Historic Fort York, 1793-1993

By Carl Benn and Henry N.R. Jackman

Fearing an American invasion of Upper Canada, John Graves Simcoe had Fort York built in 1793 as an emergency defensive measure. That act became the first step in the founding of modern Toronto.

Twenty years later, the Fort was the scene of the bloody Battle of York in which the famous American explorer, Zebulon Pike, died leading U.S. forces against the Fort’s outnumbered Canadian, British and Aboriginal defenders. The Americans won this battle – their first major victory in the War of 1812 – and torched the province’s public buildings during a six-day occupation. A year later, British forces retaliated by capturing Washington and burning its government buildings, including the White House.

Rebuilt in time to drive off another American attack in 1814, Fort York was maintained through the 1880s to guard against internal unrest and potential American annexation. Even after its defences became obsolete, Fort York continued to serve as barracks and training grounds for the Toronto garrison until the 1930s, when it reopened as a historic site museum.

In this book, Carl Benn explores the dramatic roles Fort York played in the frontier war of the 1790s, the birth of Toronto, the War of 1812, the Rebellion of 1837 and the defence of Canada during the American Civil War, and describes how Toronto’s most important heritage site came to be preserved as a tangible link to Canada’s turbulent military past.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dundurn
• Release date: Jun 30, 1993
• ISBN: 9781459713765

Carl Benn

Dr Carl Benn is a history professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and previously worked in the museum field for 34 years. He has curated numerous exhibits and restored historic facilities, including Canada's most complete War of 1812 fort. His extensive publications include the critically acclaimed A Mohawk Memoir from the War of 1812 (University of Toronto Press, 2019).

Book preview

HISTORIC FORT YORK

1793–1993

Fort York

is a historic site museum operated by

the Toronto Historical Board

The Toronto Historical Board was established by the

Corporation of the City of Toronto

in 1960

Fort York is located in downtown Toronto

on Garrison Road off Fleet Street

between Bathurst Street and Strachan Avenue

HISTORIC FORT YORK

1793–1993

CARL BENN

This book is dedicated

to the memory of the late

Colonel Charles P. Stacey,

one of Canada’s foremost historians and

First Honorary Curator of Fort York.

Historic Fort York, 1793–1993

by Carl Benn

Published by Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc.

P.O. Box 95, Station O, Toronto, Ontario M4A 2M8

Copyright © 1993 Carl Benn

No portion of this book, with the exception of brief extracts for the

purpose of literary review, may be reproduced in any form without

the permission of the publisher.

MAPS: Kevin Hebib

COPY EDITING: Wendy Thomas

DESIGN AND TYPESETTING: Robin Brass Studio

Printed and bound in Canada by Hignell Printing Limited,

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Benn, Carl, 1953–

Historic Fort York, 1793–1993

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-920474-79-9

1. Fort York (Toronto, Ont.) – History.

2. Fortification – Ontario – Toronto – History.

3. Canada – History, Military.

4. Historic sites – Ontario – Toronto.

I. Title.

FC3097.8.F67B46 1993       971.3'541       C93-094175-6

F1059.5.T688F67 1993

Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc. gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Recreation.

FOREWORD

by

THE HONOURABLE HENRY N. R. JACKMAN,

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF ONTARIO

Two hundred years ago Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe founded Toronto when he established Fort York. Immediately afterwards, he moved the provincial capital from the border town of Niagara to Toronto as a temporary emergency measure. Both acts were part of Governor Simcoe’s preparations to defend Upper Canada (now Ontario) from an expected American invasion. Civilian settlement followed the government, and a community, named York, began to grow just east of the garrison.

While the threat of hostilities passed by 1794, ongoing tensions with the United States led to war in 1812. Between 1812 and 1814, British troops, Canadian militia, and Aboriginal warriors marched from Fort York to preserve our sovereignty against foreign assault. In 1813 and 1814, Fort York itself came under attack when American forces targeted the provincial capital in their efforts to annex Canada. Although the Americans captured York twice in 1813 and enjoyed military success elsewhere, the colony’s defenders ultimately succeeded in defending our territorial integrity from conquest.

