NATURAL HISTORY, TORONTO REGION 



the bottom of a pothole, by the advancing icecap of 

 a new commercial age.* 



The Peabody of "Little York" was Jesse 

 Ketchum, a Buffalo tanner whose memory should 

 serve as a bond between these sister cities so nearly 

 akin in all but nationality. He owned the land 

 between Yonge, Adelaide (then Newgate), Bay and 

 Queen (then Lot) Streets, and supplied sites for 

 eight or ten churches and other religious edifices 

 within this district. All are now gone the last to 

 be removed being Knox Church from Queen Street 

 West to its present beautiful building on Spadina 

 Avenue. The failure to secure the former site and 

 the rest of the block as a Court Square was one of 

 the most extraordinary oversights in town-planning 

 that even Toronto can show. Opposite to St. An- 

 drew's Presbyterian Church on King Street West 

 another opportunity was lost. Here three squares 

 were public property and were largely free from 

 buildings. A site for a Court of Honour like that 

 which Cleveland is spending millions to acquire lay 

 ready to hand and might have been secured for a 

 few hundred thousands. But Jesse Ketchum died in 

 1867 and his example has been followed by few of 

 Toronto's wealthy citizens. A Guild of Civic Art 

 exists, and, with the aid of one public-spirited alder- 

 man, has made a start in restoring the old lake-side 



*A boulder of the drift, lifting itself up through the 

 natural turf, served as a desk for the recording clerk of 

 the first Parliament of Upper Canada. Scadding, " Toronto 

 of Old," p. 29. 



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