{"id":53095,"date":"2015-10-15T13:00:33","date_gmt":"2015-10-15T17:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=53095"},"modified":"2015-11-08T18:30:13","modified_gmt":"2015-11-08T23:30:13","slug":"5-subtle-signs-lost-rivers-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/10\/15\/5-subtle-signs-lost-rivers-toronto\/","title":{"rendered":"5 subtle signs of lost rivers in Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like many North American cities, the street grid in downtown Toronto\u00a0is (for the most part) rigidly geometric. Where there’s an unexpected deviation from the norm, it tends to stand out. In a handful of cases, unexplained street curves are the subtle evidence\u00a0of one of the city’s numerous lost rivers, waterways erased from the map by being re-routed into sewers or excavated to death.<\/p>\n

Here’s a look at five clues on the Toronto street map of former rivers.<\/p>\n

Queen’s Park Cres.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"toronto<\/a>
Taddle Creek’s influence made Queen’s Park Cres. asymmetrical. 1872 Wadsworth & Unwin: Map of the City of Toronto, Library and Archives Canada: NMC25641.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s not immediately obvious at street level, but from the air the southwest corner of Queen’s Park Crescent is\u00a0clearly crooked<\/a>. 110 years ago, Taddle Creek flowed south past the Ontario parliament building en route to its mouth near the foot of Parliament St. The creek’s\u00a0meandering course meant the ring road around the grounds of the legislature at Queen’s Park couldn’t be\u00a0made completely symmetrical.<\/p>\n

For a time, Taddle Creek, which was also known as Little Don River and Brewery Creek, fed a small pond on the future site of Hart House. Few traces of the river remain save for a portion of shallow ravine on\u00a0Philosopher’s Walk<\/a> south of Bloor. A plan to partially resurrect the stream in failed when no trace of its original source could be found.<\/p>\n

Niagara St.\/Walnut Ave.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"toronto<\/a>
After exiting the grounds of Trinity College, Taddle Creek curved east, a move reflected in the modern streetscape. 1872 Wadsworth & Unwin: Map of the City of Toronto, Library and Archives Canada: NMC25641.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Garrison Creek was one of the largest of Toronto’s lost rivers. Rising as\u00a0two separate rivers\u00a0that converged\u00a0just northeast of Dundas and Ossington, the creek flowed in a steep-sided ravine through Trinity-Bellwoods Park, past the north end of Fort York, and out into the Toronto Harbour.<\/p>\n

South of Queen, Garrison Creek swung east, a move mirrored by\u00a0the sweeping curve of Niagara St and Walnut Ave. Before the little river was channeled underground in the 1880s, the properties\u00a0on the west side of Walnut\u00a0backed onto the creek.\u00a0Stanley Park was formed out of the old ravine lands around 1900<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ossington Ave.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"toronto<\/a>
Garrison Creek and another tributary, Dennison\u00a0Creek, converged near present day Ossington (Denison) and Dundas. 1872 Wadsworth & Unwin: Map of the City of Toronto, Library and Archives Canada: NMC25641.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A walk\u00a0north on Ossington from Dundas starts out flat, but the road soon dips into a shallow sided ravine<\/a> carved out\u00a0by Dennison\u00a0Creek, a tributary of Garrison Creek. After crossing Ossington, Dennison\u00a0flowed southeast a short distance before merging with Garrison near the southwest corner of present day Harrison St. and Roxton Rd. (named Givens St. in the map above.)<\/p>\n

Before\u00a0Garrison Creek\u00a0and its tributaries were\u00a0re-routed\u00a0into sewer pipes and the area heavily landscaped by\u00a0development, it posed a significant obstacle to road travellers. Bridges of varying\u00a0sizes were necessary on Ossington, Harbord, Dundas, Adelaide, and Richmond. The Harbord Street bridge\u00a0was subsequently buried, but its northern parapet is still visible above ground<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Crawford St.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"toronto<\/a>
Before streets were added and the land subdivided, Garrison Creek flowed through an undeveloped area northwest of the city. 1872 Wadsworth & Unwin: Map of the City of Toronto, Library and Archives Canada: NMC25641.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

North of\u00a0College, Crawford breaks free from the rigidity of the surrounding street grid and briefly\u00a0snakes west, then east<\/a>. This deviation is another clue to the former path of Garrison Creek. It was here that Dewson Stream, a small tributary, connected\u00a0with the main\u00a0flow.<\/p>\n

The depression in the land\u00a0made by the merging of the rivers is\u00a0easy to notice at the intersection of Beatrice and Montrose streets<\/a>.\u00a0Crawford passes over Garrison Creek a second time in Trinity-Bellwoods Park. In 1915, the city built a substantial concrete bridge over the river. The structure is still standing, but it has been buried up to the road deck by infill.<\/p>\n

Orchard Park<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"toronto<\/a>
Small’s Pond and the Serpentine at Queen and Kingston Rd. Both turned to stagnant pools and were eventually filled in. 1910 Goad’s Atlas of the City of Toronto, Toronto Public Library: M912.7135 G57 BR fo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Small’s Pond\u00a0and the Serpentine\u00a0were significant manmade\u00a0bodies of water at Queen and Kingston Rd. created by the actions of\u00a0Charles Coxwell Small, an early landowner who dammed\u00a0a creek near Queen and Eastern. The reduction in flow created\u00a0a roughly u-shaped body of water. The eastern arm was named the Serpentine and the western arm Small’s Pond.<\/p>\n

The 12-metre deep body of water was a popular skating and fishing ground in its heyday.\u00a0In 1919, a young boy drowned in Small’s Pond and other close calls were reported in the newspapers. Both\u00a0became stagnant when nearby development cut off the creeks that replenished the water. Both Small’s Pond and the Serpentine\u00a0were drained and built over on public health grounds\u00a01935.<\/p>\n

The dead end of Ashland Ave. and sudden curves in Battenburg Ave. and Orchard Park Dr.<\/a> hint at the existence of the former pond. Orchard Park south of Dundas is on former Small’s Pond\/Serpentine land.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like many North American cities, the street grid in downtown Toronto\u00a0is (for the most part) rigidly geometric. Where there’s an unexpected deviation from the norm, it tends to stand out. In a handful of cases, unexplained street curves are the subtle evidence\u00a0of one of the city’s numerous lost rivers, waterways erased from the map byContinue reading “5 subtle signs of lost rivers in Toronto”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8234,"featured_media":53146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69,24,170,20],"tags":[22117,22115,9520,22118,21982,22116,19],"class_list":["post-53095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-curiosities","category-history","category-maps","category-urban-design","tag-creek","tag-garrison","tag-lost-rivers","tag-serpentine","tag-smalls-pond","tag-taddle","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n5 subtle signs of lost rivers in Toronto - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/10\/15\/5-subtle-signs-lost-rivers-toronto\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 subtle signs of lost rivers in Toronto - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Like many North American cities, the street grid in downtown Toronto\u00a0is (for the most part) rigidly geometric. 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