After the War of 1812, British and Canadian troops continued to garrison Fort York to guard the province from foreign expansion and internal unrest. These soldiers and their families made important contributions to colonial society as it grew in size and sophistication. In 1834, this growth saw York incorporate as the City of Toronto, a prosperous centre with a population of 9,000. In 1867, when Toronto had 50,000 people, Canadian society had matured to the point where the British Parliament made Canada a self-governing Dominion.

Often, we overlook the roles the military played in protecting our sovereignty during the formative years of Canada’s evolution from colony to nation. Had it not been for the soldiers in garrisons such as Fort York, Canada’s distinctive social and national development might very well have been stillborn at some distant point in our past.

As John Graves Simcoe’s modern-day successor, I take pleasure in commending this book to your attention. Through it, I invite you to explore the exciting world of our turbulent military past. At the same time, I hope you will spare a thought for the people – most of them now nameless – who defended our society in its fragile formative decades.

THE HONOURABLE HENRY N. R. JACKMAN,

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR OF ONTARIO

CONTENTS

PREFACE

A Note about the Name Fort York

THE EARLY YEARS, 1793–1811

Forces Leading to the Establishment of Fort York

The Founding of Toronto at Fort York

The Anglo-American Confrontation of 1794

The Consolidation of York

The Threat of Mississauga Attack

Simcoe’s Garrison Replaced

THE WAR OF 1812–1814

The Outbreak of War

York Becomes a Target

The Battle of York

The Occupation of York

The Impact of the Battle of York

The Second Attack on York

Fort York Rebuilt

The Third American Descent on York

The End of the War

FORT YORK AND THE TORONTO GARRISON, 1815–1945

The Post-War Garrison

The Rebellion Crisis

Fort York Replaced

The Trent Affair

Canadian Forces Assume Responsibility for Fort York

HISTORIC FORT YORK

Fort York Becomes a Historic Site

The Preservation Battle of 1903-1909

The 1930s Restoration and the Museum Years

The Gardiner Expressway Threat

The Fort York Heritage Conservation District

ENDNOTES

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

LIST OF PLATES

1 John Graves Simcoe, 1791

2 Columbian Tragedy, 1791

3 Fort Niagara, c.1784

4 Council at Sandusky, 1793

5 Queen’s Rangers’ Camp, 1793

6 Anthony Wayne, c.1792

7 Fort Miamis as it appeared in 1794

8 Garrison at York, 1796

9 Part of York the Capital of Upper Canada, 1804

10 Town Blockhouse, 1799

11 Fort York, c.1799

12 York Barracks, Lake Ontario, 1804

13 Lieutenant-Governor’s House, 1800

14 Garrison at Toronto, 1805

15 Battle of Queenston Heights, 1812

16 American Naval Base at Sackett’s Harbor, c.1815

17 Sir Roger Hale Sheaffe, c.1787

18 Mortal Wounding of Zebulon Pike in 1813

19 The Royal Standard from Fort York, 1813

20 Frigate plans similar to the Sir Isaac Brock, c.1813

21 Ann Strachan, 1807

22 Warships after the Battle of Lake Erie, 1813

23 Battle of Blandensburg in 1814

24 Blockhouses Numbers 1 and 2 in 1823

25 John Strachan, 1807

26 Kingston’s Fort Henry of the 1830s

27 Murney Martello Tower of the 1840s

28 Fort York from the East, 1821

29 East and Stone Magazines in 1823

30 Officers’ Brick and Blue Barracks in 1823

31 Winter Dress of the 71st Light Infantry, late 1840s

32 Officers of the 30th Regiment, c.1862

33 St. John the Evangelist Garrison Church in 1859

34 Officers Sleighing on Toronto Bay, 1842-1843

35 King Street near St. Lawrence Market, c.1840

36 Canteen at the New Fort, 1887

37 William Lyon Mackenzie, c.1834

38 Sir Francis Bond Head, 1837

39 Cartoon: Liberty to the Negroes, c.1838

40 Toronto Harbour, 1838

