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On August 4, 1793, Lady Simcoe, the wife of Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe, while riding in a boat on Lake Ontario, recorded this in her diary: “We came within sight of what is named in the map, The Highlands. The shore is extremely bold and has the appearance of Chalk Cliffs, appearing so well that we talked of building a summer residence there and calling it Scarborough.” Surveyor Augustus Jones was also particularly struck by the majesty of the cliffs and had earlier been responsible for naming the area “The Highlands.”

On August 27 of that year, on the occasion of the naming of York, the great grey cliffs to the east, so similar to those of the English Yorkshire town, became known as Scarborough.

The Scarborough Bluffs run along Lake Ontario for approximately 9.5 kilometres (six miles). These cliffs contain a vivid record, in the uppermost 60 metres (200 feet), of the last stages of the Great Ice Age. Under layers of glacial till are 45 metres (150 feet) of sediments called the Scarborough beds. They are made up of 18 metres (60 feet) of stratified sand and 27 metres (90 feet) of peaty clay. The clay area contains some wood, leaves, mosses, and the remains of 72 species of beetles, all but two of which are now extinct.

Jonathan Gates was one of the early pioneers here. In 1815 he cleared the land and settled east of the gully that descends to the lake south of the junction of Kingston and Bellamy Roads. Gates wasn’t the first person to settle in the area. Only as recently as 1956, when the Miller Paving Company turned up some skeletons, has the earlier settlement history come to light. From 1956–1958 the Royal Ontario Museum ethnologist, Walter Kenyon, excavated the site and charted a village of about one acre in size. Radio-carbon testing showed that the village had been occupied around 1,125 A.D. Evidence found during the dig suggested that it belonged to a pre-Iroquoian group called Glen Meyer. Within the palisade area, archaeologists traced the outline of five multiple-family longhouses. They ranged from 11.5 metres to 18 metres (38 to 60 feet) in length and from six metres to eight metres (20 to 27 feet) in width. A steam-shovel operator cutting into Taboris Hill, at the east side of Bellamy Road north of Lawrence Avenue, exposed an ancient Native burial pit. Two sites, together containing the bones of 472 people, were found. In a solemn ceremony on October 20, 1956, these bones were reburied by the chiefs of the Six Nations.

In the years following 1793, many shrewd government officials and army officers of York obtained generous grants of land in the Township of Scarborough. These landowners were speculators and wanted the sites for future development, or resale at a profit.

In 1796 the highlands of Scarborough caught the eye of a Scottish stone mason by the name of David Thomson. He had come from Dumfriesshire by the way of Niagara and was employed in the construction of the new government buildings of York. Thompson searched beyond the Don River for a home for his family. When he travelled 20 kilometres (12 miles) on a Native trail that wound northeast from the 40 houses on the shore of the bay called York, and 4.5 kilometres (three miles) back from the bluffs, he found his land of promise on the banks of Highland Creek. There he built a lone log cottage not far from the present-day Scarborough Hospital.

Down by the bluffs, at the foot of what is now Markham Road, William Cornell moved his family from the schooner, on which they had lived for a summer, to the heights, where he built a home. In the course of two years, he cleared and planted Scarborough’s first orchard. During the winter he travelled to Kingston to purchase millstones in exchange for a fine span of colts and returned by sled to Highland Creek. There he built the first grist and saw mill.

Another courageous Scarborough pioneer was Sarah Ashbridge, a widow who arrived at York from Philadelphia, in 1793. Together with her two sons and three daughters, she settled near the mouth of the Don River. She later began clearing the 300 acres of granted land that extended north from the bluffs, east of Midland Avenue.

In 1803 Stephen Perril built the first brick house in Scarborough. Around 1834 a carpenter named Thomas Adams, who had arrived from Vermont in 1808, built a sailing vessel named the Mary Ann, at the mouth of Highland Creek. The vessel provided a tremendous service to the farmers for many years by transporting potash, grain, and shingles to York. On her return trip, the vessel brought flour, salt, and lime to the settlers of Scarborough. By 1830 the population of Scarborough had reached 135.

