Wild street names.
Wonder what they were smoking.
from the May 2005 'The Fife and Drum', Newsletter of the Friends of Fort York and Garrison Common:
Names Chosen for Streets and Park in FY Neighbourhood
On February 16, 2005, City Council approved seven new names for streets in the Fort York neighbourhood. This brought to an end a process that began almost two years earlier when a committee of landowners in the area, city staff and Friends of Fort York met for the first time to bring forward streetnames having a special resonance there. Over the course of a dozen meetings more than seventy suggestions were considered, most of which were passed over because they lacked enough significance or duplicated the names of other Toronto streets. However, before any recommendations could go before Council, they had to be acceptable first to the Fire, Police and Emergency Medical Services people.
An effort was made to strike a balance between recognizing some the fort’s defensive features and honouring people who played important parts in its history. The seven names Council approved are Angelique, Bastion, Bruyeres, Grand Magazine, Gzowski, Iannuzzi, and Sloping Sky. (see plan) The reason for suggesting
Bastion Street is obvious; it is in a line with the fort’s southwest bastion. Similarly,
Grand Magazine Street recalls the powder magazine in the south ramparts that was blown up by the retreating British forces in 1813. The explosion resulted in the death of many American soldiers along with their leader, General Zebulon Pike. A leading native ally of the British at the Battle of York was the Mississauga warrior
Sloping Sky whose native name was Nawahjeghezhegwabe.
Angelique Givens is recalled as being fearless in confronting the American troops in 1813 as they plundered her house of its contents including the clothing of her seven children. When the fort was rebuilt in 1814 Lt.-Col. Ralph
Bruyeres, a military engineer, oversaw its design.
Gzowski Street honours both Peter Gzowski, the late broadcaster, and his ancestor, Sir Casimir Gzowski, a Polish emigre who constructed one of Ontario’s first railways from a terminus south of Fort York to Georgetown, Guelph and beyond. For many years Gzowski’s Wharf was a feature on the waterfront there. The seventh streetname honours Dan
Iannuzzi who died in 2004. He founded of the Corriere Canadese and Ethnic Press Association of Ontario as well the pioneering multilingual TV station CFMT (now OMNI) Channel 47 located at Bathurst Street and Lakeshore Blvd.
In a separate motion Council also agreed that the extension of Fort York Boulevard to be built this year between Bathurst and Spadina would be called Fort York Boulevard rather than Bremner Boulevard, its name from Spadina through York Street.
But perhaps the happiest recommendation coming from the committee and approved by Council was to name the important axial park linking the fort with Lakeshore Boulevard after
June Callwood, the journalist and social activist, who said she was delighted to know her name would be attached to a place where children will play. The Friends have established a fund in June’s honour for the improvement of this park beyond the Parks Departments’s usual standards.
