1856 Dennis & Boulton: Plan of the Proposed Improvements on part of the Ordnance Reserve Toronto

This fragment of a plan is perhaps the most enigmatic in the whole history of Fort York and Reserve. It projects a vast subdivision, Grosvenor Railton, where the fort has been demolished to make way for a circular market house. North and west of this enigma are streets, parks and amenities like a museum and botanical garden that occupy the triangle formed between the Grand Trunk rail corridor, Garrison Creek and likely the lands granted to the Lunatic Asylum. The upper half of the plan is missing. Shades of a future subdivision appear in the name 'Belgravia' applied to the lands south of the GTR corridor.

The Grand Trunk Railway is given prominence in the scheme, pointing to its likely proponent, while the Hamilton & Toronto (Great Western) is shown in a faded-back way. Incredibly, the Ontario Simcoe & Huron railway has been eliminated entirely, raising more questions than can be answered since the OS&H was the first railway there. From the footprint of the GTR's cruciform Engine House the plan can be dated likely to 1856 or later, when that very large structure was completed. Also supporting that date may be efforts by George Fothergill, a son of the late Charles Fothergill who had championed a museum for Toronto, to keep alive his claim to a site for a museum (p5) on the Reserve.

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Plan of the Proposed Improvements on Part of the Ordnance Reserve Toronto
[Sgd] Dennis & Boulton Surveyors. O[wen]. Jones, Del., 1856

Image courtesy Library and Archives Canada: NMC19783
Winearls, MUC no. 2122 (1)

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