Part 37 (1/2)
The original St. Paul's before it acquired in this singular manner the dignified appurtenance of a steeple, was a long, low, barn-like, wooden building. Mr. Howard otherwise improved it, enlarging it by the addition of an aisle on the west side. When some twenty years later, viz., in 1861, the new stone church was erected, the old wooden structure was removed bodily to the west side of Yonge Street, together with the tower, curtailed, however, of its spire.
We have been informed that the four fine stems, each eighty-five feet long, which formed the interior frame of the tower and spire of 1841, were a present from Mr. Allan, of Moss Park; and that the Rev. Charles Matthews, occasionally officiating in St. Paul's, gave one hundred pounds in cash towards the expense of the ornamental addition now made to the edifice.
The history of another of Mr. Howard's erections on Yonge Street, which we are perambulating, ill.u.s.trates the rapid advance and expansion of architectural ideas amongst us. In the case now referred to it was no sh.e.l.l of timber and deal-boards that was taken down, but a very handsome solid edifice of cut-stone, which might have endured for centuries. The Bank of British North America, built by Mr. Howard, at the corner of Yonge Street and Wellington Street in 1843, was deliberately taken down, block by block, in 1871, and made to give place to a structure which should be on a par in magnificence and alt.i.tude with the buildings put up in Toronto by the other Banks. Mr. Howard's building, at the time of its erection, was justly regarded as a credit to the town. Its design was preferred by the directors in London to those sent in by several architects there. Over the princ.i.p.al entrance were the Royal Arms, exceedingly well carved in stone on a grand scale, and wholly disengaged from the wall; and conspicuous over the parapet above was the great scallop-sh.e.l.l, emblem of the gold-digger's occupation, introduced by Sir John Soane, in the architecture of the Bank of England. (The Royal Arms of the old building have been deemed worthy of a place over the entrance to the new Bank.)
The Cemetery, the gates and keeper's lodge of which, after crossing the concession road and advancing on our way northward, we used to see on the left, was popularly known as ”The Potter's Field”--”a place to bury strangers in.” Its official style was ”The York General or Strangers'
Burying Ground.” In practice it was the Bunhill Fields of York--the receptacle of the remains of those whose friends declined the use of the St. James's churchyard and other early burial-plots.
Walton's Directory for 1833, gives the following information, which we transfer hither, as well for the slight degree of quaintness which the narrative has acquired, as also on account of the familiar names which it contains. ”This inst.i.tution,” Walton says, ”owes its origin to Mr.
Carfrae, junior. It comprises six acres of ground, and has a neat s.e.xton's house built close by the gate. The name of the s.e.xton is John Wolstencroft, who keeps a registry of every person buried therein.
Persons of all creeds and persons of no creed, are allowed burial in this cemetery: fees to the s.e.xton, 5s. It was inst.i.tuted in the fall of 1825, and incorporated by Act of Parliament, 30th January, 1826. It is managed by five trustees, who are chosen for life; and in case of the death of any of them, a public meeting of the inhabitants is called, when they elect a successor or successors in their place. The present trustees (1833) are Thomas Carfrae, jun., Thomas D. Morrison, Peter Paterson, John Ewart, Thomas h.e.l.liwell.”
(Mr. Carfrae was for some years the collector of Customs of the Port of York. The other trustees named were respectively the medical man, iron-merchant, builder, and brewer, so well known in the neighbourhood.)
A remote sequestered piece of ground in 1825, the Potter's Field in 1845 was more or less surrounded by buildings, and regarded as an impediment in the way of public improvement. Interments were accordingly prohibited. To some extent it has been cleared of human remains, and in due time will be built over. Its successor and representative is the Toronto Necropolis, the trustees of which are empowered, after the lapse of twenty-one years, to sell the old burying-ground.
Proceeding on, we were immediately opposite the Red Lion Tavern, anciently Tiers', subsequently Price's, on the east side; a large and very notable halting-place for loaded teams after the tremendous struggle involved in the traverse of the Blue Hill ravine, of which presently.
In old European lands, in times by-gone, the cell of a hermit, a monastery, a castle, became often the nucleus of a village or town. With us on the American continent, a convenient watering or baiting place in the forest for the wearied horses of a farmer's waggon or a stage-coach is the less romantic _punctum saliens_ for a similar issue. Thus Tiers's, at which we have paused, may be regarded as the germ of the flouris.h.i.+ng incorporation of Yorkville. Many a now solitary way-station on our railroads will probably in like manner hereafter prove a centre round which will be seen a cl.u.s.ter of human habitations.
