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is Spring the Friends of Fort York marked the tenth anniversary since our founding. It was in April 1994 that the Friends came together to intervene for the first time to protest the physical and visual encroachment on Toronto’s birthplace as the Bathurst-Strachan Part II draft plan was under consideration by City Council’s Land Use Committee. Our ad hoc group, numbering fewer than two dozen people, had Steve Otto as its spokesman. Meetings were held irregularly but there was frequent contact by phone to work out strategy and responses. Later, as changes to the plan were made to modify if not eliminate the impact of new roads and buildings on the site, we continued to be involved in the approval process. We even managed in August, 1994, to produce a seminal study, Revealing Fort York, thanks largely to the unstinting efforts of Bob Allsopp and Cathy Nasmith. e following May our organization was incorporated as e Friends of Fort York and Garrison Common, a non-profit body. e prominence given to what was happening to the fort
stirred interest in other quarters, and in November 1994, a second organization, the Fort York Associates (soon known as the Historic Fort York Volunteer Committee) came together under Don Gibson to focus the energies of another group of people on improving the fort’s attractions and programmes. During an eighteen-month existence the Volunteers held fifteen meetings and attracted the support of such stalwarts as Stewart Bull, Joe Gill, Cheryl Hart, Ian Keith, Murray Philp and Peter Twist. Both groups counted Rollo Myers as a member. In April 1996 the two organizations amalgamated to frame a longer-term vision for Fort York, taking advantage of the charter of the Friends of Fort York and adopting that name. roughout the eight years since, seven of them under the selfless leadership of Joe Gill, our chairman, we have worked diligently to protect, support and improve Fort York at every turn. Now, looking back over a decade of accomplishments, we are proud to say we think that we have made a difference.
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