Kay Gardner Beltline Park
The Belt Line is the name given to a railway line that encircled Toronto and was completed in 1892. The Toronto Belt Line Railway Company proposed to generate and exploit a real estate boom in North Toronto by providing commuter rail and freight service from the new suburbs to the heart of the city. The line branched from the main line to Barrie and points north near Eglinton and Castlefield Avenues, headed east to Bathurst, then swung south east to Yonge Street and Mount Pleasant Road before turning south down the Moore Park Ravine and descending to the Don Valley and, eventually, Union Station. The railway was not successful. Toronto's real estate boom ended, and after only 28 months passenger service was suspended.
The steeply graded section from the Don Valley to Mount Pleasant Road, being unsuitable for steam-powered freight traffic, was torn up during the Great War, and the rails were shipped to France. The remainder of the line remained in use until the early 1960's as a long industrial spur from Castlefield Avenue to Mount Pleasant Road, to serve local industrial uses along Merton Street. The roadbed east of Mount Pleasant has disappeared under Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
In 1990, in recognition of its recreational potential, the City of Toronto purchased the Belt Line from CN Real Estate. Then City Councillor Kay Gardner was the driving force behind the City's acquisition of these Beltline lands and their conversion to a 4.5-kilometre long linear park. Since then the Parks and Recreation Division has enhanced it and nurtured the regeneration of its natural environment, while preserving a record of Toronto's late nineteenth century industrial and residential landscape. It is a place to smell flowers, watch birds, ride a bike - a place in the heart of the city to escape the city.
Kay Gardner and her husband Raymond moved to North Toronto in 1961. Since then, she worked tirelessly, first as a citizen volunteer and then as a City Councillor, for her community, tenants, and particularly for senior citizens. In recognition of her vision and commitment to people and the community, the City of Toronto renamed the "Beltline Park" to the "Kay Gardner Beltline Park" in May, 2000.
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Toronto Plaques. Full page here.