Community
Studies: Publications
Our Walking Tour on Sept. 20/03, "The Pioneers' Kingston Road Historic Walk" was a major success. Almost 70 treked along the original line of the "Gateway to the City". Among the crowd were a number of descendants of the Annis brothers who had cleared the trail over 200 years ago. From sales of Neigh the Front: Exploring Scarboro Heights, the McCowan Society donated $146.50 to the Washington United Church Cemetery Restoration Fund. Jim Morrisey, Clara Leask, John Alexander and a few others won prizes during "quiz time". They had to remember the significant events that have been sculpted into Passage, in honour of Doris McCarthy. Olga Piotrowski was the winner of our lucky draw -- a very nice coffee table book called "Highland Wilderness".
The Scarboro Heights
Record V11 #10
Scarboro Heights
Historic Sites Walking Tour
Part 3
What: The Pioneers' Kingston Road Historic Walk. Following the old route blazed by the Annis brothers over 200 years ago and finishing up at Washington United Church, 3739 Kingston Rd. for a Corn Roast / BBQ (modest extra cost). The historic walk is the fourth led by Bruce and Bea McCowan. John Muir's William Wallace Inn of 1834 is very near our tour's end-point.
When: Sept. 20 2003, 2:00 pm (Rain date is the following day, 2 pm)
Where: For starting location and other details, call 416-447-4895 or send an email to bea@beamccowan.com.
Why: Fundraiser for Scarborough's oldest public art -- to help restore damaged gravestones at Washington United Church. 2003 is the 200th Anniversary of Washington United Church. This walk is a joint project of the Scarboro Heights Record and the Bi-Centennial Committee.
Tour Guides: Bruce and Bea McCowan of the "Scarboro Heights Record".
Cost: For individuals or couples who purchase "Neigh The Front -- Exploring Scarboro Heights" there is no cost. Please order your copy of this 142 page book soon because the size of the tour group is limited. $5 from the sale of each copy will be donated to the Washington Cemetery Restoration Fund. Other proceeds go to the Janet McCowan Fincham Memorial Scarborough Community Studies Program. Otherwise, the tour cost is $5.00 per couple with half going to the Cemetery Fund. There will be a modest extra charge for the BBQ.
How to Order "Neigh the Front" and Register for the Tour: Send $17.00 cheque to the James McCowan Memorial Social History Society, c/o 19 Monarchwood Crescent, Don Mills, Ont., M3A 1H3, 416-447-4895 (Includes postage). An order form is on http://www.beamccowan.com/publicat.htm and reviews are at http://www.beamccowan.com/reviews.htm.
Want to keep the tour guides busy? -- Pick some questions from "Historic Sites" and "Notable Events"!
Bring your camera and your copy of Neigh the Front!
The Scarboro Heights Record V11 #6
History Repeats Itself
The Future of Kingston Road
Scarboro Heights
Historic Sites Walking Tour
Part 2
What: Scarboro Heights Historic Sites Walking Tour -- Part Two -- including the Doris McCarthy Trail down Gates Gully to "Passage".
When: May 24 2003, 2:00 pm (Rain date is the following day, 2 pm)
Where: For starting location, call 416-447-4895 or send me an email at bea@beamccowan.com
Tour Guides: Bruce and Bea McCowan of the "Scarboro Heights Record".
Cost: For individuals or couples who purchase "Neigh The Front -- Exploring Scarboro Heights" there is no cost. (Otherwise, $5.00 / couple) Please order your copy of this 142 page book soon because the size of the tour group is limited. (Proceeds go to the Janet McCowan Fincham Memorial Scarborough Community Studies Program.)
How to Order "Neigh the Front" and Register for the Tour: Send $17.00 cheque to the James McCowan Memorial Social History Society, c/o 19 Monarchwood Crescent, Don Mills, Ont., M3A 1H3, 416-447-4895 (Includes postage). An order form is on http://www.beamccowan.com/publicat.htm and reviews are at http://www.beamccowan.com/reviews.htm.
Want to keep the tour guides busy? -- Pick some questions from "Historic Sites" and "Notable Events"!
Bring your camera and your copy of Neigh the Front!
The Scarboro Heights Record V11 #3
Scarboro Heights
Historic Sites Walking Tour
Part 1
We are flattered that the McCowan Settlement site of 1833 on Meadowcliffe Drive is one of only 14 "Lost Historic Sites in Toronto" that were selected to be on www.city.toronto.on.ca/torontoplan/lost.htm. (There are several mistakes on this latter page, however -- prizes to those who spot them all!)
Quoting from that Planning Dept web page: "Ideally, this document will inspire people to do more to research and commemorate the stories of the people and events of Toronto."
But we think there should also be a strong expression of "What can be done in the context of developing Toronto that continues the good works represented in the report" -- historic plaques, parks, interpretive educational programs, walking tours, publications, easements for significant sites, reproduction construction, stage production, and public art.
One such project is our spring Walking Tour of the Scarboro Heights lakefront (McCowan Road - Bellamy Road area) including the McCowan Settlement Lost Historic Site (http://www.beamccowan.com/coming.htm).
