Queensway Market Gardens Commemorative Plaque, 2024.
| File information | Options |
Original JPG File8400 × 6515 pixels (54.73 MP) 71.1 cm × 55.2 cm @ 300 PPI 10.9 MB |
Restricted |
Resource ID
11754
Access
Open
Credit Line
Heritage Toronto
Date of Creation
2024
Keywords
Program Category
Rights
Heritage Toronto
Time Period
Caption
Queensway Market Gardens Commemorative Plaque, 2024.
Description
Before it was named the Queensway, this road was considered an extension of Queen Street West from Roncesvalles to Kipling Avenues.
Here, from the early until the mid-20th century, the rich soil was a prime location for market gardens — small vegetable, fruit, and flower farms.
Around the 1880s, a small farming community began to emerge in the Humber Bay area. By 1915, local market gardeners would gather at the
corner of Queen Street and Salisbury Avenue (now the Queensway and Park Lawn Road) to sell their produce. Some well-known market gardeners
were Francis Daniels, John Harris, Herod Noble, Frank Reeves, Rupert Steel, and Charles Tizzard.
Market gardeners typically operated on lots ranging from one to 20 hectares, ploughing their fields with horses. Farmers would also use their horses to deliver products to places like the St. Lawrence Market. Before the Queensway was paved in 1925, it would often get muddy and develop
a smell from manure and rotting produce that had fallen from carts.
Throughout the 1930s, market gardeners sold their produce through chain and independent grocers. A crate of cabbages cost about 50 cents ($11.25 in 2024); a crate of lettuce was around $1.25 ($28.15 in 2024).
In 1948, the provincial government chose a 40-acre market garden south of the Queensway for the Ontario Food Terminal. It opened in 1954 and is the largest wholesale fruit and produce distribution centre in Canada.