Heritage Toronto

Ashbridge’s Bay looking northeast from north bank of cut, Toronto, 1904. Courtesy of the City of Toronto Archives.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and President D. Eisenhower at the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, Toronto, June 26, 1959. Image by Duncan Cameron. Library and Archives Canada / PA-121475

Leslie Street Spit under construction, Toronto, photograph taken between 1980 and 1998. Image: City of Toronto Archives.

Tommy Thompson Park and Entrance Pavilion, May 24, 2021.

Tommy Tompson Park: A Transforming Landscape

Into the Wild

The Toronto Harbour Commission created the peninsula that today includes Tommy Thompson Park. Initially, the commission envisioned this peninsula as a barrier, guarding a planned outer harbour area from rough Lake Ontario waves. In 1959, the Commission began a process of land creation that would last five decades. Often known as the Leslie Street Spit, the artificial peninsula resulted from gradually building up mud and sand taken from the bottom of the lake as well as construction debris from Toronto. This material included bricks and cement taken from downtown homes and shops that construction workers flattened to make way for new buildings.

Eventually, planners realized that the outer harbour area was not in demand by industry and started to look for new ways to use the Leslie Street Spit. By the 1970s, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority had largely taken over management of the space, opening the site to the public on weekends to explore the wilderness that began to reclaim the space. The park is now a home for native plants and wildlife, including many birds, fish, insects, and land animals: beavers, snakes, rabbits, minks, and many more. Creating this large natural habitat was not the only vision for the land’s future in its early decades. In the late 1970s, there were plans to develop new entertainment facilities on the spit, including an amusement area, hotel, and marina. But, it was largely through the efforts of local activists that the area was preserved as a natural space.

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Standing on History

Part of the land you can cycle along at Tommy Thompson is made up of Toronto’s past. Researchers Heidy Schopf and Jennifer Foster investigated the materials that make up the Leslie Street Spit and discovered evidence of Toronto’s redevelopment during the 1960s and 1980s. In sections of the Spit created in 1964, they found household items like teacups, medicine bottles, eyeglasses, and old toothpaste tubes.

The two also studied the bricks scattered throughout the area, concluding that much of the material can be traced to homes demolished in the 1960s. In some areas of the park can be found the remains of 19th century row houses that once stood in Toronto’s Alexandra Park neighbourhood, just south of Kensington Market. In another section, further into Tommy Thompson Park, the two researchers linked the rubble found on the Spit with the skyscraper development of the 1980s. During this decade, many 19th century brick buildings were bulldozed to make way for modern office space. These two researchers have built a meaningful connection between this wilderness area and the history of Toronto’s development through their study of the site.

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The Human Impact

The loss of Ashbridge’s Bay Marsh shows the vast and often harmful impact a city can have on its surrounding environment. Toronto’s effect on nature dates to its early years. 18th century industries, like river-side grain mills, sawmills or tanneries producing leather, contributed to the disappearance of local salmon populations by the 1880s. Sawdust from mills killed insects the salmon relied on for food, dams lowered oxygen in the water by slowing the flow of rivers, workers at tanneries dumped harmful chemicals used for leather making in the water. Harming salmon populations is just one example of the direct impact Torontonians have had on the surrounding environment since the city’s early decades — an impact that continued to grow.

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The Return of Nature

Tommy Thompson Park is also an example of how we can start to mend the environmental damage caused over the years. Thanks to bans on the insecticide DDT, formerly threatened cormorant populations have now bounced back to high numbers at the park. This bird’s nesting practices have opened up previously forested areas on the spit, creating open space now used as a habitat for ring-billed gulls. These gulls are a food source for the coyotes that inhabit the area. One positive action by humans has allowed a new ecosystem of native animals to thrive at Tommy Thompson.

People also have a more direct role in supporting the park’s wildlife. While the spit may look like an untamed wilderness area, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority – which operates the park – often intervenes and alters the landscape to foster habitats for plants and animals. These actions include building pools for different reptiles, opening areas for local bird species, and creating habitable environments for fish. As Torontonians regain access to their waterfront through new parks and paths, so too is nature.

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Tommy Tompson Park: A Transforming Landscape

Into the Wild

Standing on History

The Human Impact

The Return of Nature

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