relatively new concept.

In 1856 Toronto paid £10,000 to purchase 119 acres on the east side the Don River from the Scadding Estate to be used for the two facilities and farmland that would be worked by the prisoners and help make the two institutions self-sufficient. It is hard to imagine today, but when the site was purchased the Don River was clean, and this was an almost idyllic location far away from the polluted and crime-ridden city.

The House of Refuge opened in 1860 and the Don Jail opened in 1864. However it was quickly apparent that many of those sent to the jail were, in fact, people experiencing homelessness, mental illness, and/or alcohol addiction and would be better supported by the House of Refuge. Right from the beginning there were deep ties between the hospital and the jail.

Unfortunately for the city’s poor and struggling, just shy of 10 years after it was built, the 100-bed House of Refuge was converted into a hospital to deal with the 1869 smallpox epidemic. When that crisis passed the site never reverted back to a refuge. It now operated as the Riverdale Isolation Hospital focusing on infectious diseases including diphtheria, polio, measles and scarlet fever, as well as continuing to manage smallpox outbreaks. The original House of Refuge was torn down in 1894. Various buildings and different wings were added to the site over time, each dedicated to a specific illness, with the main buildings erected around 1904. Over time, with vaccinations and the reduction in epidemics, the hospital's focus shifted to long-term care and rehabilitation. To reflect these changes, in 1957 the hospital dropped the word Isolation and simply became The Riverdale Hospital. It was renamed again in 2002, becoming Bridgepoint, a hospital that specializes in rehabilitation.

The 1963 modernist Riverdale Hospital structure was torn down in 2013-2014 to make way for the modern facility that is on site today. At that time, Bridgepoint also took over the old Don Jail, a heritage designated building which had been sitting vacant since 1977, converting most of the building into office space for the hospital while also preserving much of the heritage. The east wing of the Don Jail that had been constructed in 1958 and operated until 2013 was also demolished at this time.

And so, the two sites that once began as a tandem social welfare project for Toronto, are not only historically connected through their shared ideologically beginnings but they are now physically fused together. Perhaps a jail and a hospital on the same site is not as strange as it might first seem…

05/18/2026

At the busy intersection of Dufferin and Steeles, spanning the Toronto and Vaughan borders, there was once the small rural community of Fisherville.

Named, unsurprisingly, after the Pennsylvanian German Fisher family who settled in the area in 1797, there are very few reminders or surviving pieces of heritage near the hub of the old community but bits of Fisherville have been preserved - if you know where to look.

There is a street nearby named Fisherville Road and a TDSB school, Fisherville Senior Public School, that help keep the name relevant. And if you can manage to catch a glance north while speeding along Steeles, just east of Dufferin, you might see a battered old blue plaque that was erected in 1975 communicating that this was Fisherville.

Tucked in behind that, on the rise of a hill and heading back into the valley that leads to a branch of the West Don River, are the remains of the Fisherville United Church, previously the Fisherville Presbyterian Church, cemetery. In 1967 the surviving stones were gathered into an interesting shaped cairn and have been somewhat preserved. Behind that, heading into the brush that made me feel like I was back in Scarborough at the expansive rear section of my grandparent's property overlooking Highland Creek, there are the remains of at least 7 headstone bases which may be a more accurate indication of where some of these early settlers are buried. The cemetery is easily accessible as a pedestrian but although there are sidewalks the area is not exactly friendly for walkers; this is the domain of fast moving vehicles and we heard more than one expletive hurled out a car window.

Despite this being the only in-situ remainder of Fisherville, none of the actual Fisher family are buried here. Jacob Fisher's granddaughter Elizabeth, for example, married fellow Pennsylvanian German settler Daniel Stong and they built the buildings and farmed the land that Black Creek Pioneer Village (now The Village at Black Creek) was established around. A little bit to the west of Fisherville, at Steeles and Jane, the property became Elizabeth’s after the early deaths of her father John Fisher, who died before he could even clear the lot, and then her only brother who died during the War of 1812. Thus, in a way, BCPV actually owes its roots to the Fishers as well. Elizabeth and her husband are buried in the Kaiserville Townline Cemetery which, like their grain barn, first home and second home, is original to the site.

