Hanlan's Point

Hanlan's Point, on the western end of the Toronto Islands, was once a bustling entertainment destination, home to an amusement park and a baseball stadium that hosted Toronto's minor-league team in the early 20th century. On September 5, 1914, a 19-year-old Babe Ruth, playing for the minor-league Providence Grays against the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball club at Hanlan's Point Stadium, hit the first home run of his professional career, a ball reportedly driven clear into Lake Ontario.

From ballpark to clothing-optional beach

The stadium and amusement park were eventually demolished, and Hanlan's Point took on an entirely different identity in later decades: the beach there became known informally, and was eventually officially designated, as one of Toronto's few clothing-optional beaches, a status it has held since the 1990s. The area also housed a small airport that predates Billy Bishop Airport, and the point today combines quiet parkland with a beach culture entirely disconnected from its earlier decades as a crowded ballpark and fairground.

Sources

• Wikipedia — Hanlan's Point
• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Babe Ruth's First Professional Home Run

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