Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Lost Rivers

This painting on a garage door along Croft St shows a stylized map of Toronto and its harbour with the Toronto Islands at the bottom. The Islands became separated from the mainland in 1858 when a very violent storm washed out that very narrow connection to the right so this depiction is from before then. The rivers and creeks shown are the Humber River on the left and the Don River on the right, both of which are still visible. The other creeks and streams have all been buried under city pavement and infrastructure over the years although there is a move afoot to try to uncover at least part of them. The little White Pelican at the bottom left is also no longer here.
Taking part in Signs, Signs. Click HERE to see more signs from around the world.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

A very interesting garage door indeed!

Andy said...

I knew about the island and the lost rivers and ponds but never knew the Pelican inhabit the area. Interesting.

21 Wits said...

A very nice touch of history!

Sharon said...

A very nice historic depiction. I wonder if the owner is a local historian or just someone who likes the history of the place.

PerthDailyPhoto said...

A nice slice of visual history here Pat..

TexWisGirl said...

neat history piece.

William Kendall said...

I didn't know about the islands once being linked- I just always thought it was a curiously narrow gap to the mainland.

Cloudia said...

A fine tribute to natural Ontario





ALOHA from Honolulu
ComfortSpiral
=^..^=

Luis Gomez said...

Very nice Pat!

VP said...

Some really creative garage door painting: I would like to see more of this around here...

Tom said...

You sure have found some neat garage doors lately. Tom The Backroads Traveller

psychelyn said...

Very nice garage door painting. Informative post too, thanks for sharing.

Photo Cache said...

Very informative.

Frankly My Dear

Taken For Granted said...

Someone went to a lot of work to paint that map on their garage door. Like the fact it shows rivers and streams that are now running through concrete popes. Interesting photo, good find.

Marleen said...

I have never seen such an original garage door!

Gosia said...

just interesting thanks for sharing

Stephanie said...

A beautiful creative piece. I do like this!

Lesley said...

We once had pelicans here?!
I'm surprised this is on a garage door. Pleasantly surprised, mind.

Nonnie said...

wow, thanks for sharing a bit of history unknown to me!

Anonymous said...

Lovely sign for a garage door...

Lois said...

How interesting to hear about how the islands were formed! I never knew that about Toronto. That is also quite a unique way to decorate a garage door.

Randy said...

Unusual mural for a house.

Tanya Breese said...

how interesting...i wonder why they chose this for their garage door? not that i'm complaining!

Halcyon said...

A nice way to remember how things used to be. But a little sad...

VioletSky said...

Hm, I know of Ashbridge's Creek, Taddle Creek and Garrison Creek ... looks like I might be missing some, judging by this map.

EG CameraGirl said...

Well, I just learned something new. I didn't know the island was attached to the mainland at one time!