Bellevue / Denison Square

While there are few visual traces of this square from the early 1800s, what we do have are maps. Over the years you see the forest being cleared and the city filling in. Alexander Aitken's 1793 map is Toronto's first official plan, noting Concession lines that ran east/west and the first park lot divisions, 100 acres park lots, as well as proposed buildings: block house, battery and barracks for the Queen’s Rangers.

The park lots are numbered & their unusual shape, narrow, vertical strips, was chosen to give as many estates as possible access to the harbour (MacNamara, 1997). Lots were given to American farmers and British Loyalists north and east of the new Township of York, while land north and west was given to an upper echelon of senior officers, many of whom had served with Simcoe in the Queen’s Rangers.

Note, too, that this survey gives no indication of the topographical features other than rivers and streams, or any indication that anyone lived here.

Source: Plan of York Harbour Surveyed by order of Lt Govr Simcoe [Sgd] by A. Aitken. D [Syr?] 179[3] Image courtesy The National Archives of the UK:  CO 700 Canada no.60 . Winearls, MUC no. 2015

 http://oldtorontomaps.blogspot.com/2013/01/1793-aitken-plan-of-york-harbour.html 

The signing of the Toronto Purchase September 23, 1787 between the British and the three Mississaugas Chiefs, was a significant step for the British towards settlement, though there was a marked difference in understanding as to what had been agreed to. (See the TPL overview of Toronto Purchase and its Settlement here:  https://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/local-history-genealogy/2018/06/remembering-the-toronto-purchase-and-its-settlement-june-8-snapshots-in-history.html) 

John Simcoe Graves, The first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, visited in the area in 1793 and the site, Toronto renamed as Township of York, was chosen to be the capital of Upper Canada, defending against Americans to the south.

Surveyors divided the land into thirty-two 100 acre Park Lots from what is now Queen up to Bloor. Many of these park lots were granted to those in Simcoe’s circle for their military service, with the intent of establishing a landed aristocracy on estates mirroring the English country home. This map was drawn for the ratification of the Toronto Purchase in 1805. 

Toronto Purchase ratification map.  City of Toronto Archives , listed under the archival citation, Fonds 1231, Item 174.

Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Purchase#/media/File:Map_of_the_Toronto_purchase_(normal_orientation).jpg 

Zoom in on the signatory page for the 1805 ratification of the Toronto Purchase, (referred to as Treaty 13), and you can see a list of the Mississauga signatories, with the individual doodem or clan identification markings. (For more on the significance of doodem in Anishinaabe governance, see Professor Heidi Bohaker's 2020 work,  Doodem and Council Fire: Anishinaabe Governance through Alliance .)

Document source: City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231, f1231_it0175.

Source:  http://oldtorontomaps.blogspot.com/2013/01/1787-1805-toronto-purchase.html 

The 1842 Cane Map shows Belle Vue as a solitary estate on recently cleared land. The road you see running south from the estate was a one mile drive running north from Queen. If you stand just to the east of the Al Waxman statue, the stretch of … before you was once the Denison carriage way.

The Denisons were substantial land holders, George inheriting much of his father’s land, and through marriage were connected to many of the families whose names are memorialized in Toronto’s streets: the Lippincotts, the Bordens,… . George Denison married 4 times, had thirteen children and multiple grandchildren. Denison purchased the land Belle Vue was built on, Lot 17 and the eastern portion of Lot 18, and through marriage, he acquired more land in what became known as Kensington Market.

City of Toronto Archives (1933 Duplicate: Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 15, Item 76; Original is  MT255, Records Centre box 591507 )

Source:  http://oldtorontomaps.blogspot.com/2013/01/1842-cane-topographical-map-of-city-and.html 

Text from the memoir of Robert Evelyn Denison describing the building of Belle Vue Estate. From: A history of the Denison family in Canada, 1792 to 1910 : for the use of members of the family only / by Robert Evelyn Denison. (1910)

 https://archive.org/details/historyofdenison00deni 

Robert Evelyn Denison concludes his brief memoir with this passage promoting a belief in what would later be termed, eugenics (below; 33). The influence and imprint of the extended network of connected families remains in many of Toronto's downtown street names: Borden, Lippincott, Dovercourt, Rusholme, Major, and Robert ( KMHS ).

The Sandford Fleming topographical map of 1851 shows early building in Kensington Market to the east of the estate and marks the locations of trees, the remains of the original forest.

TOPOGRAPHICAL PLAN OF THE CITY OF TORONTO, IN THE PROVINCE OF CANADA, From actual Survey, by J. STOUGHTON DENNIS, Provin’l. Land Surveyor. Drawn and Compiled by SANDFORD A. FLEMING, Provin’l. Land Surveyor. 1851. // THIS PLAN IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO THE WORSHIPFUL THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN, AND COMMONALTY OF THE CITY OF TORONTO, BY THE AUTHOR. PUBLISHED BY HUGH SCOBIE, ADELAIDE BUILDINGS, KING STREET EAST. TORONTO. Engraved on Stone by Sandford A. Fleming, Land Surveyor, 67, Yonge St. Lithograph, colour; backed with linen. 12 chains to one inch Image courtesy of Toronto Public Library:  T1851/4Mlrg . Winearls, MUC no. 2090

The 1851 map of the Town of York with Park lots shows the segmenting and growth of York. Streets were measured originally by a length of chain of 66 feet, known as Gunter’s chain. Spadina was given a street allowance of 132ft, twice the standard width for roads in Ontario, although its final width became 160ft.

Image courtesy of Toronto Public Library: T1851/4Mlrg. Winearls, MUC no. 2090.

The 1857 City of Toronto Plan presents a neatly organized grid of Toronto’s streets. Note that at the bottom here, St. Patrick, later Dundas Street, does not yet extend west to Bathurst. Each map traces the bones of the city street network filling in, with streets named for notable Torontonians.

Plan of the City of Toronto Canada West 1857. // Published by Fleming Ridout & Schreiber / Lithographed by J. Ellis 8 King St. Toronto C.W.  Original image scan  courtesy City of Toronto Archives:  Fonds 2, Series 88, Item 13 . Winearls, MUC no. 2131

Source:  https://maps.library.utoronto.ca/datapub/digital/NG/historicTOmaps/fleming.large.s0088_it0013x.jpg 

The 1862 Plan for the Government Survey shows the further subdivision of land to the east of Bellevue estate, as what became known as Kensington Market began to grow up around the Denison home.

Plan of the City of Toronto, H.J. Browne, 1862, MT 845

Source:  http://jpeg2000.eloquent-systems.com/toronto.html?image=mt-845.jp2 

The Goad’s Fire Insurance Map of 1884 still shows the Belle Vue site & square, both labelled "Col. Denison," suggesting the square was still private property.

From the 1880s on, residences filled in, on smaller lots, and many new immigrants to Canada called the Market home. The streets around you to this day trace the influence on the shape of the market today.