The Beaches

The Beaches sits on land granted in 1793 to the Ashbridge family, who farmed roughly 250 hectares between Lake Ontario and Danforth Avenue — and its transformation from farmland into a lakeside cottage colony, and later a year-round neighbourhood, is why locals still argue over whether it's "the Beach" or "the Beaches."

A cottage colony

Through the 1800s the area stayed largely market gardens, but its lakefront drew city dwellers seeking summer relief. From the 1870s, entrepreneurs built lakeside amusement parks, and wooden summer cottages sprang up along the shore, giving the district its identity as a cottage colony. The Queen Street streetcar line, extended after 1900, made the area far more accessible and encouraged year-round settlement, and cottage lots were gradually subdivided for permanent housing through the 1900s–1920s.

Building the boardwalk

The lakefront was reshaped by the Toronto Harbour Commission, which acquired the shoreline and former Kew Gardens private park, enlarged the beach with landfill around 1930, and opened the public boardwalk in 1932 — today stretching roughly 3 kilometres from Ashbridge's Bay to the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant.

A neighbourhood of festivals

The Beaches International Jazz Festival began in 1989 when local musicians were booked at the Kew Gardens bandshell; it has grown into one of Canada's largest free jazz festivals, running through July and closing with a three-day street festival on Queen Street East.

Sources

• University of Toronto Press — The Beaches (Toronto's Local History series)
• Beaches International Jazz Festival — About