Sites and spots and points of discussion on this walking tour include:
- Sisters of St. Joseph Convent, barn and "chicken coop" (1917)
- Highest point on the Scarborough Bluffs
- An attempted suicide (jumping down the Bluffs, 1898)
- 19th century geodetic survey tower
- Settlement of early archaic peoples (8,000 BC) (earliest evidence of human occupation in Toronto)
- Scarborough Heights Park at the end of the Radial Line spur (ca 1906)
- Lunatic terrorizing the neighbourhood (1918)
- Birthplace of William Ewart Young, co-founder of the McLeod, Young, Weir brokerage firm
- An apology from Tim Horton of the Toronto Maple Leafs (ca 1966)
- The first McCowan Road road-sign
- Washington / McCowan farmhouse on McCowan Road (ca 1840 / 1917)
- The "Old Orchard" -- the remaining apple trees are over a hundred years old
- "Morality Lights" in the schoolyard (1961)
- The original line of Kingston Road through Halbert Park (pre 1837)
- The fields that produced prize-winning grain year after year (1910-20)
- A fatal lightning strike (1962)
- Stories of homelessness during the depression
- Stan Chester and his store (ca 1920)
- Kingston Road Toll Gate and Potash Works (early 19th century)
- Blacksmith shop (mid 19th century)
- The old Radial Line
- Widening of Kingston Road to four lanes, 1936
- Tavern, the rallying point for the Scarborough loyalists during the Rebellion of 1837
- American smugglers coming up Gates Gully (early 19th century)
- Remnants of the old road to "the flats"
- Attempts to subdivide south of Kingston Road at Bellamy as far back as 1891
- Toronto gentry and their country estates (c 1910)
- Shoreline of the pre-historic Lake Iroquois
- Original McCowan settlement near Meadowcliffe Drive (1833) where father and son both died of cholera the same night
- Wreck of the Alexandria (1915)
And much more. This tour takes a little over 2 hours. (There are three opportunities during the tour to take short-cuts back to the parking lot.)
Please write to the above email address if you wish to receive further details.
The Scarboro Heights Record V10
#5
NOTE: The 2003 tours will be different routes -- but just as interesting none-the-less!
On average, about thirty enjoyed our walking tours on May 25 and Sept. 7 2002. Prizes were won by Ernie Walker, Mary Foston, and Pat Partridge in May and by Doug Porteous and Wayne Enright in September. Thanks for coming!
Our next tour will be the fourth Saturday of May 2003, 2:00 PM (Rain date is the following day.)
Here's What They
Said About
Our Previous Walking Tours
Having moved to the comparatively new Town of Ajax with its short history, I was very impressed with the interest and pride the Scarborough Heights neighbours take in their community. They were very generous in allowing our Walking Tour onto their property to overlook Bluffers Park from the high ground of the Bluffs. The view of the lake from that vantage point was spectacular and it was fascinating to learn of the ancient habitation of the Bluffs area. Although I did live in Scarborough for nearly forty years I am sorry to say I was not aware of many of the facts we learned while on the Tour.
The history of Scarborough Heights should not be allowed to evaporate in our high tech world. Our roots and pride in our past are important if we are to remember how we got where we are today. Historical markers, a parade to mark the route of Old Kingston Road, reminders of "how it was" for the early settlers and what they accomplished for us are necessary landmarks before they are forgotten and it is taken for granted that we always had the advantages that we enjoy today.
"Neigh the Front" also has good historical information and I hope students will find it interesting and informative -- and help them appreciate what we have now.
Pam Whitton
The Scarboro Heights Record V10 #9
I've always lived on or near the Bluffs. I emigrated as an English kid to Scarborough, and soon learned why my new neighbourhood was so-named. It instantly took on a mystique, perhaps the gothic romance of coastal Yorkshire cliffs, of offshore pirates smuggling contraband in dense sea fog. Now, at midlife, with more time for imagination on my hands, I was tickled to discover that someone else wanted seriously to know more of the magic that went before this century, and in the very space we've also chosen to set down roots and begin new histories of our own.
Bruce and Bea McCowan, through my incidental Internet searching, became known to us as ardent managers of a movement to understand and celebrate the Scarborough Heights community. My husband and I registered with neighbourhood friends for a walking tour of our local streets and significant houses. We collected on a blustery afternoon outside Dan Newman's office (he joined us on the tour) in the Cliffcrest Plaza, and trotted obediently like schoolchildren on a field trip behind Bruce and Bea and megaphone as they opened stories, stopped for questions or closer inspections, surprised us with bonus detours and ignored a chilly downpour which finally saw us scatter for our cars, homes or the By-the-Bluffs Diner for blessed coffee and calories.
This historical overview was a rare privilege, got us outside and moving, bonded neighbours who hadn't known each other, furnished hearts with true respect and a special inside track behind facades of familiar houses we'd known only through passing. We left feeling proactive about appreciating our community, and were handed an extra-large gift of magic to build an atmosphere we already knew we felt in this neighbourhood when we first set eyes on our house here. It is certainly in our best interest to continue this time-travelling, to enlarge our experience of Scarborough Heights by registering for the next tour on September 7, and to extend gratitude to Bruce and Bea McCowan for commitment and energy which edifies everyone whose imagination is newly piqued.
Who knew there were once really smugglers here, that archaeic Indians settled and left behind significant artifacts, that a potash industry thrived amongst others? When fog next tiptoes up the Scarborough Bluffs, perhaps remember that before there were yacht clubs, there were mysteries and histories and reasons to serve and protect our special craggy corner.
Deborah Reed-Hewitt
The Scarboro Heights Record V10 #8
Doors Open Toronto
Doris McCarthy's Fool's Paradise
1 Meadowcliffe Drive, Scarborough
May 29 and May 30 2004
1 to 4 PM
Unfortunately, we must cancel this
Mini-Walking Tour
due to other important commitments.
Apologies for any inconvenience.
May 29-30, 2004, 1 to 4 pm
The Scarboro Heights Record V12 #4
Visitors Since March 29, 2002