Fisherville Mills

Details of Site Location: Located on Lots 24 and 25 in Concession 2 West of Yonge, east of Dufferin Street and south of Steeles Avenue.

Boundary History: The Farm Lots were of 200 acres each, and the acreages which the mills were located were along the east side Dufferin in blocks of about 25 acres per mill.

Current Use of Property: A shopping plaza and residential development. The route of the river is mainly parkland.

Historical Description: The West Branch of the Don River ran through the property and continues today through G. Ross Lord Park. The two Farm Lots, 24 and 25, had been granted in 1798 to William Jarvis. Farm Lot 25 was purchased by Jacob Fisher Sr. for £62,105, and he sold it to his son Valentine for £175 in 1809. Around 1820, Valentine built a saw mill at the river on his lot, but little else is known about its precise location or how long the mill operated. It was likely a simple up-and-down reciprocating saw driven by a water wheel. It is not known whether or not the mill required a dam. It is probable that the mill was in operation in 1830 when Valentine sold 47 acres containing the mill to Dr. James McCaque for £300, and the balance of the Lot to the Canada Company. Valentine then moved to Goderich, Ontario. In 1836, Jacob Fisher Jr. purchased the west 24 acres out of the block of 47 acres. This was table land, high above the river. Fisher divided his smaller block into one acre lots along the road allowances (Dufferin and Steeles). There were ten building lots, and the remaining 14 acres were at the ravine bottom. He managed to sell all of the lots, thus laying out the beginning of Fisherville as a community. Farm Lot 24, south of 25, was sold by William Jarvis in 1803 to Thomas Gough. Richard Lawrence purchased it in 1805. Then the enterprising Jacob Fisher Jr. purchased the Lot in 1809, and built a grist mill. His mill used water power initially and may have had a mill pond. In 1827, Fisher sold the west half of his Lot to Dr. James McCaque, and the east half to William James. McCaque died in 1839 and his heirs and executors sold a block of 23 acres for £400 to Robert Gardhouse. Then in 1846 Gardhouse bought the west half of the Lot containing the mill. An English immigrant, Gardhouse built a house and expanded and· upgraded the mill. In 1850, Gardhouse died and left some property to his wife, the farm and mill to his son Edward, and some land to his son William. In 1854, Edward sold the milling operation to George Knagas for £1250 then, later in the summer, an additional 44 acres for £500. The last sale he made was of one acre to his younger brother Thomas in 1856. The Gardhouse family left the area in 1871, and the single acre was sold that year for $130. It was Norman Milliken who purchased the mill in 1857 and installed a steam engine to augment the water supply and so that the mill could run all winter. This mill had a number of operators: 1866 William Nichol, 1867 Jacob Raiser, 1870 Thomas Boynton, 1874 George Appleby, 1880 Alexander Allordyce, and 1891 John Alien. Then In 1915, Colonel A.E. Gooderham purchased the mill and property for the Connaught Laboratories. The mill was dismantled. In the spring flood of 1918, the log dam with its large earth embankment. was washed away. A concrete spillway was built to regulate the flow of water but not to create millpond, but it was removed in 1946.

Relative Importance: The Fisherville Mills were very important as the basis for a community forming around them and was very beautiful section of the West Don been altered since the time of the Fishers.

Planning Implications: On a pedestrian route through the valley, following the course of the river, two or three plaques should be mounted at approximate mill sites, and these should explain the types of mills at each point, the initial developer and successive owners of each, and point to the original community of Fisherville which sprang up because of the mills.

Reference Sources: J.H. Beers, Commemorative Biographical Records County of York (1907); Blackett Robinson, History of Toronto County of York (1885); Miles’ Atlas (1878).

Acknowledgements: Maps Project.