We discover from a contemporary _Gazette_ that so early as 1808, previous, perhaps, to the establishment of the Red Lion on Yonge Street, Mr. Tiers had conducted a public house in the Town of York. In the _Gazette_ of June 13, 1808, we have the following announcement. It has an English ring; ”Beefsteak and Beer House.--The subscriber informs his friends and the public that he has opened a house of entertainment next door to Mr. Hunt's, where his friends will be served with victualing in good order, on the shortest notice, and at a cheap rate. He will furnish the best strong beer at 8d. New York currency per gallon if drank in his house, and 2s. 6d. New York currency taken out. As he intends to keep a constant supply of racked beer, with a view not to injure the health of his customers, and for which he will have to pay cash, the very small profits at which he offers to sell, will put it out of his power to give credit, and he hopes none will be asked. N.B. He will immediately have entertainment for man and horse. Daniel Tiers. York, 12th January, 1808.”
The singular _Hotel de Ville_ which in modern times distinguishes Yorkville, has a Flemish look. It might have strayed hither from Ghent.
Nevertheless, as seen from numerous points of view, it cannot be characterized as picturesque, or in harmony with its surroundings.--The s.h.i.+eld of arms sculptured in stone and set in the wall above the circular window in the front gable, presents the following charges arranged quarterly: a Beer-barrel, with an S below; a Brick-mould, with an A below; an Anvil, with a W below; and a Jackplane, with a D below.
In the centre, in a s.h.i.+eld of pretence, is a Sheep's head, with an H below. These symbols commemorate the first five Councillors or Aldermen of Yorkville at the time of its incorporation in 1853, and their trades or callings; the initials being those respectively of the surnames of Mr. John Severn, Mr. Thomas Atkinson, Mr. James Wallis, Mr. James Dobson, and Mr. Peter Hutty. Over the whole, as a crest, is the Canadian Beaver.
The road which enters from the west, a little way on, calls up memories of Russel-hill, Davenport and Spadina, each of them locally historic. We have already spoken of them in our journey along Front Street and Queen Street, when, in crossing Brock Street, Spadina-house in the distance caught the eye. It is a peculiarity of this old bye-road that, instead of going straight, as most of our highways monotonously do, it meanders a little, unfolding a number of pretty suburban scenes. The public school, on the land given to Yorkville by Mr. Ketchum, is visible up this road.
In this direction were the earliest public ice-houses established in our region, in rude buildings of slab, thickly thatched over with pine branches. Spring-water ice, gathered from the neighbouring mill-ponds, began to be stored here in quant.i.ties by an enterprising man of African descent, Mr. Richards, five-and-thirty years ago.
On the east side of Yonge Street, near the northern toll-gate, stood Dr.
R. C. Horne's house, the lurid flames arising from which somewhat alarmed the town in 1837, when the malcontents of the north were reported to be approaching with hostile intent. Of Dr. Horne we have already spoken, in connexion with the early press of York.
Were the tall and very beautiful spire which in the present day is to be seen where the Davenport Road enters Yonge Street, the appendage of an ecclesiastical edifice of the mediaeval period--as the architecture implies--it would indicate, in all probability, the presence of a Church of St. Giles. St. aegidius or Giles presided, it was imagined, over the entrances to cities and towns. Consequently, fancy will always have it, whenever we pa.s.s the interesting pile standing so conspicuously by a public gate, or where for a long while there was a public gate, leading into the town, that here we behold the St. Giles' of Toronto.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
XXV.
YONGE STREET, FROM YORKVILLE TO HOGG'S HOLLOW.
Of long standing is the group of buildings on the right after pa.s.sing the Davenport Road. It is the Brewery and malting-house of Mr. Severn, settled here since 1835. The main building over-looks a ravine which, as seen by the pa.s.ser-by on Yonge Street, retains to this day in its eastern recess a great deal of natural beauty, although the stream below attracted manufacturers at an early period to its borders at numerous points. There is a picturesque irregularity about the outlines of Mr.
Severn's brewery. The projecting galleries round the domestic portion of the building pleasantly indicate that the adjacent scenery is not unappreciated: nay, possibly enjoyed on many a tranquil autumn evening.
Further on, a block-house of two storeys, both of them rectangular, but the upper turned half round on the lower, built in consequence of the troubles of 1837, and supposed to command the great highway from the north, overhung a high bank on the right. (Another of the like build was placed at the eastern extremity of the First Concession Road. It was curious to observe how rapidly these two relics acquired the character and even the look, gray and dilapidated, of age. With many, they dated at least from the war of 1812.)
A considerable stretch of striking landscape here skirts our route on the right. Rosedale-house, the old extra-mural home, still existent and conspicuous, of Mr. Stephen Jarvis, Registrar of the Province in the olden time, afterwards of his son the Sheriff, of both of whom we have had occasion to speak repeatedly, was always noticeable for the romantic character of its situation; on the crest of a precipitous bank overlooking deep winding ravines. Set down here while yet the forest was but little encroached on, access to it was of course for a long time, difficult and laborious.