41 1838 Rebellion Barracks

42 Toronto Blockhouse in 1841-1842

43 Pier and Fort, Toronto, 1839

44 The New Fort in 1913

45 Old and New Forts in 1842

46 Fort York from the East in 1860

47 East End of Fort York in 1885

48 Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada, c.1866

49 HMS Heron in Toronto Harbour, c.1867

50 Fort York from the South, 1865

51 Fort Niagara’s Civil War Period Defences

52 Toronto Field Battery, 1878

53 48th Highlanders, c.1902-1913

54 Colour Party of Veterans at the Garrison Church, 1922

55 West End of Fort York in 1885

56 Officers’ Brick Barracks and Rebellion Cookhouse

57 Parade at Stanley Barracks, c.1908

58 Recruits Drilling at Stanley Barracks, c.1915

59 The Officers’ Mess at Stanley Barracks in the 1920s

60 Soldiers’ Barracks at Fort York in 1903

61 School Tour at Fort York, 1905

62 Fort York in 1890

63 West Entrance to Fort York, c.1900

64 Park-Blackwell Slaughterhouse at Fort York, 1909

65 Streetcar line along the North Wall, c.1916

66 South Wall of Fort York in 1922

67 Blockhouse Interior, c.1934

68 Opening Day Ceremonies, 1934

69 East End of Fort York, 1934

70 West End of Fort York, 1934

71 Restoration of the Circular Battery, 1932

72 Fort York Museum Exhibit in the 1930s

73 Cartoon: Now They Want Reparations, 1959

74 Construction of the Gardiner Expressway, 1960

75 Mess Exhibit in the 1960s

76 Archaeological Excavations, 1992

77 Aerial View of Fort York, c.1986

LIST OF MAPS

1 Fort York Today

2 The Great Lakes in 1793

3 Plan of York Harbour, 1793

4 Proposed Winter Camp for the Queen’s Rangers, 1793

5 The Battle of York, April 27, 1813

6 Western Battery, Ravine Blockhouse, and Gibraltar Point Blockhouse, 1814

7 Fort York, 1816

8 Toronto Bay, 1818

9 Toronto During the Rebellion Crisis

10 Fort York, 1842

11 Proposed New Defences for Toronto, 1827

12 Existing and Proposed Toronto Harbour Defences, 1833

13 Proposed New Defences for Toronto, 1833

14 The New Fort as Built, 1842

15 The Old and New Forts, 1851

16 Proposed Defences for Toronto, 1865

17 Fort York, 1871

18 Restoration Plans, 1909

19 Expressway Misses Fort, 1959

ABBREVIATIONS FOR COMMONLY

CITED SOURCES

Map 1: Fort York Today

1 & 2 The BRICK BARRACKS, constructed in 1815, each contained three rooms which housed 25-35 soldiers, soldiers’ wives and children. By the 1860s, when barracks facilities were improved, some rooms were converted into married quarters with two or three families per room, while others were made into sergeants’ quarters, and another room became a school.

3 The brick OFFICERS’ BARRACKS AND MESS ROOM was built in 1815 and enlarged in 1826. It was divided into three sections: two served as officers’ quarters and the other was the general mess dining room for all the officers in the fort. Married officers usually lived in York (Toronto). There are two money vaults in the cellar, installed in 1838 to store government and Bank of Upper Canada funds during the tensions that followed the Rebellion of 1837.

4 The junior OFFICERS’ BARRACKS was constructed in the 1930s to represent an earlier 19th-century building. Much of the present building contains material from the earlier structure.

5 BLOCKHOUSE NUMBER 2, built in 1813, doubled as a 160-person barracks and fortification. The structure is splinter- and bullet-proof, and has musket loopholes and artillery ports.

6 The BRICK MAGAZINE, built in 1814, originally was a bomb-proof gunpowder magazine. However, its walls were unable to support the weight of the vaulted bomb-proof roof and in 1824 the roof was removed and a second floor was added. It then was used as a storehouse for weapons and other equipment.

7 BLOCKHOUSE NUMBER 1, constructed in 1813, could accommodate 124 people. It originally had a cellar that could serve as a magazine.