The Fisherville Presbyterian Church was started in 1832 by David Smellie and John Brock/Brack/Brach. The cemetery may have been in use as early as that date but the oldest surviving headstone dates from 1840, 17-year old Isabella, wife of William Watson. In 1856 the congregation built the church that still stands, albeit a little west. The stucco-covered wood framed building was saved from development in the area and moved to Black Creek Pioneer Village in 1960. It stands beside the cemetery mentioned above, in the original location of the Kaiserville Townline Church. The church is open for regular visitors to the site and is often used for modern weddings. Across the way is the Manse, built for yet another church but set-up in the village as if it were this church’s manse. I worked at BCPV for a few seasons, this was one of my favourite buildings to work in and when it was quiet, which it often was at this lonely end of the village, I would wander over to the church and cemetery. The Townline cemetery is visible and has, in the past, sometimes been accessible, but most often is simply viewed from the fence in the Village. (You can also catch glimpses of both the church and the cemetery if you quickly look south-east when forced by all the fast moving transport trucks to blast through the busy intersection of Jane and Steeles.)

What of church founders David Smellie and John Brack? Despite an inaccurate 1933 newspaper article stating that they were both buried in the church cemetery, David Smellie and his family actually rest at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto. The Smellie property was later used to house the Langstaff Industrial Jail Farm, which was developed to get prisoners, including women, away from places like the overcrowded Don Jail and working out in fresh air. As for John Brack, it seems he and several family members were all buried here but at some point, presumably after 1933, were all moved to Maple Cemetery. It is unknown if all the remains were moved or just the markers. One of the family monuments that contains many names, appears to have been completed for or after the move to Maple and I surmise it was engraved to include everyone who did not have a stone at Fisherville.

The names that do appear on markers that have been cut and fit into the stone and concrete cairn include Coleman, Conacher, Dunoon, Halls, Hord, Long, Maxwell, McCrackin, Smith, Troyer, Watson and Young.

Of these, Troyer is the name that may be familiar to anyone who grew up or passed by the Fisherville area, where North York met the Township of Vaughan, because the octagonal barn that was built for Samuel Troyer in the 1880s stood as a landmark in the area until late 1977. At that time it was dismantled, and despite some inaccurate reports that it was demolished, it too was moved west. But waaayyy further west than the Fisherville Church! The Troyer barn, later known as the Troyer-Fraser barn, was reassembled in Milton, Ontario at what was then the Ministry of Agriculture Museum. The site, now known as Country Heritage Park, proudly displays this other little piece of Fisherville history, and it is easily viewed as you pass in either direction along the 401 highway. (And if you are wondering about the addition of the name Fraser - the Troyer barn and property later came into the possession of prominent men's clothier, Jack Fraser, who used it to house his prize winning cattle.)

Fisherville's other claim to fame is its place in medical history. What is today the massive gated Sanofi Pasteur complex, on the south side of Steeles and just east of Dufferin, was once the site of Jacob Fisher's southern property where he built his saw and grist mills. On a remaining 58-acre portion of the land, which had been subdivided over time, the Connaught Antitoxin Laboratories and University Farm opened in 1917. Named after the Duke of Connaught and run by Dr. John Gerald "Gerry" Fitzgerald, the site housed labs and horse stables. It was here that, using horses as living antitoxin producers, massive amounts of tetanus and meningitis serums were produced. (A little west, running southwest from Steeles, you may take note of the street named Gerry Fitzgerald Drive and recognize its connection to the area.)

In 1923, Connaught Laboratories began a sixty-year run of supplying all of Canada with insulin, which had been pioneered by University of Toronto scientists Dr. Frederick Banting, Charles Best and Dr. James Collip, under lab director Prof. J.J. R. Macleod. With Connaught Labs able to mass produce insulin, the university’s Fisherville site became a leader in biomedical research. The site is also associated with, among others, polio and smallpox vaccines.

In 1972 the University of Toronto sold Connaught Laboratories to the Canadian Development Corporation and it became a for-profit organization that has developed into the current Sanofi Pasteur business, the largest company in the world dedicated only to vaccine production.

