Historical, heritage and cultural sites that are essential for the Federal Impact Assessment Agency of Canada's evaluation of the Ontario Line project.

RE:  Historical, heritage and cultural sites that are essential for the Federal Impact Assessment Agency of Canada’s evaluation of the Ontario Line project.
 

The Riverdale Historical Society, founded in 1999, is dedicated to discovering, interpreting and preserving our community’s heritage within the wider community of Toronto.  We have hosted more than a hundred events including lectures on our history, walking tours of Riverdale, and visits to its landmarks and notable homes.  We have researched and erected RHS plaques on individual homes and co-sponsored a Heritage Preservation District study to help raise awareness of the area’s heritage among local residents.   We have provided research and funding for Heritage Toronto plaques commemorating many local landmarks such as the Don Jail, the Broadview Hotel and Grand Trunk Railway’s East Station at DeGrassi Street.  We have engaged in historically-oriented local activism, including lobbying to preserve the Lawn Bowling Club we now call home.  We have a substantial, loyal and growing membership and have been awarded City of City of Toronto Heritage Awards, including the 2007 Community Heritage Award.

Because of our commitment to Riverdale’s heritage, the RHS urges that the proposed Ontario Line consultations include investigating how the above-ground line will impact so many of our community’s familiar and beloved fixtures.  As present, the Ontario Line managers have redefined the Environmental Assessment process so that it requires them to study only a very narrow zone snaking through the community while ignoring the impact on even nearby sites and streets.

A few of many examples of specific historic sites are iconic DeGrassi Street and Wardell Street, backing onto it, and the Wardell Parkette and Bruce Mackey Park, the latter commemorating Mr. Mackey on The Kids of DeGrassi Street.  The original show was named after DeGrassi Street, where Mackey lived, and whose house was the site for the show’s first episode. 

The house (55 DeGrassi) at the tip of the triangle where DeGrassi Street merges with Wardell Street, and very close to the proposed widened above-ground rail line, is an historic house associated with the Grand Trunk Railway’s East Station.  That Station opened in 1896 to serve Toronto’s rapidly growing east end and was such a crucial feature of the community that the RHS adopted its image as our logo.

On the east side of the track, the proposed above-ground widening of the Ontario line will impact Jimmie Simpson Recreation Centre and Park, a much loved and heavily used community park that is home to community tennis courts, an outdoor ice rink, art shows, festivals, etc. The Ontario Line study, however, excludes Booth Avenue, directly across from Jimmie Simpson Park, with a direct line of site to the rail corridor.  

            Nearby, the Riverdale Heritage Conservation District (designated in 2008 under the Ontario Heritage Act), includes 224 properties along Tiverton (formerly East), West and First (formerly Lefroy) Avenues.  They are among the first developed east of the Don River, dating from the late 1880’s.  St. Matthew’s Anglican Church, at 135 First Ave., just west of Logan Avenue, has a heritage plaque. 

However, the current Environmental Assessment will not include the Gerrard/Carlaw bridge, designated part of the Heritage Conservative District where it runs past Tiverton Avenue.  Nor will it include the Toronto Hydro building located at Gerrard and Carlaw streets, mere feet from where the new station will be erected!

            The area of Queen Street from the Don River to DeGrassi Street is also under consideration as a Heritage Conservation District.  It contains dozens of sites of historical and cultural significance.

            In summary, it is essential that the Ontario Line’s request for federal funding for its rail expansion project undertake a comprehensive Environmental Assessment in order for it to qualify for a federal Impact Assessment.  It must examine the impact on such historic and designated heritage sites as we have noted above.

Submitted on behalf of the Riverdale Historical Society

Elizabeth Abbott, Board Member