8 The STONE POWDER MAGAZINE was built in 1815 to provide bomb-proof storage for 900 barrels of gunpowder (each weighing about 41 kg). It has walls 2.2 m thick, a vaulted roof, spark-proof copper and brass fixtures, and a simple but effective ventilation system to keep the powder dry.

PREFACE

The founding of modern urban Toronto was a military event that occurred when John Graves Simcoe ordered the construction of a garrison on the present site of Fort York in 1793. Because of a war scare with the United States, Simcoe wanted to establish a naval base at Toronto in order to control Lake Ontario. In his capacity as lieutenant-governor of the British colony of Upper Canada, Simcoe also moved the provincial capital to Toronto from the vulnerable border town of Niagara during that tense period. Toronto was renamed York, civilian settlement followed the government, and a community began to grow east of the garrison. During those early years, Fort York played a significant role in the economic and social development of the small backwoods community.

Militarily, the fort saw action in the War of 1812, most notably during the Battle of York in April 1813. After the war, troops garrisoned Fort York to guard the community from threats posed by internal unrest and, more importantly, from possible American attempts to annex Canada. The British army stationed soldiers at the fort almost continuously from 1793 until 1870. After the withdrawal of imperial troops, Canadian forces maintained Fort York’s harbour defences until the 1880s when its fortifications and armaments became obsolete. However, the army did not abandon the site at that time, but continued to use the buildings and grounds as an auxiliary facility for the Toronto garrison until the 1930s, and some military activity took place at the fort as late as World War II.

Between 1932 and 1934, the City of Toronto restored Fort York to celebrate the centennial of the incorporation of the city in 1834. On Victoria Day 1934, the governor-general of Canada, the Earl of Bessborough, opened Fort York as a historic site museum. Today, the fort’s defensive walls surround Canada’s largest collection of original War of 1812 buildings. In addition to their national significance, these seven structures are Toronto’s oldest grouping of historic buildings, forming the cornerstone of the city’s architectural heritage. Even the one reconstructed building in the fort, the Blue Barracks, contains a significant amount of 1814-period material and is an interesting example of the efforts made during the Great Depression to create employment by restoring and rebuilding historic sites. The grounds of the fort and the land on its west side encompass part of the 1813 battlefield, remnants of Toronto’s late eighteenth-century landscape, and a military cemetery. Below the ground of the fort lies a vast archaeological resource capable of significantly expanding our understanding of life in the earliest years of Toronto’s settlement.

Today, the City of Toronto, through the Toronto Historical Board, operates Fort York as a historic site museum. The fort houses various exhibits, such as restored period rooms and traditional museum galleries, as well as other displays that tell the story of Ontario’s turbulent military past. THB staff engage in the essential tasks common to operating any such institution: enhancing the collection through acquiring artifacts, conserving the collection for the benefit of future generations, developing the site to meet the public’s interest in the fort, studying Fort York’s history through archival and archaeological research, and sharing that history with as many people as possible through public programmes, tours, and special events. Every year, tens of thousands of people visit Fort York to understand and enjoy the important heritage preserved at the site. A large proportion of these visitors are Toronto-area schoolchildren who participate in the fort’s extensive range of educational services.

Surprisingly, despite Fort York’s historical importance, a general history of the site had not been produced until I undertook to write this book. My objective in the first three chapters is to narrate the story of Fort York and its place in the broader military history of the Great Lakes region. In the last chapter, my focus changes to recount how Fort York developed as a historic site between the 1880s and the present. My purpose is to provide a readily accessible study so that people can appreciate the fort’s story within their larger understanding of the history of Canada.

I am indebted to a number of people who helped in the preparation of this book. Aldona Sendzikas, formerly the fort’s assistant curator, spent many long hours tracking down illustrations, helping with research, and supplying other assistance. Within the staff of the Toronto Historical Board, R. Scott James, George Waters, Ian Vincent, John Summers, Cheryl Hart, Susan Kohler, Karen Black, Catherine Webb, David Spittal, René Malagon, David Juliusson, Stan Davies, and Bill Nesbitt (now of