Complex stratified archaeological site; uninvestigated but extensively recorded by archaeologists.
Location: On the east bank of Humber River just north of the original shoreline of the 1790s, at the extreme west end of modern Queen Street. The site was bounded by the Humber River on the west side, by the original shoreline on the south side, by the merged Riverside Drive/South Kingsway on the east, and by the municipally owned parkland on the north.
Current Use: Partially occupied at present by a Petro-Canada gas station/car wash/retail outlet and by roads and parking areas.
Historical Description: The Rousseau site, referred to in historical documents as “St.John’s” because the incoming administrators of Upper Canada had difficulty with “Jean-Baptiste Rousseaux.” In the French Regime, his father, Jean-Bonaventure Rousseaux, had used the old French fort as his trading post. Here the first non-aboriginal residents lived and the first white child was born in the area. Here explorers and traders rested in their travels, and it was Jean-Baptiste who brought Simcoe’s ship safely to harbour and sheltered the Simcoes until their own quarters were set up. Rousseaux’s talents and services were indispensable to travellers, and as an official government translator and negotiator, he was involved in land treaty negotiations during his time and was a signatory to the 1805 phase of the Toronto Purchase. He was also involved in all of the major events of his day, from the American Revolution and the coming of the Loyalists, to the Constitution Act of 1791. Simcoe refused to grant this land from which both Rousseauxs had traded under licence for over forty years, and Rousseaux was obliged to move his family to land he purchased in Ancaster. He died at Fort George in the War of 1812.
Relative Importance: It is historically important as one of the earliest known European settlements in what is now Toronto. The mingling of French, English, and First Nations histories in the area is symbolic of Toronto’s multicultural roots.
Reference Sources: Plan of Toronto Harbour, Joseph Bouchette, 1792; William J. Daniels, O.L.S., “Locating the Rousseaux Home-Site,” 1991, Report to the Rousseau Project.
Acknowledgements: William J. Daniels; The Rousseau Project; La Societé d’histore de Toronto; Sylvie Baudreau; David Walsh.