Friday Finds

1. Starts with I
2. Week's Favorite
3. Pink

The first two will be the same, except we’ll work our way through the alphabet. The second can be a favorite image or activity from the week. The third will be different each time.

Friday Finds 

ABC Wednesday

August 2016 - Toronto ON



Starts with I - ISLINGTON

The Village of Islington was originally called “Mimico” after Mimico Creek which ran through the village at today’s Islington Avenue. While proximity to Mimico Creek was one factor in attracting settlers to the area, of much greater importance was the opening of Dundas Street, a road designed to connect York (now Toronto) with all of southwestern Ontario. It was cut through the forest by Lt. Gov. John Graves Simcoe’s Queen’s Rangers in 1793. However, the original route of Dundas Street was further south than it is today. Starting at the King’s Saw Mill on the Humber River, it ran along today’s Old Mill Road and Bloor Street until it dipped south just west of Islington Avenue and continued west in a swampy valley below the Lake Iroquois shoreline, about where the CPR tracks are today.

The original community called Mimico grew west of Montgomery's Inn, which was built in 1832 at Dundas Street West and Islington Avenue (beside the Mimico Creek) to serve travellers coming or going from Toronto to western Ontario along Dundas St. Unlike the better-known Montgomery's Tavern (formerly in North York, now demolished), Montgomery's Inn was used by soldiers remaining loyal to the government during the 1837 rebellion. Click here to visit the Inn, just a short walk away.

In 1859, village residents wanted a post office, but the name ‘Mimico’ had already been assigned in 1857 to the Etobicoke community with the same name on Lake Ontario. A meeting was held in Thomas Smith’s Inn (on southwest corner of today's Dundas and Islington) to select a new name for the village. Unable to agree on any one name, the men attending the meeting invited Elizabeth Smith, the innkeeper’s wife, in from the kitchen to pick the village’s new name. She selected the name of her birthplace - Islington, near London, England – to which there was unanimously agreement. On July 1, 1860, the Islington post office opened in Musson’s General Store with Thomas Musson as postmaster. 
The Village of Islington Business Improvement Area has coordinated a collection of murals along Dundas Street West beginning at Islington Avenue and continuing west 1.1 km almost to Kipling Avenue.

I'm just giving you a sneak peak, you have to come back on Monday for a full blown post.

 

Week's Favourite very tough this week but I'm going with this shot of the CN Tower taken with my phone while I waited for the shuttle.

PINK a lovely little girl in her winter coat from one of the Islington murals!

AROUND TORONTO ALPHABETICALLY

A is for Adelaide St

B is for Bloor St

C is for Chechalk Lane

D is for Dundas St and Square

E is for Exhibition Place

F is for Front St 

G is for Gardiner Expressway
H is for High Park

I is for Islington