‘The coloured additions to this map show the land exempt from taxation in Toronto in 1878. The table in the upper right corner [of the 3rd panel] indicates the total assessed value of exempt property - one-seventh of the value of all city property. Below this is the legend which indicates categories of exempt land. Note the high proportion of church property.
The most hotly disputed category of exempt land was "lawns and gardens", which included all land not used for urban purposes. Although not coloured on the map, this category included the unsubdivided lands of the northwest part of the city. The exemption was criticized for blocking development and lowering tax revenues. By 1880 new legislation decreed that lawns and gardens would be taxed as urban land and within a few years much had been subdivided and offered for sale.’
Click the images to view full-size versions (2-3MB, PDF).
Wadsworth & Unwin’s Map of the City of Toronto [shewing real estate exemptions from taxation], compiled and drawn by Maurice Gaviller, C.E. & P.L.S., from plans filed in the Registry Office and the most recent surveys, 1872. Wadsworth & Unwin, P.L. Surveyors, Toronto, Sepr. 1st, 1872. City Engineers Office, Toronto, Jany 1878 [Signature illegible]. Copp, Clark & Co. Lith. Toronto. Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year 1872, by Wadsworth & Unwin, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture.
Lithograph with coloured manuscript additions; 1 inch to 300 feet
Images courtesy Library and Archives Canada: NMC25641
‘Vernon Bayley Wadsworth (1842-1940) and Charles Unwin (1829-1918) were prominent surveyors in Toronto in the latter half of the century. Both were pupils of J.S. Dennis. They were in partnership from 1868 to 1876 when Wadsworth left the firm to work for the London and Canadian Loan and Agency Company.
Unwin also held the position of an Assessor for the City from 1872 to 1905, when he was appointed City Surveyor. The firm from which he retired in 1896, Unwin, Murphy, and Esten, is still in existence today.’
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The most hotly disputed category of exempt land was "lawns and gardens", which included all land not used for urban purposes. Although not coloured on the map, this category included the unsubdivided lands of the northwest part of the city. The exemption was criticized for blocking development and lowering tax revenues. By 1880 new legislation decreed that lawns and gardens would be taxed as urban land and within a few years much had been subdivided and offered for sale.’
- Isobel Ganton & Joan Winearls, MAPPING TORONTO'S FIRST CENTURY 1787-1884
Click the images to view full-size versions (2-3MB, PDF).
Wadsworth & Unwin’s Map of the City of Toronto [shewing real estate exemptions from taxation], compiled and drawn by Maurice Gaviller, C.E. & P.L.S., from plans filed in the Registry Office and the most recent surveys, 1872. Wadsworth & Unwin, P.L. Surveyors, Toronto, Sepr. 1st, 1872. City Engineers Office, Toronto, Jany 1878 [Signature illegible]. Copp, Clark & Co. Lith. Toronto. Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year 1872, by Wadsworth & Unwin, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture.
Lithograph with coloured manuscript additions; 1 inch to 300 feet
Images courtesy Library and Archives Canada: NMC25641
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| Advertisement, 1871 City Directory |
Unwin also held the position of an Assessor for the City from 1872 to 1905, when he was appointed City Surveyor. The firm from which he retired in 1896, Unwin, Murphy, and Esten, is still in existence today.’
- Ganton/Winearls, ibid.
Please ‘Like’ and Share these maps with other Toronto history enthusiasts! (+1s are also welcome!)
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