And so, while it may seem that Toronto and Vaughan's once rural community of Fisherville is lost, this is far from the truth. From the street and school names, the little pioneer cemetery that is still standing guard over the area, the moved and preserved church visited by museum-goers and wedding celebrants each year to the moved and preserved octagonal barn that is, at a minimum, seen by thousands on the highway each year, Fisherville lives on. And where the branch of the west Don River still flows south through Jacob Fisher’s 1797 land grant, life-saving vaccines that are used around the world are researched and produced daily.

P.S. On our way back to the car from the Fisherville cemetery, I spotted an old survey marker. I'm not sure of the date and despite a stint working at a museum about a provincial land surveyor, I don't know how exactly it is used. But it is another tiny piece of history linking back to a time, not that long ago, when the area was largely undeveloped.

04/25/2026

04/02/2026

Just a tiny Snippet tonight, and it’s not too historical but it’s a fun little fact I just learned this week. And tonight I drove by to take a picture for myself.

One of the routes I drive home takes me past a fairly new Tim Hortons at Jane and Falstaff in Toronto, just north of the 401. Apparently this was once the location of a very popular Harvey’s restaurant.

While I’m sure the charcoal broiled burgers were popular, the site actually became famous as the “Home of the Hot Ones” because the large parking lot catered to Toronto’s street racing crowd and muscle car aficionados. 🍔🚘

When the Tim Hortons was put in, they built in an homage to the fondly remembered Harvey’s location in the form of a burger-shaped Tim Hortons sign!

Isn’t that fun?! I’d never thought to notice the shape of the sign! Little tributes to history everywhere. 😊

03/22/2026

Two years around, at March Break time, I visited the Adamson Estate in Mississauga. I posted some pictures and wrote up a brief history. (Link below).

This March Break I visited again, for two reasons. One, I wanted to continue my exploration of the original Cawtha lands I touched on earlier this week when I visited the Cawthra Estate. Two, the Adamson Estate is no longer being leased to a school and is now being used by the Museums of Mississauga for exhibitions. And this one really interested me! Out of the Vault: Beyond the Shore - with a focus on Port Credit and Lakeview industrial history.

With the name “Adamson Estate”, one could be forgiven for wondering why I’m talking about the Cawthra family again. In brief: Mabel Cawthra, a cousin of Grace Cawthra-Elliot of Lotten (now the Cawthra Estate), inherited this property through her paternal line. Like Grace she also married a career military man, Col. Agar Adamson, and it was as a couple that they built the home that still stands there today.

All indications are that Mabel was quite a strong-willed and independent woman, but unlike cousin Grace she did take her husband‘s surname when they married and so the Cawthra connection to the land is easily overlooked if you don’t explore the history.

To build upon my Snippet from two years ago, today I include some pictures from inside the home that now houses the exhibition space, as well as some photos of the Adamson crypt at Trinity Anglican Church in Port Credit.

There have clearly been renovations and alterations inside the home as it has been used for other purposes, such as the Royal Conservatory of Music and a private school, since being a family home. But there are also elements and structural features that date from the time of the Adamson family occupation. The young man at the museum told me he knew the floors had been redone, but he wasn’t sure what else had been changed.

As for the Adamson crypt at the Trinity Anglican Cemetery, casual visitors may not realize that it exists. Tucked in the furthest corner of the cemetery, built into the hill and accessible only by a set of stairs, it is the only crypt in the graveyard. I’ve been to that cemetery myself and didn’t realize that this monument was here. Today there are two of those red Muskoka chairs sitting on top - possibly the first ones I’ve ever seen in a cemetery - which may draw people’s attention to the area, but you still need to be curious enough to go down a set of stone stairs to explore.

Link to 2024 Snippet:
https://www.facebook.com/share/1C6qd1KbGM/?mibextid=wwXIfr

03/19/2026

The western terminus station of the newly opened Eglinton Crosstown LRT actually includes a heritage building - the sole surviving remnant of a once thriving business complex that dominated the landscape at Eglinton between Weston Road and Black Creek.

