Toronto (York) didn't amount to much until Jarvis Collegiate
arrived on the scene in 1807 to civilize it. You can get
an idea of what it was like in those dark days by
following the links below:
Toronto Bay, natural and serene, before Simcoe started the town in 1793.
On the right was the town site, on the left the peninsula. Later in the century storms separated the penisula from the shore, creating the present Toronto Islands.
- Creation-1670: Origins of the
name Toronto. Did the word come from the Huron or
the Mohawk? A copying error on a map moved Toronto southward.
- 1700-1750: The Iroquois village of
Teiaiagon. The Toronto Portage or Toronto
Carrying Place. A Seneca (Iroquois) village. They greet the
early French explorers.
- 1750-1759: The first European settlement.
Fort Rouillé, a French trading post. One of the least
important French forts in all of North America.
- 1788: The Toronto Purchase.
The British buy Toronto from the Mississaugas after ending
French power in North America in the Seven Years War.
- 1793: The Beginning of the Town
of Toronto (York). Governor Simcoe locates the new capital
of Upper Canada at Toronto, a choice no one likes
very much. He changes its "outlandish" name.
- Elizabeth Simcoe's sketch of
the fort, 1796
- Map of very early Toronto
- 1803: The First Decade for
Toronto. Capital of a large province, but still
a frontier village.
Other Scenes of Early Toronto
- The first legislative
buildings, 1797-1813. Wooden halls surrounded
by oak forest. How romantic! Burned to the ground
by the Americans in 1813. How dastardly! (Washington was occupied
by a British army a few months later and burned
in retaliation. How just!)
- The second legislative
buildings, 1818-1824. Real brick!
- The third set of legislative
buildings, 1826-1892. The buildings may have been
more permanent, but the capital moved from place to place
like a pinball.
- Toronto, looking east down King Street, 1835
Martyn, Lucy Booth, A View of Original Toronto: The
Fabric of York/Toronto Circa 1834, The Paget Press, Sutton
West & Santa Barbara, 1983. ISBN-0-920348-30-0
Robertson, J. Ross, Landmarks of Toronto, Vol.1,
Mika Publishing Company, Belleville, Ontario, 1976.
ISBN 0-919302-04-8. Facsimile edition of original
1894 edition.