Where is Leslieville?

The area known as Leslieville is located east of the Don River in Toronto, and is located between Riverdale to the west and The Beaches to the east; the one thing one can get specific about is the location of the nursery that was owned by George Leslie and Sons. Its extent was from Queen Street south to the other side of Eastern Avenue where the marshes were, and from one block east of Pape (Heward Ave.) all the way over to Leslie Street.

It derived its name from the Leslie Post Office, operated by George Leslie's family.

When George Leslie opened his nursery, Queen Street wasn't Queen Street -- it was only renamed when the area was annexed by the city of Toronto in 1884. Queen Street was Kingston Road up until that point. By annexing the property, extension of water and sewage services increased the value of the land, and by building a bridge across the Don, transportation to Toronto was enhanced. An area that was, until this time, inhabited by relatively few people per square mile (there were a number of market gardeners), suddenly became open to development. Comparing maps from one decade to the next, most market farms (which were small) were further subdivided and turned into housing developments.

There were a number of businesses in the area -- many of them existed to serve the needs of the inhabitants. Others were there, like the brickworks, because the Don River area was full of clay. Others serviced and worked the trains.

The nursery

Established in 1848, it originally occupied over 150 acres. In his advertisement in C.E. Anderson & Co's Toronto City Directory for 1868-69, it was written about George Leslie and sons:

"The Toronto Nurseries were established in 1849 by George Leslie, Esq., and comprise an area of one hundred and fifty acres, and are, without exception, the most extensive in the Dominion, embracing every description of fruit and ornamental trees, shrubs, hedge plants, deciduous flowering shrubs and grape vines. The grounds are admirably adapted for nursery productions. Mr. Leslie keeps up a regular correspondence with some of the principal nurseries in Great Britain and the United States, and spares no expense in adding to his stock all acquisitions of merit. Importations are annually made from England of ornamental, deciduous and evergreen trees, exclusive of what is raised by himself, so as to afford an extensive and varied assortment. In all its departments every care and attention that a thorough knowledge and experience in the nursery line may suggest, is readily taken advantage of. From this fact, and the already high reputation of the Toronto Nurseries, continued prosperity must be the reward."

The nursery's street address was 1164 Queen Street.

The Toronto city directory of 1868 notes that Leslieville had a population of 450 people, and was located two miles east of Toronto on the Kingston Road. The Leslie Post Office was established in 1858. By 1868, the village had a common school, a separate school, a Wesleyan Methodist church of Brick, erected in 1859, capable of seating 500 people (this was a significant church!) three hotels, a blacksmith shop, an edge tool factory, a large distillery, brewery and vinegar factory, several brickyards, and Daily Mail.

What is my interest in all of this? I live in one of the houses that is over a century old in Leslieville. When exactly was my house built? Curiosity led me to the Toronto Archives, located about half-way between Casa Loma and the Dupont subway station.

Leslieville today

I've received a lovely email message from D.Ellis, who grew up in the neighbourhood a few years ago. Here are a couple of things that are more or less enduring -- and both have great food.

B&B Fish and Chips: It's been in the same place for probably fifty years (I'm hoping to find out when it originally opened: do you know? Tastiest fish and chips in Toronto -- Amy Pataki of the Toronto Star liked them best of the fish and chips places she visited.

Stratenger's - it used to be the Joy Theatre many years ago. I've heard that children used to be able to get into the movies by bringing a milk bottle, which had a 5 cent deposit. From being a movie theatre, it became a strip joint (!) and then several bars. It's latest incarnation has both a bar and an Indian restaurant. Good Indian food, and the bar has the best thin-crust pizza in all of Toronto. They have a brick wood-burning fogolar (pizza oven). Go! Eat!

Caroline Avenue in Leslieville

First, to find Caroline Avenue. This took a few hours of hunting around, and looking at insurance fire maps for the city. From that, I moved on to the city directories, and then to the tax rolls.

Some houses were already built on Caroline Avenue by 1893. They are the 2-1/2 story brick semidetached houses on the west side of the street, on the south half of the street.

