Trinity Bellwoods Park

Trinity Bellwoods Park occupies the former campus of Trinity College, founded in 1851 by John Strachan, the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto, after Strachan lost control of the secularized University of Toronto and set out to build a rival Anglican institution. The original Gothic Revival building opened its doors to students on January 15, 1852, on a site then well outside the built-up city.

Demolition and what survives

In 1904, Trinity federated with the University of Toronto, and in 1925 the college relocated to a new building on the university's downtown campus. The original Queen Street buildings were sold to the city and eventually demolished in 1956. Almost nothing of the physical college survives above ground today except its ornamental entrance gates, built in 1903 as the college's formal gateway — they still stand at the park's south entrance and remain the most visible physical link to the site's academic past.

A modern park over a buried creek

The ravine running through the park is a remnant of Garrison Creek, long since buried in storm sewers — connecting it to Toronto's broader buried-river story. Today the park is one of the city's most heavily used green spaces, retaining the gates as a protected heritage marker of its institutional origin.

Sources

• Trinity College, University of Toronto — History
• Friends of Trinity Bellwoods Park — Nature and Park History