When in 1851 the Board of Ordnance demanded the City surrender its lease on 287 acres intended for a Western Park only three years into a 999-year lease (see
previous), City Council negotiated to take a smaller area. But the Board asked terms far from Council's liking involving payments to pensioners who might have settled there; it is unclear whether any lease on the subject area in green was ever executed. Instead, in 1858 after ownership of the Military Reserve had passed from the Board of Ordnance to the Provincial Government, the City was given a parcel south of the Lunatic Asylum, where Toronto’s first Crystal Palace was erected for the Provincial Exhibition held that year.
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Toronto. Rough Sketch showing tinted Green the portion of the Military Reserve leased to the Corporation, which they may retain exclusive of the Railways on the same terms as their present Lease, and the Corporation to be considered only as Yearly Tenants for the Ravine tinted Yellow
[Sgd]
R.I. Pilkington, Draftsman, 28 March, 1853.
Image courtesy Library and Archives Canada:
NMC4474
Next map:
1856: Dennis & Boulton: Plan of the Proposed Improvements on part of the Ordnance Reserve Toronto
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The Military Reserve
