1834 Toronto: Beating the Bounds - Saturday, April 25th
2009 Walks Season begins with a special self-guided tour
Our 2009 Heritage Toronto Walks Season is around the corner - and it begins with a special self-guided walk this year to honour our city's birthday: 1834 Toronto: Beating the Bounds.
Dirt streets and wooden sidewalks, the smell of wood smoke and stables, schooners and steamboats in the harbour - this was what one would have encountered here in 1834, the year the growing Town of York (population 9,252) was incorporated as the City of Toronto. While it is a challenge to fully understand life back then, we can get a sense of the scope of the early city - through our feet!
In celebration of Toronto's 175th anniversary, Heritage Toronto and Spacing magazine invite you to walk the 1834 city boundaries in a one-of-a-kind modern ‘pilgrimage'. Pick up a map between 1:00 and 2:30 PM at the start point and walk the route at your own pace. Or drop by the Heritage Toronto office after April 25 to pick up the map and do this tour at your own convenience.
Heritage Toronto will be joined by Councillor Adam Vaughan (TBD) and Shawn Micallef of spacing magazine.
*The first 100 people who finish the walk will receive a copy of J.G. Chewett 1834 map of the City of Toronto at Mill Street Brewery, in the Distillery District, and a coupon for a 10% discount off a food purchase.
START POINT: N end of Market Lane Park, west side of St. Lawrence Hall, 157 King St E at Jarvis St
FINISH POINT: Parliament Square Park, Parliament St, 1 block S of Front St E, near the Distillery District
LENGTH: Approx. 4 to 4 1/2 hours or 9 to 9.5 km
FOCUS: Historical
DIFFICULTY: Very long walk on pavement, park grounds, some slopes
For the 2009 Heritage Toronto Walks schedule, click here.
Map: J.G. Chewett, City of Toronto, 1834, MsX1918.1, Toronto Reference Library
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This looks great - my
This looks great - my understanding is that 1834 Toronto had two sets of boundaries. One was the part of the city which was developed and incorporated into wards. The other is all the land which Toronto claimed for itself, which included the surrounding rural areas to the west, north and east (called "the liberties") which was either undeveloped or farmland in 1834, although the people living there were still Toronto citizens and generally deemed to be "represented" by the nearest ward. Which route is this tour following?
(Also, if anyone can provide any insight as to why the area was called "the liberties," I'd greatly appreciate it, as I'd like to know whether it's connected to the area of the same name in Dublin, or to modern-day Liberty Street/Liberty Village).
The boundaries
David,
You are quite right that the incorporated city in 1834 included both the official Wards (with representation on Council) and the "liberties" (without representation on Council). We debated the route for our "Beating of the Bounds" walk with that in mind, and considered walking people from the lakeshore up Dufferin to Bloor and over to the Don (the rough boundaries of the liberties, excluding a portion south of Queen running east of the Don.) The other was to map out the rough boundaries of settlement in 1834 (which is less than the boundaries of the wards). In the end, we decided to walk the boundaries of the Wards - Bathurst to Dundas to Parliament to Front - a simpler route, easily followed.
How's that for a convoluted answer?
As for the liberties, someone else might have a comment on the name. I do recall that in the liberties, city services were less than in the wards, and that property taxes were less as well.
Gary