Читать книгу Toronto Sketches 11 - Mike Filey - Страница 14

Over the years, generations of Torontonians have been the recipients of a variety of parks, large and small, many of which have been donated by citizens eager to enhance the green spaces throughout the city. Their actions have made Toronto what it is today, “a city within a park.”

One of the largest of these donations took place in May 1928 when Alice Kilgour, the widow of prominent city businessman, sportsman, and benefactor Joseph Kilgour, presented the city with the deed to the couple’s 70.8-hectare (175-acre) Sunnybrook Farm.

Aerial view of Sunnybrook Hospital as it looked not long after it opened as a military hospital in 1948. The intersection at the top left of the image is Bayview Avenue and Blythwood Road.

Joseph Kilgour, the landlord of the sprawling Sunnybrook Farm, seen here with his horse Twilight.

City of Toronto Archives.

Joseph and his brother Robert were in the paper and cardboard manufacturing business. One of their products was the highly popular “snap action” paper bag, the kind that the user was able to open wide with a simple flick of the wrist. It made the boys millionaires.

To honour the family that provided the land for a public park and (later) a hospital, the Leaside town council suggested in 1928 that Bayview Avenue be renamed Kilgour Avenue. The name was never changed, but a small street in the area was recently christened Kilgour Road.

The large Kilgour Brothers factory was located at 21–23 Wellington Street West and was one of the few buildings in the downtown area of the city to have its own sprinkler system, which was supplied with water from two giant storage tanks on the roof. Although the structure suffered minor water and smoke damage during the Great Toronto Fire in April 1904, it was this protection that prevented the conflagration from getting a hold on nearby buildings on the west side of Yonge Street. Had that happened, the acting fire chief was convinced that the fire, though disastrous, would have been much, much worse.

In 1909, Joseph, like many other Toronto men of substance, purchased a large parcel of land out in the county on the east side of the First Concession east of Yonge and just north of Eglinton Avenue. Covering two hundred acres and stretching farther east to today’s Leslie Street, it was here that he built a beautiful residence, modern farm buildings, and, being a talented horseman, a collection of well-appointed stables. (Several of the stables were used for years by the Toronto Police Mounted Unit before they moved to the CNE’s Horse Palace. They now house a private riding stable.)

Sadly, Joseph Kilgour was only able to enjoy his suburban residence for sixteen years before passing away in early 1925 while on vacation in Florida.

After some deliberation, his widow decided to honour her husband’s memory by donating their farm to the citizens of Toronto. And so it was that on May 9, 1928, even though the property was technically outside the city limits of the day, Toronto’s inventory of parks grew by 175 acres. One condition she imposed was that the property was to remain a park, forever.

So impressed were civic officials with the Kilgour’s donation that they suggested that Bayview Avenue be renamed Kilgour Avenue. For unknown reasons, however, that never happened, but in recent years a small street just south of the new CNIB headquarters was named Kilgour. Better than nothing, I guess.

In 1943, and with a world war raging, officials managing the Kilgour estate approved the construction of a much-needed military hospital on a portion of the park. Today, that hospital has retained part of the Sunnybrook Farm title in its name.

May 9, 2010