Toronto Islands

The Toronto Islands, as seen from CN Tower.

Night view of the Toronto skyline from the Toronto Islands.

The Toronto Islands are a chain of small islands in Lake Ontario. The islands are located just offshore from the Canadian city of Toronto, and provide shelter for Toronto Harbour. The islands are a popular recreational destination, and are home to a small residential community and to the Toronto Island Airport. They are connected to the mainland by several ferry services.

The islands comprise the largest urban car-free community in North America, though some service vehicles are permitted. Recreational bicyclists are accommodated on the ferries, and bicycles and quadricycles can be rented on the islands as well.

Geography

Map of the islands.

The area of the islands is about 230 ha. The largest, outermost island, called Centre Island, is crescent-shaped and forms the shoreline of both the Eastern and Western Channels. Algonquin (Sunfish Island) and Olympic are two of the other major islands. What is commonly called Ward's Island is actually the eastern end of Centre Island. Confusingly, Centre Island Park is located on Middle Island, which is as a consequence often mistaken for Centre Island. Centre Island is sometimes referred to as Toronto Island (note the singular form) to prevent this type of confusion.

The islands were originally a 9 km peninsula or sand spit extending from the mainland. The islands are composed of alluvial deposits from the erosion of the Scarborough Bluffs. Longshore lake currents deposited sediments at the south end of the harbour and began to form a sand spit. A violent storm in 1858 blew a hole at the base of the spit which was later formalized as an entrance to the harbour called the Eastern Gap.

Sediment deposition was halted in the 1960s when the Leslie Street Spit was extended beyond the southern edge of the islands. Left to nature, the islands would diminish over time, but this is limited due to hard shore lines built to limit erosion. Over the years land reclamation has contributed to an increase in the size of the islands. Algonquin Island is largely artificial, and the area now occupied by the airport has been subject to several landfills, initially to accommodate the amusement park that preceded the airport, and then to accommodate the airport itself.

History

Hanlan Hotel on the Toronto Islands in the late 19th century

View of the Toronto skyline in 1915 from the Toronto Islands

Toronto skyline in 2006 as seen from Centre Island Park

Prior to European colonization, the Toronto area was home to various native tribes, including the Ojibwa who were the last people to occupy the area. The peninsula and surrounding sand-bars that now form the Toronto Islands were first surveyed in 1792 by Lieutenant Bouchette of the Royal Navy. D.W. Smith's Gazetteer recorded in 1813 that "the long beach or peninsula, which affords a most delightful ride, is considered so healthy by the Indians that they resort to it whenever indisposed". Many Indian encampments were located between the peninsula's base and the Don River.. The pennisula was actually a series of many sand spits and ponds.

The Gibraltar Point Lighthouse was constructed at Gibraltar Point, the south-western extremity of the peninsular, between 1803 and 1809. In 1815 the lighthouse keeper, Radan Muller, died in suspicious circumstances. The exact truth of his death is unknown, but there are indications that he was murdered. The lighthouse still stands.

After the peninsular became an island, the Hanlan family were among the first year-round inhabitants, settling at Gibraltar Point in 1862. In 1867 the City of Toronto acquired the islands from the federal government, and the land was divided into lots, allowing cottages, amusement areas and resort hotels to be built. The west side of the island became a resort destination for the people of Toronto and the first summer cottage community was built there. In 1878, a hotel was built by John Hanlan at the north-west tip of the island and soon after the area became known as Hanlan's Point. John's son, Edward "Ned" Hanlan, earned international recognition as a rower before taking over his father's business.

At the same time as Hanlan's point was developing as a summer suburb of Toronto, developments were going on elsewhere on the islands. Along the lakefront of Centre Island, large Victorian summer homes were built by Toronto's leading families looking for refuge from the summer heat and drawn by the prestigious Royal Canadian Yacht Club, which had moved to a location on the harbour side of Centre Island in 1881. By contrast the Ward's Island community began in the 1880s as a settlement of tents. By 1913, the number of tents pitched had increased to the point where the city felt it necessary to organize the community into streets, and the tents eventually evolved into a cottage community.

In 1894, a land reclamation project by the Toronto Ferry Company created space for an amusement park at Hanlan's Point. In 1897, the Hanlan's Point Stadium was built alongside the amusement park for the Toronto Maple Leaf baseball team. The stadium was rebuilt several times over the years, and in 1914, Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run into the waters of Lake Ontario from this stadium. In the 1920s the Maple Leaf team moved to a new stadium on the mainland. The amusement park closed in the 1930s and in 1937 construction started for a new airport on the site of the park and stadium.

The construction of the airport also meant that the cottage community at Hanlan's Point needed to be relocated. The residents were given the choice of either moving their cottages further south at Hanlan's Point, or resettling on Algonquin Island. Originally, Algonquin Island was simply a sandbar known as Sunfish Island that was expanded by land reclamation operations. In 1938 streets were laid out to accommodate 31 cottages that were moved by barge from Hanlan's Point. The original aspect of Algonquin Island was of unvegitated sand, and the current lush environment of the island is the result of many years of work by residents.

In 1939, the Port George VI Airport, formally named after the reigning monarch of the time but more commonly called the Toronto Island Airport, opened. During the first few years of the Second World War, expatriate Norwegian pilots-in-training used the Toronto Island Airport as a training field for both fighter and bomber pilots. Several accidents, including one where a pilot under instruction clipped the funnel and mast of the island ferry boat Sam McBride and crashed, led to the training school being moved north to Muskoka, Ontario.

