Industrial sites.

Details of Site Location: Along the east side of Garrison Creek were two sites operated by Butwell: the first was in Park Lot 22 and the second in Park Lot 23 in Concession 1 from the Bay. Both yards were well south of Bloor and north of College Street.

Boundary History: Both Park Lots were of 100 acres, and the clay pits, approximately equal in size, extended for up to 10 acres in each Park Lot.

Current Use of Property: Residential developments, streets, and some commercial buildings.

Historical Description: Park Lot 22 had been granted to Samuel Smith, who also owned, by means of grants, larger Farm Lots in Concessions 2 and 3. Similarly, Park Lot 23 was granted to General Aeneas Shaw, who had extensive land holdings to the north. As soon as any large lot could be broken up into blocks and building lots, the land was sold off. Henry Butwell was born in Oxfordshire, England, in 1830, the son of brick-maker Richard Butwell. After his arrival in Toronto in 1857, Henry had an assortment of jobs, including a four-year stint working for Mrs. Townsley in her Yorkville brick-making operation. In 1878, Butwell was placed in charge of brick-making at the Central Prison, remaining at this position for 16 years. During these years, he rented the old Crawford estate and began making bricks there. He lost this site when College Street was extended west, right through the centre of his brickyard. He relocated farther north to clay areas in two sites on the east side of Garrison Creek and had as his address 721 Bloor Street West, although he was well south of Bloor. At these two sites, his production was 9,000,000 bricks per year. These locations became exhausted of their clay and he moved to a 25-acre clay field at the Humber River, which he purchased in 1894. As before, he had a succession. of sites there, within the clay field.

Relative Importance: Butwell’s output of bricks annually was similar to that of other brick-makers, without whose products the 19^th century brick city, more resistant to fire, could not have been built. Brickyards also provided employment and trained otherwise unskilled men. The Parkdale area has many brick houses made from products out of Butwell’s Garrison yards. His bricks will have been used in houses of the Gore Vale area. Hardly anyone in the city could be aware of the fact that there were brickyards along the route of Garrison Creek, as the route of the creek itself has only recently risen to public attention.

Planning Implications: It would be useful for a large display to be permanently placed in Trinity-Bellwoods Park that would explain the Garrison, bridges, brickyards, Trinity College, houses, and historic sites in that area.

Reference Sources: J.H. Beers and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of York County (1907); Goad’s Atlas (1884); C. Blackett Robinson, History of the County of York and the City of Toronto (1885); Bureau of Mines Reports.

Acknowledgements: Maps Project.