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Garrison Common History: Northeast The 45 acres bounded by Dufferin, King, Strachan and the CN mainline linking Toronto and Hamilton, known as Liberty Village after one of its main streets, was once part of the military reserve surrounding Fort York. Indeed, the 1813 Battle of York may have spilled into the area, although most fighting took place on what are now the CNE Grounds and on the open land immediately west of the fort. Later, the Liberty Village area was given over in stages to railways, heavy industry and a prison. The history of its development divides conveniently into two parts along a diagonal line formed by the original Grand Trunk Western line from Toronto to Georgetown, later sold to the Toronto, Grey & Bruce Railway, and now replaced partly by East Liberty Street. The triangle northeast of this diagonal, up to King and over to Strachan, was developed first between 1865 to 1900. Very little of its original fabric survives. The other part southwest of the diagonal, down to the CN mainline and over to Dufferin, dates almost entirely from the early 20th century. Most of the buildings constructed there, with the notable exception of the
Map of the area, City Engineer’s Office, 1885 Mercer Reformatory, are still standing. the 1850s, but another decade passed before the first Works Company was established to make just north of the diagonal rail corridor. In 1872 Car Company, which had negotiated to do some of its Central Prison then being constructed on an adjoining
Railways were thrown helter-skelter across the Liberty Village lands in industry was located there. About 1865 the Toronto Steel, Iron and Railway rails, axles, wheels, switches and points. It stood on the west side of Strachan the company’s premises and machinery were taken over by the Canada manufacturing using prison labour in workshops within the walls of the site. Iron and Steam: A History of the Locomotive Dana Ashdown, in his splendid book, Robin Brass Studio, 1999) details in a masterful way the short history of to the company’s demise in 1879. Two years later the property was sold that moved its operations to Toronto and was reorganized as John Inglis its successors occupied this site and much of the former prison property, armaments into a maker of consumer goods and appliances, particularly Inglis’s place. and Railway Car Builders of Toronto (Toronto: this arrangement from the prison’s opening in 1874 to a firm of iron founders and machinists in Guelph & Sons. For over a century until 1989, Inglis and evolving from a manufacturer of heavy engines and washing machines. Now a tide of town houses has taken Visit our website at www.fortyork.ca
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