The Canadian Kodak Company was incorporated in 1899. They established headquarters in downtown Toronto, first leasing a property on Colborne Street. They very quickly needed to expand and soon bought an empty lot on King Street where they built a new plant. By 1908 the factory was at full capacity and by 1912 it was clear they were going to outgrow these facilities.

In 1913 twenty-five acres of farmland at Eglinton Avenue and Weston Road were purchased. Construction immediately began on seven buildings at Kodak Heights, as the property was so nicknamed. By 1916 these buildings were complete and the move from King Street began, finishing in 1917.

Kodak Heights boasted its own Power House (Building 1), that burned 50 tonnes of coal a day. Smoke pumping from the 200 foot chimney was a local landmark. To transport the coal and other supplies, Kodak worked with the CPR to have rail tracks run right to the building.

In 1939 construction began on Building 9, the Employee's recreation building. It was a 4-storey structure that housed an auditorium, cafeteria, gymnasium, club room, locker room, and camera studio. There was even a lawn bowling green beside it! This building, that opened in 1940, is the only building that still stands.

By 1987 the property of Kodak Heights had 18 buildings. It employed many people in the surrounding area. However, in 2004 Kodak Canada announced the closing of their manufacturing operations and on the last day of June 2005, the plant closed. Demolition began almost immediately but somehow Building 9 survived.

Driving past it was obvious the building was a favourite location for graffitti artists and vandals, not to mention hoards and hoards of pigeons. The remainder of the Kodak site was simply a wasteland.

In 2013 the site was bought by Metrolinx and since that time we have watched with great interest as the property, and Building 9, were cleaned up. Between 2016 and 2017 the structure was actually raised up, moved to a temporary location on the property, and then moved back to its original location. In November 2025 some of the the ground floor became publically available again with the opening of the consolidated Mount Dennis GO, UP Express and TTC bus services. When the LRT opened in February 2026, the site also became accessible from the Eglinton Crosstown Line 5.

Today I took the LRT to Mount Dennis and did a little exploring! The upper levels of Building 9 are currently not accesible to the public but it doesn't look like much is going on there yet. The building is white and clean and sports a nice Heritage Toronto plaque near one of the front doors, though I suspect many people don't see it as this entrance is locked. Looking through the windows here I could see the staircase and the railings have been preserved and restored. Hopefully one day I'll be able to get inside and see other floors!

03/15/2026

Yesterday I visited PAMA (Peel Art Gallery Museum & Archives) and a trunk on display, marked G.K. Cawthra-Elliot, immediately caught my eye. Having grown up not far from Cawthra Road in south Mississauga, I instantly recognized the significance of the name.

Then today, heading home from a visit with family, I passed by the Cawthra Estate on Cawthra Road, just south of the QEW. With the weather much improved from my trip out in the morning, I pulled in and parked. One car was already in the lot and a man was just letting a very happy dog out to enjoy some freedom in the vast wooded area. A few minutes later, a lady with three happy pooches also hopped from a car and headed into the forest.

And I, of course - with no dog in tow, headed towards the house! I have been there, inside, but only once. It was many years ago when it was at night, so I don’t remember a lot of details.

Lotten - quite literally named from the historic surveyed lot number: Lot Ten, was built in 1926 by Grace Cawthra-Elliot, who was the last of the Cawthra family to live on the property that Joseph Cawthra was granted in 1808. Yes, Grace = the same G.K. Cawthra-Elliot whose trunk I saw yesterday!

Grace Millicent Kennaway Cawthra was born in Toronto in 1878, the youngest child of Henry Cawthra and Anna Celesta Mills – both from families deeply intertwined in Ontario’s settler heritage.

Her father Henry, was a lawyer and a director of the Bank of Toronto. He was also an avid art collector, who spent much time abroad in Europe. Grace was educated at home by an English governess and then school in France.

When Henry died in 1904, Grace was 26 and still fully dependent on him. His will gave her a small stipend, but expected her to live with and continue to abide by her mother’s strict regulations. They spent some time living abroad at her godfather’s (Sir John Kennaway) place in England, toured around Scotland and during World War I they lived at the Château Laurier in Ottawa. She had many suitors but none were approved by her mother.

