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History
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History
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Scarboro Beach Amusement Park
One of the latter amusement parks in the Beaches area was also the biggest in the area - Scarboro Beach Park (one of the four Beaches). It was originally a farm, called House of Providence that was operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph. in the last years on the 19th century. It was located on the lakeshore between MacLean and Leuty.
They sold the farm to the Toronto Park company for $165,000 - and the Park was opened the following year.
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Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens opened in May 1879, not too long after rail, stagecoach and ferry services arrived. It grew into a village with with public services and buildings.
Just Like Balmy Beach further east, the section soon had a baseball diamond with its own team, bicycle trails, a beach clubhouse, and of course, a lawn bowling club and tennis.
The local government continued to develop parkland. As the region became fashionable, people built cottages and houses.
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John and Sarah Ashbridge
The Beach was first settled by the John and Sarah Ashbridge who came to Canada from Philadelphia, in 1793. Ashbridge's Bay Park is named after these pioneers. The Ashbridges, and a handful of other families, farmed this district until the latter part of the 1800's, when many of The Beach properties were subdivided.
At that time, large parcels of land were set aside for local parks.
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The Beach(es) : the Early Days
Back in the 1790s, Alexander Aitken, working for Lieutenant Governor SImcoe divided the land in what is now East Toronto area into large lots. The new owners devleoped roads - and soon stagecoaches and trains were connected.
Villages grew and some local owners developed recreational areas and offered the public access. Over the next 100 years, the Beaches became a summer haven for Toronto residents.
The communities would eventually become towns and would become part of Toronto around 1900.
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