In 2006, the first phase of improvements to the landscape along the fort’s south ramparts was completed, including walkways, seeding under the Gardiner Expressway and our new entry drive. This coming year additional landscaping will take place in the parking lot area. The next phase will be to add interpretive elements along the south edge of the fort to mark the original shoreline and other key features. Now that conservation work has been completed on six of the fort’s cannons, our focus will shift to looking at options for replacing the two wooden traversing platforms and gun carriages.
[murmur] at Fort York will be launched in this June. [murmur] is a unique approach to capturing and recording stories about special places and making them available on the spot using cell phone technology. Narratives about Fort York and the surrounding area are being collected at present. This initiative will reach out in particular to people walking past the site, thereby broadening its overall audience. For more information check www.murmurtoronto.ca
Wellhead Reconstruction
The reconstruction of the fort’s wellhead is scheduled for completion this Spring when the existing stone parapet will be removed and replaced with a timber deck and canopy. Abandoned and filled-in during the early 20th century, the well was rediscovered in 1956. The reconstruction is based on photographs, historic military plans and artistic depictions of a contemporary well. The wellhead will be fabricated by Chris Laverton in the off-site workshops of the City’s Culture Division. It will incorporate wood salvaged from the 1850s part of the Queen’s Wharf excavated last Spring during the construction of a condominium at Fleet and Bathurst Streets.
Heritage Conservation District Plan
Among the many projects to be undertaken at Fort York in 2007 is an update to our Heritage Conservation District Plan. The original plan was developed in 1985 when Fort York was designated a Heritage Conservation District (HCD) under the Ontario Heritage Act. Since then the City of Toronto has acquired six additional parcels of land around the fort, which has allowed an expansion of the district to include archaeological and heritage features not covered by the original designation. New boundaries for the district were established by bylaw in 2004 to coincide with the limits of the Fort York National Historic Site adopted by the federal government. With the 1985 study as a starting point, consultants will be retained to work with the fort’s staff to update the HCD Plan.
Original printed pages