It was during this time that she met met Colonel (later Major-General) Harry McIntyre Elliot, a well-educated career military man, with three surviving children from his first marriage to a great-granddaughter of Halifax’s Alexander Keith. Grace and Harry were married on July 29, 1921, not long after her mother’s death. One of the stipulations of the marriage was that Major-General Elliot had to add the Cawthra surname to his own.

In 1926, on the property left to her in Mississauga that had been part of her ancestor Joseph Cawthra’s estate, Grace had a new home built. She wanted the home to “represent all that had gone before it”.

Designed in the Georgian Revival style by William Lyon Somerville, the home was intended to be modelled after the Cawthra family’s ancestral home in Yorkshire, England, known as Yeadon Hall. The estate also boasted extensive gardens including an English walled garden, a pond, a gatehouse, and several outbuildings that were required to keep up such a property. The estate was further connected to the Cawthra family’s heritage as it was built with bricks from Grace’s childhood home in Toronto, also named Yeadon Hall, that had been torn down in 1925.

And the road originally known as First Line East, running north-south on the west side of the lot? It became known as Cawthra Road well before it was officially designated as such in 1958.

Grace became somewhat of a recluse as time went on and rarely left her home at Lotten. She became very focused on her family’s history, the values of which had been drilled into in her very being her whole life. Many of the Cawthra family homes in Toronto and surrounding areas were sold and demolished or altered. The world was changing but not at Lotten.

Unfortunately in 1947 the east wing of the home was struck by lightning and then destroyed by fire. And then Harry died two years later in 1949. Grace retreated further into her family heritage. The grounds of Lotten declined and the once manicured gardens grew wild. Lotten itself filled with old furniture, letters and newspapers. Unpaid bills stacked up as they came and she forgot to pay them. Her housekeeper was instructed not to touch anything, even the dust. Many who knew Grace said that family anecdotes and history “pushed all other concerns from her mind.”

Grace died in 1974, age 96, leaving no heirs. She and her husband, Harry are buried at St. John’s Anglican Cemetery, Dixie. The property was purchased by the City of Mississauga and to this day remains a significant undeveloped tract of land in the area.

The place is beautiful in the fall! But there’s a definite charm to seeing it this time of year as well. And when the foliage returns in the spring and throughout the summer, the trees are so thick you would never know there was this beautiful old estate tucked away in the woods just off a busy highway.

In fact, in all seasons it’s a little otherworldly. Which I believe is exactly what Grace Cawthra-Elliot intended.

03/07/2026

Thought today I would shine a spotlight on the last working farm in Toronto - Anga's Farm and Nursey. Located on low ground in the Humber River watershed on the outskirts of Thistletown in north Etobicoke, it is a location I pass twice daily on the commute to and from work, but I've only ever visited the site twice.

First visit was about 17 years ago when our puppy Pax thought our newly planted Japanese maple was a stick and he pulled it up and proudly destroyed it; quick stop at Anga's on the way home to buy a much larger version helped my spouse feel a bit better (and stopped the puppy attacks).

Then today I attended a paper-quilling workshop at the farm with a friend. We learned craft new to both of us inside one of the greenhouses, one dedicated to workshops, and I took note of how much the site has changed in the interim.

The site today is vibrant and active; it was a basic and functional nursery when I last visited. Both have their merits. It is wonderful today to see a thriving business in the community. 17 years ago it was connecting to buy a tree from a site that clearly had some heritage, none of which I knew at the time. Both times it felt strange knowing that I was still in the city - not unlike my grandparent's rather rural property that was just off the beaten path steps away from a major intersection in Scarborough.

The land that Anga's Farm sits on was once part of John Grubb's 1830 purchase of 150 acres. John Grubb's home, Elmbank, is a designated heritage home and located just south of the farm on the other side of Albion Road. It is another place in the city that feels a world away, a stone house at the base of a hollow, facing away from the road. Built originally to face the river, I don't think the house would want to turn even if it could - best to stay nestled in the past.

