Learn a little of Toronto's history as told through its plaques.

Potter's Field of Muddy York

Photos by Alan L Brown - August 2007

Attached to a pillar on the Yonge Street side of this building on the north-west corner of Yonge and Bloor Streets is a 1988 Toronto Trust Cemeteries and Hammerson Canada Inc. plaque. Here's what it says:

The Trustees of the Toronto General Burying Grounds established "The Potter's Field" on this site in 1826 as the area's first non-sectarian cemetery. This group of concerned citizens raised the necessary three hundred dollars to purchase the land by public subscription, accepting no donation over one dollar. As the city grew rapidly northwards, what had been the south-eastern corner of the "Woods", well outside the town, became Yorkville. Potter's Field was closed in 1855. Individual monuments and the remains of the 6,685 people were moved between 1851 and 1881, many to the Resting Place of Pioneers at the Toronto Necropolis and Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

Plaque Location Co-ordinates: 43.670351 -79.387035

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