Garrison Creek | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | Canada |
State | Ontario |
City | Toronto |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | Humewood Reach |
• location | Dufferin Street and St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Mouth | Toronto Bay |
• location | Old Fort York, Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Length | 7.7 km (4.8 mi) |
Discharge | |
• location | Foot of Bathurst Street at Lake Ontario |
Garrison Creek was a short stream about 7.7 kilometres (4.8 miles) long that flowed southeast into the west side of Toronto Harbour in Ontario, Canada. [1] It has been largely covered over and filled in, but geographical traces of the creek can still be found, including the natural amphitheatre known as Christie Pits and the off-leash dog "bowl" of Trinity Bellwoods Park. The name "Garrison Creek" was used because Fort York was built near the creek mouth. Volunteers lead popular tours of the course of the old watershed.
Garrison Creek was one of a number of small natural watercourses on the site of the current city of Toronto. [1] Starting in the 1870s, the stream was diverted into underground sewers under city streets and the original course was filled in with soil. By 1920, the stream was entirely diverted into the sewer system. There are many artifacts of the Creek's existence, including buried bridges along Harbord Street and Crawford Street south of Dundas Street. The unusual courses of Niagara Street (north of Fort York) and Vaughan Road (St. Clair and Bathurst area) indicate that they were once trails following the banks of the creek. [2]
In 2013 particularly strong rainstorms caused the storm sewers that replaced Garrison Creek to flood, at Christie Pits, Trinity Bellwoods Park, and a railway underpass at King Street and Atlantic Avenue. [3] Both Christie Pits and Trinity Bellwoods Park are over the original Garrison Creek Ravine, while the King and Atlantic intersection is over the course of Asylum Stream, a tributary that ran from just northwest of Fort York to Lisgar Street and Queen Street West near the former Provincial Asylum.
The stream had two sources, one north of St. Clair Avenue, near Humewood Public School, and the other northwest of the present-day Dufferin Street and St. Clair Avenue intersection. [1] The main course travels due south to south of King Street, where it turned to the southeast and emptied into Toronto Bay at the present-day intersection of Bathurst Street and Lake Shore Boulevard.
Tributaries along the creek included: [1]
The Humber River is a river in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is in the Great Lakes Basin, is a tributary of Lake Ontario and is one of two major rivers on either side of the city of Toronto, the other being the Don River to the east. It was designated a Canadian Heritage River on September 24, 1999.
St. Clair Avenue is a major east-west street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was laid out in the late 18th century by the British as a concession road, 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) north of Bloor Street and 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) north of Queen Street.
King Street is a major east–west commercial thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was one of the first streets laid out in the 1793 plan of the town of York, which became Toronto in 1834.
Taddle Creek is a buried stream in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that flowed a southeasterly course about six kilometres long, from St. Clair Avenue west of Bathurst Street through the present site of Wychwood Park, through the University of Toronto, into the Toronto Harbour near the Distillery District. During the 19th century, it was buried and converted into an underground sewer, but traces of the creek can still be found today. The scenic footpath known as Philosopher's Walk follows the ravine created by the creek from the Royal Ontario Museum to Trinity College. Taddle Creek is also the name of a Toronto literary magazine and of a local Montessori school.
Trinity Bellwoods Park is a public park located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, bordered by Queen Street West on the south and Dundas Street on the north. The western boundary of the park is Crawford Street, several hundred feet before Crawford intersects with Dundas St. West, the park juts toward Shaw Street, westside of the Crawford Street Bridge. Most of the park's area lies in the original Garrison Creek ravine and this creek, now a buried city storm sewer, still flows beneath the park from the northwest to the southeast corners.
Bathurst Street is a main north–south arterial road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It begins at an intersection of the Queens Quay roadway, just north of the Lake Ontario shoreline. It continues north through Toronto to the Toronto boundary at Steeles Avenue. It is a four-lane thoroughfare throughout Toronto. The roadway continues north into York Region where it is known as York Regional Road 38.
