1886 Wesbroom: City of Toronto [Bird’s Eye View]

“This bird’s eye view [...] shows more clearly than either maps or streetscape photographs the congestion of the downtown core and the unrelenting zeal with which the grid pattern of streets—first laid out for Simcoe in 1793—had been stretched across the landscape on either side of the arrow-straight line of Yonge. Standing out against this pattern are the few attempts to mitigate the worst aspects of the grid plan: natural changes like King Street / Kingston Road, which turns northeast on the right side of the view; the carefully planned avenues like Spadina (with its crescent at the north end) and University; and the park-like green spaces scattered throughout the city [...]If proof were needed that the Victorians, just as much as the Georgians, were proud and capable city builders, this bird’s eye view provides it amply. A celebration of their creation, it is a lasting testimony of what had been created in Toronto.”

- William Dendy, Lost Toronto

Click the image to view a full-size version. 

City of TorontoLithograph by W. Wesbroom, 1886 (? see note below)Toronto Lithographing Company

Image courtesy Toronto Public Library: CHPC accession number 975-29 Cab III. Another copy is held by the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library at U of T: G3524 .T61 1886. The image above is a photograph I took in person; if and when the TPL digitizes the map I’ll use their scan.The Toronto Lithographing Company seems to have done especially fine work, wouldn’t you say?

Advertisement: The Globe, May 22, 1886 

Note: Dendy’s Lost Toronto — which uses this bird’s eye view as its cover — gives an approximate date of 1878. Derek Hayes’ Historical Atlas of Toronto indicates 1884. These may be slightly different prints, or they may be the same and there just isn’t agreement on the actual date...The Osborne Collection at the Toronto Public Library (Lillian H. Smith branch) features this cropped jigsaw puzzle of the map in their Canadiana holdings:

Lovely.
1870 Canadian Railway News Bird’s Eye View of Toronto1876 PA Gross Bird's Eye View of Toronto1876 Gascard City of Toronto Bird’s Eye View from the Northern Railway elevator1892 Toronto Railway Company Map Shewing Toronto Street Railway Lines1893 Barclay, Clark & Co. Bird’s Eye View Chromolithograph

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1791 Jones: An accurate Plan of a Survey [...] of the River Trent (head) [North shore] of Lake Ontario to Toronto

“This important survey by Augustus Jones established the eastern sideline (now Victoria Park Avenue) and the baseline (now Queen Street) for Dublin (York) Township. The township lines formed the basic framework for all later development and thus determined the eventual northwest-southeast orientation of Toronto. The survey recorded here began 90 miles east of Toronto at the Bay of Quinte and laid out the fronts of 11 townships between there and York. Wherever possible, the baselines of townships were laid out parallel to the lake shore.”

- Isobel Ganton & Joan Winearls, MAPPING TORONTO'S FIRST CENTURY 1787-1884

Note that York township was briefly named Dublin (and Scarborough, Glasgow), prior to Simcoe’s arrival in 1793. It is likely Surveyor General Andrew Russell who wrote in the revised name in 1856.

An accurate Plan of a Survey [words missing] of the River Trent (Head) [words missing - North shore?] of Lake Ontario to Toronto [words missing] by Augustus Jones, 1791.Source: Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Office of the Surveyor General, Plan Ref: SR5803 O6-4Copyright:  2013 Queens Printer OntarioWinearls, MUC no. 316The above detail shows only the westerly York portion. View the entire map here (note: it’s quite long horizontally!).The following, slightly more detailed survey of Dublin by Jones, was a copy made by John Frederick Holland. The horizontal 'front line' line is what later became Lot (then Queen) Street. ‘Toronto Fort’ indicates the location of Fort Rouillé.I’m curious what that peninsula south of lot 23 is supposed to be. Click the image to view a full-size version (PDF).

Plan of Eleven Townships fronting on Lake Ontario beginning at the River Trent and extending westerly to Toronto as laid out and surveyed by Augustus Jones Dy PL Survr, A true copy by Jn Fk Holland [Sgd] Samuel Holland Surveyr Genl, 1791.Image courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Office of the Surveyor General, Plan Ref: 2391 K25Winearls, MUC no. 316 (2)“Augustus Jones (circa 1763-1836) was a Loyalist. He was appointed a Deputy Surveyor in 1791 and was responsible for the survey of most of York Township, Yonge Street, part of Dundas Street, the new part of the town of York, and many townships east of Toronto and in the Hamilton area. He did little surveying after 1799, but retired to his land, marrying the daughter of a chief of the Mohawks.”

- Ganton/Winearls, ibid.

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