Caroline Avenue was one of the first streets to be built upon. Winnifred, directly west of Caroline, was not built upon for about another 15-20 years. Prior to being built on, it's shown on the tax rolls as "Radcliffe Avenue." I don't know why the name was changed.

The east side of Caroline was also a lot slower to be built upon than the west side. For a while, the entire east side of the street was owned by one of the Gooderham's (research yet to be done to discover if this was a Gooderham of the same family as Gooderham and Worts).

In 1893, the city directory for ward 1 shows that the east side was not built upon. Houses on the west side were:

• (vacant lots)
• 46 - Vacant (was occupied in '94 by James Rankin, painter)
• 48 - Francis W. Knight
• 50 - Joseph West
• 52 - Daniel L. DeHart
• 54 - Samuel Cox
• 56 - John McL. McIntosh
• 58 - Edward Thom
• 60 - Edward T. Smith
• 62 - John T. Cubitt
• 64 - George S. Atkins
• (vacant lots

The following houses were of greater interest to me, since they are the block built at the same time, and in which I live. In 1893, they are listed as 6 unfinished houses. In 1894's tax assessments, they were occupied by:

• 84 - Joseph A Wardman -- listed as a "Cond. with the Tor. Ry" in the directory. I'm guessing that's Conductor with the Toronto Railway, but am willing to be corrected. He shared the house with relatives:
  • Aubrey W.J. Wardman, an electrician with the Toronto Railway,
  • George E. Wardman, a painter at Joseph McCausland & Son, a company that created Stained Glass, Memorial Windows, and decorative painting (gee, I wish there were some traces of decorative painting in the house he occupied!).
  • George & Joseph lived in a house on McGee Street (just east of the train bridge by Queen St. East) before the house was built.
  • The 1894 directory, however, shows the occupant being Franklin Jones, a collector for Pease Furnace Co.
• 86 - Edward Carney - a foreman at Carter & Co (Ltd.)
• 88 - James Rankin Jr. - a pressman at Murry Ptg. Co. In 1893, he lived on Hepbourne Ave, and moved to Caroline when the house was complete.
• 90 - George W. King, Architect, had his offices at 9-1/2 Adelaide St. East.
• 92 - Wm. Montgomery was a travelling salesman. Before living on Caroline, he lived at 75 Teraulay.
• 94 - Henry P. Breay, a businessman -- "Wholesale and retail dealer in Tobaccos and Cigars." His business was located at 4 King Street East -- and in 1894, he actually had a telephone at his place of business. The 1894 Directory  shows the occupant as being John Wilbers.

This series of brick semi-detached houses was owned by Richard A. Graydon. The 1894 assessments for them were such that the lots were valued at $233, and the buildings at $1300. I wonder who Richard Graydon was.

The rest of the street north was vacant lots.

It's interesting reading the tax assessment rolls -- they provide interesting information about the culture of the time, and what was considered important, and what wasn't. The age of men was listed -- but not of women! Men's jobs are listed for a while, sometimes the background nationality is listed, and religion (that would be for school taxes) was marked with a checkmark or an abbreviation. Slowly, I feel like I am developing the outline of a story... and that is the story of the houses. Who lived there? Who owned them? Who were the occupants, and how did they change over time? What is the relationship between what was happening to the city in terms of growth and recessions, and the area?

I'm slowly documenting this information. If you happen to know anything about the people who lived in this block of houses, and would be willing to share your information with me for me to publish it on the web, I'd be grateful. It's taking me time to put all of this together. So I have to take a day of vacation here and there to compile information from the microfilms.

I've put the rest of the information into a table here. The years go down the left side, from 1894 on, and the house numbers are across the top. The information within the table is what I have gleaned about the owners, occupants, and values (when I bothered to record it... I have to make more trips to the Archives). Please note that tax assessments for any given year were registered the previous year. All of the information was handwritten; there are some interesting changes in spellings of people's names, which might be put down to transcription errors (either on the clerk's part, or my part).