McCaul's Pond
McCaul's Pond was located at the site of Hart House, on the University of Toronto campus.[1] It was created by damming Taddle Creek in the early 1860s.[2][3][4] Increased settlement and economic activity had already begun changing the creek from being the clear, free running watercourse that the early settlers had found. It had been so clean that it was a breeding ground for salmon, but over time had become a polluted watercourse.[1] Damming the creek accelerated the dangers and the pond was drained prior to burying the University's portion of the creek in 1884.[5]
References[edit]
- ^ a b
"Buried Creek's Revenge". Toronto in Time. Archived from the original on 2018-03-09. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
Instead, largely as a result of damming the creek to create the picturesque McCaul's Pond, both creek and pond became increasingly polluted.
- ^ Wayne Reeves; Christina Palassio, eds. (2004). HTO: Toronto's Water from Lake Iroquois to Taddle Creek and Beyond. Coach House Books. ISBN 9781770561038. Archived from the original on 2018-09-16. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
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"Taddle Creek 'lost river'". Toronto plaques. Archived from the original on 2017-06-21. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
As a result of the damming of McCaul's Pond to the south, impeding the natural flow of Taddle Creek, and contamination that polluted the river and brought about the risk of typhus and other disease, the creek was buried south of College Street by the 1850s and north of Bloor Street by the 1870s.
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Chris Bateman (March 2012). "A brief history of Taddle Creek, Toronto's lost treasure". BlogTO. Archived from the original on 2019-01-08. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
Philosopher's Walk, the tree-lined path that starts between the Royal Conservatory of Music and the ROM, precisely follows the path of Taddle Creek south to Hoskin Avenue, where the river continued south and formed a McCaul's pond, named for John McCaul the first president of University of Toronto, the body of water shown in the image above.
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Jamie Bradburn (2015-10-22). "Shaping Toronto: Landscaping U of T". Torontoist. Archived from the original on 2018-09-16. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
It also stunk. By the dawn of the 1880s, sewage carried downstream from drains flowing out of Yorkville transformed Taddle Creek into a polluted disgrace. McCaul's Pond was drained as part of the waterway's conversion into an underground sewer in 1884.