Over the years Grubb's 150-acres were subdivided. In 1950 a section of about 4 acres of fertile land near the river was purchased by Percy and Gloria Kirby. The farm was rundown and did not have plumbing but the family worked to make a go of it. Four years later the site was hit hard by Hurricane Hazel but the Kirbys continued to farm and make improvements. They largely farmed vegetables, which they sold both locally and wholesale.

In 1973 the Kirbys, ready to retire, sold the property to a developer who tried to get the land rezoned from agricultural to residential. Nearby residents fought this and the rezoning was denied by local council. Additionally the Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (MTRCA, now just the TRCA) had the area declared a flood plain, meaning no one could build on the land.

In 1980 John Anga and his family purchased the land and moved in. Unable to tear down and rebuild the old farmhouse, they were granted permission to renovate it - which they did. They planted orchards and over time various outbuildings and greenhouses were established on the site. Two of the Kirby's greenhouses still stand on the site.

I was amazed to see the difference today since the last time I had visited. The site, which was officially declared the City of Etobicoke's last working farm in 1997, has - if you'll pardon the pun - blossomed. The property was up for sale in 2023 but I am unclear if the sale went through or not. When it went upo for sale there was a lot of concern that it would be developed, despite being on a flood plain. Whatever did happen with the sale, the site is still a farm, nursery and garden centre. It is modern and active, yet still a site apart from the rest of the world. I hope it stays that way forever.

02/25/2026

Had a class at Edithvale Community Centre in North York this evening. I remember coming to a class here over 25 years ago - when it was a community center, but housed in the old school.

Today there is a neat little piece of history in the main lobby where they have preserved the old Edithvale Public School PA system.

02/21/2026

A friend of my mother's recently passed away and while watching a video posted on her obituary, a vintage sepia-toned image of an old store flashed across the screen.

I have to confess that my mind immediately started wondering where that business had been located, as I knew her friend had grown up in North York (Toronto). So I watched the remainder of the celebration of life, then backtracked until I could grab a screen capture of the store. I also found an image of her friend and brother as small children in front of a truck for the business.

Digging through City directories and digital newspaper archives, I learned that Fiorini's Fruit Market operated at 1903 Avenue Road in North York, Toronto. The building is still there, though Fiorini's only existed on the site from after 1949, when the site was being offered for sale, to around 1955 when the City directory lists Don's Marketeria as the business at that address. By 1961 the property was a mattress store that did a lot of advertising in the newspaper.

In 1950 Gerardo Fiorini is listed as the proprietor of Fiorini Fruit Market and by 1952 and 1953 his daughter Cynthia is also listed, as a sales girl. By 1953 and 1954 Gerardo is no longer the proprietor but my mother's friend's father was working there as a clerk. He then continued living at 1901A Avenue Road (the apartment associated with the business) until 1956. His occupation is not listed in 1955 or 1956. By 1957 no trace of this Fiorini family is found in the directory; I believe they had all moved out of the "city" as it was defined by the directory.

As someone that loves local history, I was fascinated to learn this little tidbit about a stretch of Avenue Road I have passed many times. But my family historian hat immediately went to work when I realized that 1903 Avenue Road was located just south of Brooke Avenue.

Why is that significant? In 1949, the same year the business was bought by the paternal uncle of my mother's friend, my great-grandmother Annie Rosa Williams and her her two unmarried daughters Florence and Henrietta Lightwood bought a home at 193 Brooke Avenue. Annie Rosa lived there until her death in 1954, Hetty until her death in 1956 and Flo until 1968 when she moved to a nearby apartment.

Fiorini's Fruit Market, a small and local grocery store who advertised several times in 1954 looking for an new butcher, may very well have been a place my great-grandmother and great-great-aunts have shopped. They didn't drive, they walked and took transit - a local fresh food shop literally steps from home would have been ideal. But even if my family didn't shop there - they would have known about it and seen it every time they headed out to Avenue Road.

It is amazing how people and families intersect over time and space, quite often unknowingly. This is one of those "fun" times when we are able to uncover a little personal history and a connection that was actually much older than a long friendship.