During the mid-1800s, three gristmills and 23 sawmills operated along the banks of Highland Creek and the Rouge River. Several villages flourished at the crossroads: Highland Creek, Malvern, Ellesmere, Wexford, and Woburn.

Scarborough was formally incorporated as a municipality in 1850. This was the beginning of local self-government. In 1910 Sir Eugene O’Keefe of the Toronto brewing family donated $500,000 for the construction of St. Augustine’s Seminary. A lovely site of more than 100 acres was acquired on the south side of Kingston Road, east of Midland Avenue. The imposing structure of St. Augustine’s Seminary, crowned by a lofty dome, still stands on the bluffs high above Lake Ontario. Opened and dedicated on August 28, 1913, the seminary has trained at least 1,400 students for the priesthood, over a 50-year span.

Following the end of the First World War, the suburbanization of southern Scarborough grew steadily. By 1925 the population of Scarborough was 15,783 and by 1930 it had grown to 18,351.

At the end of the Second World War, the influx of immigrants from Europe opened a new chapter in the history of Scarborough. Over the next 20 years, farm after farm was devoured by bulldozers. Row upon row of closely packed houses and towering apartment buildings sprang up like a new crop in a farmer’s field. Factories emerged and Scarborough quickly became Ontario’s fifth-largest municipality, with a population of 224,000.

One of the most extraordinary cultural sites in Scarborough is the Guild Inn. The Guild of All Arts, its original name, began in 1932 when Rosa and Spencer Clark purchased the central property of 40 acres, once known as Ranelagh Park, located on Eglington (the original spelling). They resided in the main building, originally constructed by Gerald Harold C. Bickford, to be his country home.

During the depression the Clarks hoped to help those difficult years by stimulating interest in the arts and crafts, and by indicating ways in which a livelihood might be gained. Within a year there were shops and studios with sculptures, batiks, weavings, tooled leather, ceramics, pewter and copper, wrought-iron, and woodwork. In succeeding years more of the fine and lively arts were added.

Attracted by the activities and the beauty of the setting, atop the Scarborough Bluffs, visitors arrived in increasing numbers. Dining facilities were added and guest rooms followed until the Guild facilities became a flourishing country inn, uniquely situated in the midst of its arts and crafts activities.

During the winter of 1942–43, the Guild became an official naval base, HMCS Bytown II, where the first group of Wrens were trained. Shortly thereafter, the entire property was requisitioned as a specialized military hospital. Used entirely for nervous disorders, it was known as “Scarborough Hall.”

When the Guild was returned to the Clarks in 1947, some of the craftsmen had established themselves elsewhere, some had been lost in the war, but others did return. The Guild’s guests and visitors came back in even greater numbers. It was necessary to expand the accommodation, and the Guild Inn name became even more widely known.

The grounds of the Guild are adorned with a collection of historic architecture. More than 40 years of effort by Spencer Clark has resulted in saving important fragments of about 60 buildings; items like Sir Frederick Banting’s fireplace and the original steps of Osgoode Hall can be found here. A grindstone, made in Ireland circa 1860, was brought to Canada by the Goldie family of Galt, and it is now on the grounds of the inn.

In 1978 the Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, acting for Metropolitan Toronto and the Provincial Government, purchased the Guild and its surrounding land.

Today the Guild Inn is closed. The future of the inn is overshadowed by thoughts of demolition and future development.

Scarborough, throughout its history, has been identified with the stark beauty of its bluffs. The silence, stillness, and the boldness here that caught the attention of Lady Simcoe and the fancy of David Thomson can still be seen and felt. If you walk beneath the cliffs along the lake, you can ignore the modern development around you and gaze over the lake and up the rough-hewn bluff even as our forefathers did. There is a day park there which, fortunately, makes this beautiful sight still available to everyone.