Did you know the town of Scarborough dates back 200 years? Europeans settled it in the 1790s. It has grown from a small rural village and farming town to a fully urbanized city with a diverse cultural community. With that much history, it’s sure to hold some fun and interesting facts, so read on to learn more!
Scarborough Was Almost Home to Streetcars
Plans for the route connecting Kennedy and McCowan initially intended for Toronto streetcars tethered in a train. However, the TTC purchased the glitzy linear induction RT vehicles we see today. But the old streetcar-level platform can still be seen in some spots, such as the now-defunct turning loop outside Kennedy station. Outside of the Scarborough RT project, the TTC never pursued linked streetcars. Still, when the vehicles first appeared on Toronto’s routes, each was equipped with a special coupling device now hidden behind a little skirt under the cab.
The Scarborough Walk Of Fame Started In Scarborough Town Centre’s Old Food Court
Have you visited The Scarborough Walk of Fame? It first began in Scarborough Town Centre’s old upstairs food court since it was one of Scarborough’s busiest spots. However, the nameplates of early inductees often had food dropped on them, prompting them to move. The mall’s Centre Court was renamed Scarborough Walk of Fame Court when the walk settled in 2010. Walk of Fame has now received a City of Toronto grant to add digital displays and make things more interactive.
Scarborough (Almost) Had The First Tim Hortons
Although the first Tim Hortons as we know it today opened in Hamilton, the former Toronto Maple Leaf hockey star opened a “Tim Horton Do-Nut and “Tim Horton Drive-In Restaurant” at Kingston and McCowan! He also opened a “Tim Horton Chicken” in the same location. Still, the company failed in 1964 due to a competitive market.
The Scarborough Bluffs Are The Former Shoreline Of An Ancient Glacial Lake
The Scarborough Bluffs have been slowly shifting and eroding for millennia. They actually marked the end of the Great Ice Age! This erosion has created a lengthy sandbar from approximately the foot of today’s Woodbine Ave. to nearly level with Bathurst Street. You could walk from the mouth of the Don to the end of spit in the 1790s. In 1793, Elizabeth Simcoe named the Bluffs while exploring the area around the newly founded town of York. First Nations people used the land to hunt, fish, and simply relax. However, the sandbar only became Toronto Island when a storm caused the connection to the mainland to cut off in 1854.
The Only Suspension Bridge In Toronto Can Be Found In The Rouge River
When Scarborough was still a rural town in 1912, the Sewells Road Suspension Bridge was designed by civil engineer John Barber and built in the same year. This single-lane, steel structure can be found just north of the Toronto Zoo and close to another popular Toronto crossing, the Old Finch Avenue Bailey Bridge, which was built in three days after Hurricane Hazel.
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