But the real business of the map is to show information on all the piers across the front of the City behind the Windmill Line running from Gooderham’s mill-tower in the east to the old French fort in the west. Until it was replaced by a new Windmill Line in 1893 this line defined how far into the harbour wharves could extend.
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Chart of the North Shore of Toronto Harbour, and Plan of the Wharves and Storehouses, &c &c
Surveyed by Mr John G. Howard D.P. Surveyor, Toronto 1846. [Sgd] John G. Howard Surveyor August 17th 1846.
Source: Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Office of the Surveyor General. SR 410 H24
© 2013 Queens Printer Ontario
Winearls, MUC no. 2079 (1)
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The same day as John Howard recorded the information on the harbour in the plan above, he also imagined a new waterfront where shipping would tie up in one- or two-boat ‘bays’ along a mile-long esplanade extending from near Gooderham’s mill to the Queens’s Wharf. The water’s edge would be defined by a 150-foot wide cribbed structure holding back fill used to create several acres of new land. Two alternate designs for the embayment are shown too.
Although Howard would not have known its importance, he has left us here a clear understanding of the layout of the Market Block in the brief window between the completion in 1845 of the Second City Hall (now the Market Gallery), and the fire that in 1849 destroyed the market square where St. Lawrence Hall and the north market now stand.
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Toronto Harbour
[Sgd] John G. Howard D.P. Surveyor August 17th 1846
Source: Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Office of the Surveyor General. SR 6477 P10-22
© 2013 Queens Printer Ontario
Winearls, MUC no. 2079 (2)
Next map: 1851 Gordon: Toronto Plan to Accompany the Returns called for by Board’s Order
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