Niagara is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located south of Queen Street West; it is usually bordered by Strachan Avenue to the west, Bathurst Street to the east, and the railway corridor to the south, and so named because Niagara Street runs through the centre of it. The eastern portion of this area was first planned as the New Town Extension when Toronto was incorporated as a city. The area was developed as a residential area for the workers of industries located along the CN and CP railway corridors. It remains a working-class neighbourhood that has seen the development of new condominium apartment buildings.
Castle Frank Brook is a buried creek and south-west flowing tributary of the Don River in central and north-western Toronto, Ontario, originating near the intersection of Lawrence Avenue and Dufferin Street.
Vaughan Road is a road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a contour collector road that is parallel to a buried creek to the north called Castle Frank Brook. Vaughan Road begins on Bathurst Street south of St. Clair Avenue West, then it becomes a north–south street, hence its address numbering system, then it becomes a northwest–southeast street. Finally, Vaughan Road ends in a dead-end near Fairbank station at the intersection of Eglinton Avenue and Dufferin Street. Vaughan Road Academy is named after this road.
Crawford Street Bridge was one of two known bridges that once spanned over Garrison Creek valley in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The creek had been buried by the 1920s and the bridge was buried intact. The bridge shared design features with the larger Prince Edward Viaduct.
Trinity-Bellwoods is an inner city neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is bounded on the east by Bathurst Street, on the north by College Street, on the south by Queen Street West, and by Dovercourt Road on the west. It has a large Portuguese and Brazilian community, and many local Portuguese-Canadian businesses are located along Dundas Street West, continuing west into Little Portugal; this stretch further west along Dundas is known as Rua Açores.
Bracondale was a provincial electoral district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was represented in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1926 to 1967. The constituency got its name from an old Toronto suburb called Bracondale, that was annexed by Toronto in 1909. Its most notable event was electing one of the first two women Members of the Provincial Parliament (MPP) to share the title "first-woman MPP" in 1943 when Rae Luckock was elected. In 1965, Bracondale's MPP, Joseph Gould, died in office sparking the final election held in the constituency. George Ben won the by-election, and became the constituency's last MPP. It was abolished for the 1967 Ontario provincial election, and redistributed into the Dovercourt and Bellwoods constituencies. As of 2023, the current electoral districts of Davenport, St. Paul's, University–Rosedale, and Spadina–Fort York encompass this historic riding.
Regal Heights is a neighbourhood located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is classified as a part of the Corso Italia-Davenport neighbourhood by the City of Toronto. and is situated on the western crest of the Davenport escarpment. This neighbourhood has many distinguishing characteristics including very large turn of the century houses, winding tree- lined streets, and an elevation atop the Davenport escarpment. Its main commercial shopping area is along St. Clair Avenue West between Dufferin Street and Oakwood Avenue.
Burke Brook is a small stream in Toronto, Ontario. It is part of the Don River watershield, a major river that flows into Lake Ontario. The north end of the stream begins near Glenview Senior Public School.
Yellow Creek is a partially-buried southeasterly tributary of the Don River in Toronto. It has also been known at different times as Silver Creek, Sylvan Creek, and Rosedale Brook. The former source of Yellow Creek begins near Sheppard West station in the Downsview neighbourhood. Most of the creek and its sources are buried underground in storm sewers until they emerge into Avoca Ravine in the Deer Park neighbourhood and continue their way to the Don River.
Mud Creek is a mostly buried south-easterly tributary of the Don River in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has also been known at different times as Mount Pleasant Brook and Spring Valley Creek.
Buried since the early 1900s, Garrison Creek now flows through a series of storm sewers from north of Davenport Road down to Lake Ontario. Christie Pits and Trinity Bellwoods are along the route of the creek proper, while the corner of King and Atlantic (pictured above) is near an adjoining buried waterway called Asylum Stream.