At its peak in the late 1940s, the Island residential community extended from Ward's Island to Hanlan's Point, and was made up of some 630 homes, in addition to such amenities as a movie theatre, a bowling alley, stores, hotels, and dance halls. Not long after its creation in 1953, Metropolitan Toronto Council undertook to destroy the community and replace it with parkland. By 1970 only 250 homes, on Ward's and Algonquin Islands, had escaped the bulldozer. Matters came to a head on July 28 1980, when a sheriff sent to serve eviction notices to remaining residents was met at the Algonquin Island bridge by much of the community, whose leaders persuaded the sheriff to withdraw. The community's fight for survival was finally rewarded in 1993, when the Ontario Government passed the Toronto Islands Residential Community Stewardship Act, which enabled Islanders to purchase 99-year land leases from a Land Trust.

To the descendants of the Ojibwa, now the Mississauga First Nation, the Toronto Islands are sacred land. Their aboriginal title to the islands has been acknowledged by the federal government of Canada. The land is currently 'owned' by the City of Toronto, and the Mississaugas are considering how they will exercise their aboriginal title and have a presence there.

The islands today

Recreation

Paddling among the Toronto Islands

The central area hosts Centreville, a children's amusement park which was built in 1967 with a turn-of-the-century theme. The park includes a miniature railway and Far Enough Farm, and is open daily in summer.

There are several swimming beaches on the islands, including Centre Island Beach, Gibraltar Point Beach, Hanlan's Point Beach and Ward's Island Beach. Hanlan's Point Beach includes an officially recognized clothing optional section.

Recreational boating has been popular on the islands for over a century. The Islands are home to three yacht clubs: the Island Yacht Club, Queen City Yacht Club and the Royal Canadian Yacht Club. There is a public marina, the Toronto Island Marina, and several smaller clubs including the Toronto Island Sailing Club, the Sunfish Cut Boat Club and the Toronto Island Canoe Club. There is also a dragon boat regatta course and grandstand.

Community

One of the cottage homes on Ward's Island.

A community of 262 cottage homes still remain on the Toronto Islands, concentrated at the eastern end of the island chain on Ward's Island and Algonquin Island. Under the terms of the Toronto Islands Residential Community Stewardship Act there are strict rules under provincial law governing the buying and selling of these homes.

There are two schools and one church on the islands. The Toronto Island Public School, a public school located at Gibraltar Point, operates a day programme for island residents up to grade 6, a residential natural science programme for visiting grade 5/6 students from the mainland, and a pre-school nursery. The Waterfront Montessori Children's Centre, a non-profit, parent run co-operative facility for children aged 2½ to 5, is located on Algonquin Island. St. Andrew-by-the-Lake Church is an Anglican church located on Centre Island which serves the islands' residents and visitors.

The Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts occupies buildings previously used by the Toronto Island Public School, and comprises 15 artist work studios occupied by a mix of painters, ceramists, sculptors, musicians, theatre companies, and a recording studio. The centre provides a short-term studio and bedroom rental service for artists, together with meeting, conference and special event services and an artist residency program. Dildo

Airport

The City Centre Airport, as seen from the CN Tower

Main article: Toronto City Centre Airport

The north-western tip of the Toronto Islands is home to the Toronto City Centre Airport, more often known as the Toronto Island Airport. The airport is used for civil aviation, including airlines, flight training, medevac flights and private aviation. In 2006, Porter Airlines started a new commuter service to nearby cities such as Ottawa and Montreal. Porter Airlines have plans to expand their service from the Island Airport, including a new service to Newark, serving the New York City market.

In recent years, the airport has become the centre of controversy between between those who wish to close it down, and those who want to expand its usage. One focus of this controversy has been a plan to construct a road bridge to the airport, although this plan was eventually rejected.

Ferry services

One of the ferries that links the Toronto Islands to the mainland

Main article: Toronto Island ferry services

There is no fixed road link from the mainland to the Toronto Islands, which therefore rely on ferries, water taxis and other boats for their transport needs.

Three public ferry routes provide links for passengers and service vehicles from the central Toronto waterfront to docks at Hanlan's Point, Centre Island Park and Ward's Island, and are used by recreational visitors and residents. The fourth public ferry service provides a vehicle and passenger connection from a dock at the foot of Bathurst Street to the Toronto City Centre Airport. There is no public access between the airport and the rest of the island chain.

Beside the public ferry services, several yacht clubs and marinas located on the islands provide private ferry services for their members and guests.

Bibliography

• "Little Norway - the history". Norwegian embassy in Canada.
• Gibson, Sally (1984). More Than an Island. Toronto: Irwin Publishing. ISBN 0-7720-1446-9.
• Rosenbaum, Linda (2004). The Essential Toronto Island Guide. Toronto: Island Ad/Ventures. ISBN 0-9735855-0-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Swadron, Barry B. (1981). Pressure Island: The Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Toronto Islands. Government of Ontario.
• Hurdon, David (August 2006). "The Toronto Islands Then & Now: A guided tour through 200 years of history" (DVD). The Content Shop. Retrieved 2006-09-02.

External links

• City of Toronto website about the Islands
• Toronto Island community website
• Centreville Amusement Park Website
• Centre Island Photo Gallery
• Toronto Islands historical plaque
• Location of the islands, with photos, videos and links to related sites
• Outdoor recreation such as paddling to and among the Toronto Islands
• Small video for a quick overview of the Islands

43°37′15″N 79°22′43″W