Davenport Road

There are four plaques about this road.
All can be seen on this page.

Photos by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted August, 2011

This road is one of Toronto's oldest. Yet in another way it's one of our newest because it has a bike lane! In a parkette on the southwest corner of Yonge Street and Davenport Road can be seen three tall 2011 Heritage Toronto panels. One, titled "Ancient Trail", has this to say:

Plaque coordinates: 43.672722 -79.388001

Beneath the winding course of Davenport Road lies hidden an ancient rail created by Aboriginal peoples. The trail linked their settlements with hunting and fishing grounds, and with trade routes that tied this region to the upper Great Lakes, the Atlantic coast, and the Midwest.

Between the Humber and Don Rivers, the ancient footpath avoided difficult terrain by weaving along the foot of the escarpment that is one of Toronto's most distinctive geological features. It was the shoreline of 13,500-year-old glacial Lake Iroquois, forerunner of much smaller Lake Ontario. This meandering route, at odds with the city's rectangular street grid, now connects us with the distant past.

Photos by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted August, 2011

A second one, titled "Rural Road", has this to say:

The ancient trail beneath Davenport Road may have become known to Europeans in the 1600s when French traders, missionaries, and soldiers entered this area.

With the arrival of British settlers and the establishment in 1793 of the Town of York (now Toronto), the footpath was forever transformed. The trail through the forests allowed travel to and from newly settled lands, and was eventually widened to accommodate horses and wagons. The new road was named "Davenport" after a house built on the escarpment for John McGill in 1797.

Photo by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted August, 2011

The third one, titled "Urban Street", has this to say:

As the forest along its length was cleared for farms and industry, the ancient trail beneath Davenport Road became an important link to small villages such as Yorkville and Carlton, and to the City of Toronto's markets. Beginning in the 1830s, the former Lake Iroquois deposits of gravel, clay, and sand were transported along Davenport Road for the building of the city.

Paved in one section with wooden planks in the mid-19th century, Davenport Road featured toll booths at its major intersections to finance the roadwork - one has survived at Bathurst Street, and is now a museum. By the 1890s, an electric street railway ran along Davenport west from Bathurst. Since the 1930s, increased automobile traffic has led to further widening of the road.

Created by ancient peoples, the Davenport Road route is today a busy urban thoroughfare.

Photo by Alan L Brown - Posted September, 2006

A 1995 Toronto Historical Board plaque at the northwest corner of Davenport and Bathurst Street fills us in with some details about this road:

Plaque coordinates: 43.676823 -79.416046

As temperatures warmed toward the end of the last Ice Age (ca. 12,000 years ago) meltwater from retreating glaciers formed Lake Iroquois, covering parts of Ontario and New York State. The ancient shore remains as an escarpment overlooking the plain on which Toronto is built. Native peoples beat a path at the base of this ridge to use as an overland route between the Humber and Don rivers. French explorers and missionaries followed the trail to and from Huronia. After the founding of York in 1793, the trail began to appear on maps of the area. The name commemorates the first house built on top of the ridge in 1797, John McGill's "Davenport". One of several routes developed along an extended aboriginal trail, Davenport Road is considered one of Toronto's oldest roads.

Related Toronto plaques
The Escarpment
The Village of Yorkville

More
Transportation

Here are the visitors' comments for this page.

Posted April 1, 2012
Hello, I am looking for some information on a photograph I have of a store front on Davenport rd. There is a name B.Panter on the glass window. It is a cornerstore That sold produce, tea and household items. thanks ! Trevor MacAdam

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