Beach Memories: Historic Walk along Kingston Road set for Saturday, Aug. 8

By GENE DOMAGALA

I will be leading an Historic Walk on the afternoon of Saturday, Aug. 8, along Kingston Road.

We will be meeting at 1 p.m. at the southeast corner of Kingston Road and Victoria Park for the walk’s start.

Kingston Road is one of the oldest and most important roads in Ontario.

Originally it was a major trail for Indigenous people who travelled along the shores of Lake Ontario. Then in the 1700s, the French explorers also travelled along the same route and it became known as the road to Montreal and Quebec.

Many years later the English took possession of the road after defeating the French for control of Canada. The road took on a different meaning when the English started to settle in the town they came to call York (now Toronto).

York was centred around Parliament and King streets, but Lt. Governor of Upper Canada John Graves Simcoe wanted a road built from York to the town of Kingston at the east end of Lake Ontario.

Simcoe hired an American contractor named Asa Danforth who started building Kingston Road in 1793. But Danforth never completed the work on the road.

However, it was eventually completed and since it was the road to Kingston it was called Kingston Road.

On our Aug. 8 walk we will visit many historic sites that made, and still make, Kingston Road an important part of our community.

The walk will head west along Kingston Road from Victoria Park Avenue.

We will note historic and religious buildings, and also see the East Toronto Brick Yards location. That site produced many of the bricks used for homes, buildings and stores in the area.

We will also visit local schools along the walk that are located on or near Kingston Road.

Did you know there were hotels and taverns along our part of Kingston Road, and one of them was called the Ontario House?

There are many historic sites to see on this walk including natural areas and the area that was once home to one of the first municipal golf courses.

There is also a bowling alley that is still in existence on Kingston Road. Do you know where it is?

Kingston Road has many places to see and stories to be told about it. Some are historic and some are more linked to our modern-day times where we have bookstores, shops and restaurants and bars that make our community special.

To learn more, please join me on the afternoon of Saturday, Aug. 8, for the Historic Walk along Kingston Road as we find out about it “then and now”.

Historically Yours!