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Glowing beacon of history
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April 12, 2023
Glowing beacon of history
Blink, and you just might miss it, but a tiny new park in Toronto is offering a brief but rich lesson about the city's history — a story that very much mirrors the world we live in today.
Officially opened this past July, Grasett Park is among the smallest public parks in Toronto, measuring just 130 square metres in area.Grasett Park is the second collaboration between the city and Canada Ireland Foundation on a public space celebrating Toronto's response to a wave of Irish migrants fleeing famine in the summer of 1847. Over 38,000 migrants almost tripled Toronto's population of just 20,000 that year, many arriving sick and in desperate need of medical care.
Complementing the similar themes of Ireland Park on the waterfront, this park can be found at the corner of Adelaide Street West and Widmer Street, a site where temporary fever shacks were erected as Toronto's first purpose-built General Hospital lacked the capacity to handle the influx of new arrivals suffering from typhus. Read the full article on BlogTOAbout This News Item:
By Jack Landau.
Published on BlogTO.
Related News
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July 16, 2021Toronto park honours a doctor who died in the 1847 epidemic
By Alex Bozikovic, The Globe and Mail.
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May 4, 2021Historic First Responders
Article by Jamie Bradburn. Published in Spacing Magazine
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June 18, 2017A Toronto park aims to honour the doctor who gave Irish migrants compassion in a cruel summer
By John Doyle. Published June 18, 2017 in the Globe & Mail.